Abstract
This study determined effect of videotape instructional media on secondary school students’ achievement and interest in English language reading comprehension. Six research questions were posed and six null hypotheses formulated to guide the study. In order to carry out the research, the researcher adopted a quasi-experimental design. Specifically, the non-randomised control group design was used. The area of the study was Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State, while the population of the study comprised all the senior secondary school two (SSII) English language students in Nsukka Education Zone numbering 17,783 in 2015/2016 session. The sample for the study consisted of 213 SSS II students from four co-educational schools within the area of the study. Purposive and simple random sampling technique was used to draw the sample of the study from the population of the study. Two instruments were used for data collection. They were the Reading Comprehension Achievement Test (RCAT) and Reading Comprehension Interest Inventory (RCII). The instruments were face validated, but RCAT was further subjected to content validation. Subsequently, the instruments were trial-tested for the purpose of determining their reliability. The internal consistency of RCAT was computed and found to be 0.98 using Pearson Correlation while that of RCII was 0.82 using Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient Method. Before treatment commenced, the instruments were administered as pretest to the two groups in each of the sampled schools. The treatment lasted for one month. After the treatment session, the same instrument, with numbers re-arranged, were administered to the subjects to obtain the posttest scores. The data obtained were used in answering the research questions and testing the hypotheses. The research questions were answered using mean scores, while the hypotheses were tested using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. The results indicated that students taught reading comprehension using instructional video had higher mean achievement score their counterparts taught using the conventional print media. Students taught reading comprehension using instructional video had higher mean interest score that their counterparts taught using the conventional print media. Female students had higher mean achievement score than their male counterparts in reading comprehension while male students had higher mean interest score than their female counterparts in reading comprehension. There was no significant interaction effect of instructional media and gender on achievement scores of students in reading comprehension. Lastly, the result of the study showed that there was no significant interaction effect of instructional media and gender on mean interest score of students in reading comprehension. Following the discussion of the results, conclusions were drawn and educational implications of the findings were highlighted. It was recommended, among others, that English language teachers should adopt the videotape instruction as an alternative to the print media in teaching reading comprehension.
