Abstract

Reading comprehension is indispensable to academic success at all levels of education but reports have shown that senior secondary school students in Owo, Ondo State exhibit deficiency in English reading comprehension. This study determined the effects of Schema Activation (SA) and Think-Group-Share (TGS) instructional strategies on students’ achievement in English reading comprehension in Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria. The study adopted the pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design. Purposive sampling technique was used to select six coeducational senior secondary schools in Owo town. An intact class of Senior Secondary II students was selected from each school and was randomly assigned to SA (58), TGS (110) and control (99) groups. Treatment lasted twelve weeks. The instruments used were Reading Comprehension Achievement Test (r=.73), and instructional guides. Data were analysed using Analysis of covariance and Scheffe post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance. Treatment had significant main effect on students’ achievement in English reading comprehension (F(2,254) = 61.70; partial ?2 = .33). Students in the Think-Group-Share had the highest posttest achievement mean score (10.14) followed by Schema Activation (9.63) and control (6.23) groups. Think-group-share and Schema activation instructional strategies improved students’ learning outcomes in English reading comprehension in Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria, while think-group-share is more effective. Teachers should adopt these strategies in enhancing students’ achievement in English reading comprehension.