Performance of Freshman and Preparatory Origin Students on a Reading Comprehension Test: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Following the country’s higher education reform, institutions of higher
learning in the country, during the 2003/2004 academic year, had to admit two
groups of students – the freshman origin and the preparatory origin – to
departments in their faculties. This study which was carried out during the said
academic year involved two freshman and two preparatory sections/classes, one
each from the Departments of Foreign Languages and Literature and, Ethiopian
Languages and Literature, Institute of Language Studies, Addis Ababa University.
The purpose was to investigate if there exist differences in the reading
comprehension performance of the groups. Participants were selected on
availability basis as these were the only groups newly admitted to the Departments
during that academic year. All sat for a reading comprehension test and an
independent samples t-test was applied on the scores. Results showed that
freshman origin students performed significantly higher than their preparatory
counter parts. This might imply that despite the heavy responsibility laid on the
shoulders of preparatory schools in the various regions in preparing their students
for the demands that higher education would put to them, it seems there is still a lot
expected of them to bridge existing gaps. Therefore, that the schools and other
relevant bodies work harder to alleviate the problem seems to be in order.