Conference Paper

IMPROVING POOR READING CULTURE AMONG UNDERGRADUATES IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA THROUGH COMPUTER MEDIATED COMMUNICATION (CMC)

There is a growing concern about the diminishing in the reading culture among students of tertiary institutions. Stakeholders are worried that this will impact negatively on the performance of students in academic engagements. Traditionally, English language instructors deploy comprehension passages as pedagogical tools for exposing students to texts from diverse fields. Predictably, students show low interest on this approach, especially when the printed text is used. This study therefore considered a change of approach, where Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) tools are used to promote reading among undergraduates in Ogun state. It advocates the use digital tools to replace outmoded materials to transmit educational content. The methodology used is a hybrid of the quantitative and qualitative descriptive research design, where a structured questionnaire and software were developed as instruments for the collect data. The population consists of 10,880 students of the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, Ogun state Nigeria as at 2021/2022 academic session. Stratified sampling technique was used in the selection of students for inclusion from the five school (faculties) in the polytechnic. An aggregate sample size of 386 was estimated, using the Taro Yamani sample size calculator at 5% margin of error. Out of this sample, about 198 students participated fully in the survey, having a response rate of 51.3%. Findings revealed that the students were motivated when computer-based tools were introduced for reading as evidenced from 61% of them that have high level of interest. The study discovered that the learning culture of the students through the use of computer is improved. It therefore suggests that digital tools should be used to engage students to comprehension passages and other educational materials. Keywords: Poor reading culture, computer mediated communication, reading.