Chinese Undergraduates’ Performance in HOTS and LOTS EFL Reading Comprehension for Different Reading Materials According to Gender

Many studies indicate that Chinese undergraduates face problems in their HOTS comprehension. The objective of this study is to investigate Chinese EFL undergraduates’ HOST and LOTS reading comprehension according to gender. A descriptive research design was employed in this quantitative study. The researchers used an English reading comprehension test involving 5 different materials (education, economy, entertainment, technology and natural disaster) as the research instrument. Each material consists of 3 LOTS questions and 2 HOTS questions. All the comprehension questions were multiple choice in nature. The sample of the study consists of 411 second year undergraduate students (261 females and 150 males) from a university in Hunan Province, China. SPSS Program for Windows version 25 was used to analyze the data (Independent samples t-test). The findings of this current study indicated that the female students performed significantly better than their male counterparts for both LOTS and HOTS comprehension questions. The female students also outperformed their male students in their overall score for comprehension. As such, these results clearly revealed that female undergraduates performed significantly better than the males in their EFL reading comprehension skills. However, this research only involves participants from one university; as a result, future research should include a larger sample from different provinces in China to get a better insight of students’ performance in EFL comprehension.

Error Analysis in Descriptive English Writing among Undergraduates in Hunan City University

In this age of globalization, EFL writing skills are essential for Chinese undergraduates, especially in the areas of communication, education and business cooperation. The objective of this study is to study and analyze EFL descriptive writing errors among Chinese undergraduates, according to gender and faculty of study. Descriptive research design was employed in this study. The undergraduate students in the study were given a descriptive writing test and their essays were marked by a lecturer using rubric provided by the researchers. The sample of the study consisted of 400 Chinese undergraduate students (200 males and 200 females,) from Hunan City University in Hunan Province, China. Stratified random sampling was employed in selecting the samples. Students’ errors in EFL writing were analyzed based on Corder’s error analysis and James’s classification of errors. The findings from quantitative data revealed that male students made significantly more errors than female students in their overall writing, mechanical, coherence and cohesion, grammar, lexical and sentence structures. There is also significant difference in the mean errors among students from the four faculties. Moreover, the results indicated that the students from the faculties of Education Management and Chinese Language Studies (social sciences) performed better than the students from the other faculties. In terms of pedagogical implications, the findings suggest that further research should be carried out to minimize male students’ errors in their writing skills as well as the students from the Information Technology and Civil Engineering faculties.

Reflections on the Drive to Return Mission Schools to their Owners in Nigeria

The issue of whether the government in Nigeria should return the schools taken from the religious organizations over four decades ago is a topic for debate. While many are arguing that such schools should be returned to their owners, others, want the government to stay action on it. It however needs not be over-emphasized that the policy of government control of schools has to a large extent guaranteed equal educational opportunities, quality education provision, increased access to education, religious tolerance, and improved national unity. When viewed from another perspective, can Nigeria afford to take another risk by returning the schools to the Missions, more so that issues of unemployment, high cost of education, religious intolerance, among others, are prevalent in the country, which the return of the schools will promote to a high level? In this paper, the roles which the Christian Missions played in the educational system were examined while the arguments for and against this initiative were examined. It is hopeful that with adequate financing, effective supervision of schools, standards put in place by the government, the agitation of people for the return of schools to the original owners will become history.

Implications of Counselling, Psychological and Social Services on Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils in Southwest, Nigeria

The study examined implications of counselling, psychological and social services on academic performance of primary school pupils in Southwest, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population consisted of all primary school teachers in Southwest out of which 1006 teachers were selected from the three sampled states in Southwest, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select sample for the study. The instrument used for data collection was tagged Implications of Counselling, Psychological and Social Services Questionnaire “(CPSSQ)” and a proforma titled “Data Retrieval Format” (DRF). CPSSQ comprised of two sections. Section A sought information on the bio data of the respondents while Section B was used to elicit information on implications of psychological, emotional and social dimensions of the pupils’ health. The instrument was validated by experts in Guidance and Counselling, Human Kinetics and Health Education and Tests and Measurement. The reliability of the instrument was ensured by using Pearson's Product Moment Correlation analysis and had reliability co-efficient of 0.86, which was adjudge high enough and considered the instrument to be reliable. One general question was raised and one null hypothesis was formulated for the study. The study revealed that counselling, psychological and social services had implications on school health programme. It was therefore recommended that the status of school health programme in Southwest should be improved upon, considering its importance to the survival and academic performance of the school pupils.