| dc.description.abstract | This thesis is the record of an investigation into the
written responses by certain senior secondary pupils to
selections of published prose fiction. Most of the pupils
were in their second year (S2). The 52 pupils were drawn
primarily from Kitante Bill School and supplemented by a
selection of pupils from Gayaza High Sohool, Lubiri Senior
3eeondary School and King's College,Budo. Some first year
pupils (S1) from Kitante Hill and Kololo Senior secondary
Schools were also tested. The average number of S2 pupils
who sat each of the seven tests was 243 compared with 67
from Sl, with average ages of 16 and 14 respectively. Half
the Sls and somewhat over a quarter of the S2s were girls.
The tested pupils were amongst the 5-l0, of their age
group who were in senior secondary school at that time,
having reached this level after six years of primary school
and two years of junior secondary school. Before entering
S1 they had received at least two or three years of English-medium
instruction and been taught English as a subject for
four or five years.
Seven graded tests were constructed, each containing
questions designed to test and encourage creative reading of
a sample of prose fiction. The questions were interpolated
into the pros and pupils were instructed to stop reading
and answer each question as they came to it. A range of acceptable
answers was determined on the basis firstly of answers in
trial tests by random samples of Kitante pupils, mostly in
S2, and secondly of answers given as correct by myself and
a few adult moderators. The scores for each question reveal
what percentage of the tested pupils in land S2 were
correct in the sense that their creative responses were
consistent with the text. Conversely, the scores for each
question show the percentage of pupils whose answers were
insufficiently consistent with the text and these answers
were marked wrong though they ht indicate some
comprehension and creative response. | |
