LINKING HOME LITERACY PRACTICE TO DEVELOPMENT OF READING INTEREST AMONG PRIMARY 1 CHILDREN IN AWKA, ANAMBRA STATE OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between frequency of parent home literacy practice (conceptualized as two dimensions; parent teaching and shared reading) and children’s development of interest in reading as they advance in later school age. Sample for the study comprised 78 children; 42 girls (53.85%), and 36 boys (46.15%) in primary 1 classes, who were randomly selected from 2 privates and 1 public primary schools in Awka, with majority of them (76.92%) coming from private school, age ranged from 4 to 6 (mean age = 4 years; SD = 1.03). Three measures were developed and employed as source of data collection namely: parent teaching scale, shared reading scale, and reading interest scale. Because the primary 1children are still too small to express their express themselves, and may find it difficult to recall their home literacy activities in the past, we used their mothers to elicit information (data) concerning frequency of home literacy practices and children’s reading interest development. Both Pearson Moment correlation and hierarchical multiple linear regression statistics were utilized for the data analysis using SPSS, version 23. Result indicated that shared reading and parent teaching were positively and significantly associated with children reading interest development before and after controlling for children gender, mother’s age, mother’s occupation, and mother’s educational level. Conclusion and recommendation were made based on the finding.