Study of Socio-Economic Background and its Effect on the Ability of English Reading Skills at Secondary School Level

Abstract

Study of SocioEconomic Background and its Effect on the Ability of English Reading Skills at Secondary School Level The study aims to see the effect of the socioeconomic background of learners on their language skills of 9th class students in public sector schools in southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Stratified simple random sampling technique was adopted following Krejcie and Morgan rule and 379 respondents were consulted for data collection. Two valid and reliable instruments were applied, first, the socioeconomic status scale and then test were conducted for finding ability in reading skills i.e. comprehension, fluency, identification of adverb, to skim and to scan the passages. Data was analyzed through mean; for checking the outcome of SE background on the reading skills, the mean of means was calculated. The students who have a supportive environment at home for English performed better in test scores of comprehension, fluency, adverb identification, skimming and scanning. The study recommends that students may be supported at home for polishing their reading skills.