The Effect of Student’s Gender, Stream of Study, and Type of Text on the Reading Ability of Eleventh Graders in Oman Sultanate

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of student’s gender, stream of study, and type of text on the reading ability of the eleventh graders. The study was part of a funded research project to develop a scholastic aptitude test that can be used as a criterion for admission to higher education institutions. The test consisted of two parts: quantitative, and verbal with reading comprehension as part of the latter. The study focused on reading comprehension ability which consisted of two texts: scientific and humanistic. Each text was followed by seven multiple-choice questions with five alternatives. The Cronbach’s reliability estimate for the instrument was found to be 0.76 which is considered to be high, given the small number of items. The sample of the study consisted of 122 eleventh graders from Muscat region, out of which 60 males (30 from science stream and 30 from art stream) and 62 females (29 from the science stream and 33 from arts stream). Schools and classes within schools were chosen randomly. The results indicated that there was a two-way interaction between sex of the student and specialization with female students having better reading ability than males in the science stream, whereas male students have better reading ability than females in the art stream. These results were consistent across both text types.