By Eze, Kenneth Oma
This study was undertaken to assess the readability of On y va! (French textbook) for Junior Secondary School (JSS) in Nsukka Education Zone of Enugu State. It also sought to determine the readability of the text by male and female students as well as by urban and rural students. The determination of the interaction effect of gender and location on students’ readability of the text was equally aimed at. Five research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. An evaluative survey design was used. The sample for the study consisted of 272 SS I students (because they have covered the content of the book) from three public schools in Nsukka Education Zone. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used due to the variables of gender and location. The instrument used for data collection was a 45 – item French Textbook Readability Questionnaire (FTRQ), validated by five experts in language Education and Measurement and Evaluation from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The instrument yielded an average reliability coefficient of 0.97 using Crobach’s Alpha method. It was administered to the students by the researcher and collected on the spot. The data was analyzed using mean scores and standard deviations for the research questions and t-test and univariate analysis of variance for the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The major findings of the study were that all the sections of On y va! were not easy to understand, but they were interesting and had legible prints. Also, gender and location had significance difference on the readability of the text, but there was no interaction effect of gender and location. Based on the findings, it was recommended, among others, that the authors of the On y va! series should carry out a more detailed analysis of the students’ past experiences and background knowledge in French and incorporate them in their subsequent editions of the text. Limitations of the study were outlined, and suggestions for further study given.