By Iyioke, Christiana Ngozi
The main purpose of this study was to identify the reading difficulties students’ encounter while studying English as a second language in junior secondary schools in Nsukka Education Zone. The design for this study was Ex-post facto design. The study was carried out in three Local Government areas that made up Nsukka education zone in Enugu state. The local governments are Nsukka, Igbo-Etiti, and Uzo-Uwani local government areas. The population was made up of all the JSS1 students in Nsukka Education zone. Two hundred (200) students were purposively sampled. Two schools from urban and two schools from rural areas, two male schools and two female schools were used. The instrument for the study was an extract taken from the students’ recommended text. The students read the text while the researcher ticked the column in the rating scale that has the variable identified. Four research questions and two hypotheses were used for the research. The results were analyzed using mean, frequencies, standard deviation and t-test. The results were that there was no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of the students in the urban and those in the rural areas in the reading ability rating scale used. Based on the findings it was recommended that English teachers should as much as possible teach reading comprehension with teaching materials such as audio- visual aids, audio tapes, pattern repetition and the use of flannel boards. Government should provide teaching aids such as audio visual aids and language laboratories. This will enable students understand what they are taught.