Abstract:

This paper deals with the analysis of the reading comprehension success in the English language at secondary schools in Western Slovakia due to the higher demand of this foreign language skill in professional fields. Reading is a source of knowledge coded in the text leading us to understanding of the real and imaginary world around us and our existence. We consider reading comprehension perception via the optics of pupils᾽ home social environment as a significant variable in the educational process. The research aim is to analyse the results of the Reading Comprehension Test, level B1, related to pupils᾽ home social environment based on the person with whom pupils discuss what they have read and how often they do specific activities with their parents. The research was carried out at three secondary schools in the same location on 127 respondents. The research shows that the success of pupils in reading comprehension has a tendentious relationship with talking about the read texts to mother at Grammar School and a positive tendentious relationship with talking about the read texts to father at Secondary Vocational School of Polytechnics. Paradoxically, there has been a strong positive relationship between reading comprehension and talking to nobody about the read texts as well as a statistically significant negative relationship with the preparation for school education with parents at Secondary Vocational School of Business and Services. A tendentious negative correlation between reading comprehension and talking to nobody about the read texts has been revealed at Grammar School. Furthermore, there has been a statistically significant relationship between playing social games and reading with parents.

Keywords:

Reading comprehension, foreign language education, pupils, home social environment, parents, spare time activities.