Proficiency in Interpreting Orthographic and Paraorthographic Texts

Abstract

This thesis is basically a comparative study on proficiency in interpreting twotypes of texts viz. orthographic and para-orthographic texts. The principalobjective of the study was to find out the proficiency of grade XII students ofdifferent streams in interpreting orthographic and para-orthographic texts on thebasis of variables: streams (Education vs Management vs Humanities), gender(boys vs girls), test items(subjective vs objectives), etc. For the comparative study, the sample population consisted of 120 studentsstudying indifferent disciplinesof four different colleges of Kathmandu district.From each college 30 students were sampled. The study was entirely based on theprimary source of data i.e. the test-items administered to the students. The testpaper includes four different items viz. two texts, ahistogramand abardiagram ofthe same texts. The study revealed that the students weremore proficient in interpreting para-orthographic texts.Theywere more proficient in para-orthographic texts thaninthe orthographic ones. Likewise, in comparison to the test items, the students werefound to be more proficient in objective than in the subjective test items. The study consists of four chapters. The first chapter introduces the study in termsof its general background, review of related literature, objectives of the study andsignificance of the study. The second chapter deals with methodology. It encompasses sources of data,population of the study, sample population, tools for data collection, process ofdata collection and limitationsof the study. The third chapter deals with analysis and interpretation of the data. The marksobtained by the students have been analyzed to find out their proficiency ininterpreting orthographic and para-orthographic texts. Statistical tools such asmeasures of central tendency, correlationco-efficient, etc. have been used in theanalysis of the marks. The fourth chapter presents the findings of the study and finally somerecommendations and pedagogical implications have been made on the basis ofthe findings.