Rumelhart (1984:2) defines schema as, ‘data structures for representing the generic concepts stored in memory.’ That is, it indicates the relationships that exist between the component parts of an event. The concept of schema theory has a pervasive influence on notions of reading and it has formed the framework of several empirical studies in the domain (Devine 1988; Alderson & Urquhart 1988; Steffensen & Joag-Dev 1984). The notion of schema in reading suggests that it is an interactive process involving conceptual and textual processes functioning interactively.

The major strength of schema theory is that presenting readers with reading material which is congruent with their pre-existing schema will, to a large extent, facilitate reading comprehension. Although Anderson (1984) asserts that activation of background knowledge has facilitative effects on the act of comprehending and remembering, some readers may demonstrate poor comprehension and memory skills; this is not because of deficits in comprehension and memory, but because they lack the background knowledge or fail to activate the background knowledge that was presupposed by the text. This limitation notwithstanding, schema theory underscores the role of background knowledge in reading comprehension.

Influenced by the developmental perspective on reading, the RAND Reading Study Group (2002) defines reading comprehension as follows:

The group's working definition of the term involves three key elements: the reader, the text and the activity, which contributes to comprehension (RAND 2002:11). The group asserts that reading comprehension is a complex cognitive process that draws on a wide range of skills and knowledge.

Swales's work (1981) provides the first known work in genre analysis. He applied the approach to the analysis of forty-eight introductions of journal articles drawn from: the Hard Sciences, Biology, Medicine, the Social Sciences and Language. His work which focused on the introduction section of the research article genre suggests ‘a three move schema’ for characterising the introductions of research articles. He proposed the Creating a Research Space model which is outlined below:

Applied linguists, ESP (English for Specific Purposes) researchers and practitioners (Dudley-Evans 1987; Cheung & Ching 1997; Nwogu 1991) claim that Swales's genre analysis is very useful for analysing texts in ESP and EST (English for Science and Technology) situations. The approach holds pedagogic potential. In fact, several studies have established empirical evidence linking genre knowledge with improved reading recall and composition (Bhatia 1993; Cheung & Ching 1997; Hyon 2001). The genre framework, however, shows some weakness: it appears prescriptive and rigid, research articles vary across disciplines and mastery of the Swalean template may not allow students to develop a critical relationship with their subject matter, or at finding the language with which to express the same. These identified weaknesses, however, do not invalidate Swales's model.

Attitude is a psychological construct that plays a key role in moderating a reader's ‘level of motivation, intention to read’ and the ‘relationship between an individual's beliefs and reading activities’ (Petscher 2010:335). Cognitive, affective and conative aspects have been used to describe the concept of attitude (Mathewson 2004). McKenna, Conradi, Lawrence, Jang and Meyer explain attitudes to reading as follows:

Mathewson (1994:1434) presents a tricomponent view of attitude ‘with evaluation as the cognitive component, feeling as the affective component, and action readiness as the conative component’. Mathewson (1994) explains that these components impact on the intention to read or continued reading and they affect attention, use of strategy and reading comprehension. Attitude is closely related to performance in reading comprehension and the link between attitude and reading behaviour is intention to read and influences that promote the formation of positive intention to read.

Reading is a complex process which involves affect and cognition and scholars acknowledge that students’ attitude to reading exerts significant influence on their reading achievement (Russ 1989). Reading attitudes are learnt characteristics that are influenced by societal, family and school-based factors (Baker 2003) and these factors influence students’ perception about themselves as readers, and the degree to which they are motivated to engage in reading. Students’ attitude to reading has a positive effect on reading engagement and achievement in reading (McKenna, Kear & Ellsworth 1995). Some empirical studies on reading instruction and attitude to reading reveal that training in reading or even exposure to extensive reading enhances reading performance, and also leads to a positive attitude to reading (Adelabu 1998; Jiboku 1998; Yamashita 2004; Butler 2007).

In order to address the concerns of this research, the following hypotheses were tested:

The study adopted a pre-post randomised block-experimental design involving three experimental groups and one control group. The three experimental groups were exposed to different treatments: Pre-question (P), Genre-based instruction (G) and a combination of Pre-Question and genre-based instruction (P/G). The control group (C) received no input from the teacher. The four groups were exposed to pre-test and post-test conditions.

The reading comprehension passages used for this study were obtained from introductory textbooks used by students of the Biological Sciences and Agriculture in Specialised Federal Universities in Nigeria. The choice of the recommended texts was based on the demands of ESP for genuine and relevant texts (Robinson 1991). Information on the selected books is presented in Table 1.

ESP commercial books written by foreign authors, Kay (1985) and Adkins and McKean (1983), were included because of the likely familiarity of the topics to the students (Bats, the World of Microbes and Whales). The condition for selecting a book amounted to it having been written by a Nigerian or an African. The selection of books written by these authors was to ensure that both the topic and language were familiar to the students. The close procedure was used to select readable passages from each book and to determine their readability levels. The readability test carried out amongst students of the Federal University of Technology Akure ranged from 34.8–43.8. These scores on the readability scale indicate that students would be able to use the materials for instructional purposes even though some guidance would be needed to help them master the demands of reading the texts.

The reading comprehension which was set to cover ‘three levels of comprehension: textually explicit, textually implicit and scriptally implicit questions’ (Pearson & Johnson 1978:139) were obtained from the passages selected from the readability test. Textually explicit questions are text based, and they require decoding skills and knowledge of the grammatical relations of words to each other in sentences and larger texts. Textually implicit questions require reading between the lines, and processing these questions demands combining textual information with the students’ background knowledge. Scriptally implicit questions require extra textual knowledge; they require analysing, evaluating and reacting personally to information in the text. About thirty and thirty-five questions were set on each of the passages and the questions included: questions requiring true or false responses, short answer questions, questions requiring table completion, lexical cohesion, outlining, decoding word meaning and analysing words into their constituent parts.

Performance in the verbal ability test was used to put students into the various verbal ability groups. The test items for this instrument were drawn from the syllabi of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and Pre-Degree English of the Federal Universities of Technology in Akure, Minna and the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. The test had one hundred items and each was rated one mark. Items tested include: the ability to reason, interpret, summarise and make inferences; a familiarity with the lexis and structure of the English Language was also tested. Performance in the test was used to categorise the participants into three verbal ability groups: high (60% and above), average (50% – 59%) and low (49% and below). Using the Kuder-Richardson formula 20 (KR–20), an appropriate reliability of KR = .87 was found and the questions had an average item difficulty of .47 which proved that the items were appropriate.

The concept of gender ‘refers to a system of socially defined roles, privileges, attributes and relationships between men and women which are learned and not biologically determined’ (Khamati-Njenga & Clancy 2005:5). Sex is the biological differentiation between male and female whilst gender refers to the differentiation between masculinity and femininity; the latter is constructed through socialisation, religion and education. Gender in this study is considered a social construct that subsumes biologically determined sex, such as male or female, and the socially constructed characteristics or roles assigned to males and females in society. These roles influence social and classroom behaviour.

The current study employed discourse and conversation analysis to investigate gender discourse and gender relations in two Nigerian English for Academic Purposes (EAP) reading classrooms. The difference view on gender research (Cameron 1998; Tannen 2003) was adopted in this study and the analysis revolved around issues of difference between male and female speech. The interaction took into account how gender identities were formed, maintained and even challenged and the interactional means used to achieve this.

Pre-Question group: The plan used in teaching students in the Pre-question group involved activating their background knowledge through general discussion around the topic of the assigned text, using diagrams, asking relevant questions about ideas, phrases and key words. The target competence was the ability to identify the structure of the text, decode the meaning of words and perform word analysis tasks.

Genre group: The method employed in teaching students in the Genre group involved providing them with information on the generic structure of the texts, the register of Biology in the texts, and cohesive devices and rhetorical functions used in the texts. The target competence was the ability to distinguish main ideas from details, identify the author's attitude and structure of the texts, decode the meaning of words and perform word analysis tasks.

Pre-Question/Genre group: The method employed in teaching students in the Pre-question/Genre group involved combining the methods used for the Pre-question and Genre groups. The students’ prior knowledge was activated through discussion, use of diagrams and questions. Genre knowledge was taught by providing information on the generic structure of the texts used, the register of Biology, cohesive devices and rhetorical functions used in the texts. The target competence was the students’ ability to distinguish main ideas from details, identify the author's attitude, the structure of the text, decode the meaning of words and perform word analysis tasks.

Control group: This group of students did not receive any teacher input, they just read through the texts they were presented and answered the questions. They performed the following tasks: table completion exercise, word replacement and word analysis exercise. The teaching plan used for all the research groups is presented in Table 2.

Data for this study were collected from students’ responses to comprehension questions and questionnaires administered. Inferential statistics were used to analyse the data, ANCOVA was employed and the hypothesis was tested at P < 0.05 level of significance. This section presents the results of the data generated from quantitative and qualitative procedures.

The data, obtained from the speech behaviour of the two genders from the two universities, reveal that although the men did not occupy much verbal space, they asserted authority over the female students by controlling and managing group activities and discussing and evaluating the responses of their female counterparts. Table 6 shows the details of the number of turns taken by male and female students from the two universities.

The data from Table 6 indicate that the women dominated most of the turns, with a total number of 199 turns as against 126 turns recorded for the male students. Interaction 1– FUNAAB reveals a total of 59 turns for women and 41 for men. Interaction 2–FUNAAB shows that the women recorded 36 turns whilst the men had 34 turns. For Interaction 3–FUNAAB the female students had a total of 32 turns whilst the male students had 28 turns. Finally Interaction 4–FUNAAB indicates that the women had 10 turns whilst the men had 4 turns. Data from the Federal University of Technology, Minna revealed a similar trend. Interaction–1 FUTM shows that the female students had more verbal space with a total of 24 turns whilst the men recorded none. Interaction 2–FUTM shows a total of 10 turns for the women and 9 turns for the men. Interaction 3–FUTM indicates that the women recorded a total of 12 turns and the male students had 10 turns. Interaction 4–FUTM reveals a total of 16 turns for the women and no turns for the men. Classroom interaction from the University of Technology, Minna, reveals that the female students actively participated in group discussions.

The analysis of the turns taken revealed that the male students used discourse strategies to carve their identity as males and assert authority over the women. They used indirect speech acts to preserve their ego and maintain their public face. Boisterous behaviour was also employed to deride, intimidate and silence the women. The male students used these discourse strategies in reaction to the assertive and confident behaviour of the female students whose speech behaviour deviated from the expected ‘norm’. Contrary to the view held by the dominant group, that male speech style is referred to as direct, succinct and instrumental, whilst female language is thought to be indirect, elaborate and affective (Lakoff 1973), the data from this study reveal that the women used language that was different from the assumed speech style of women. Analysis of the turns the women took shows that they used linguistic, pragmatic and paralinguistic strategies to challenge male responses and assert themselves. This was revealed in the forcefulness of their responses which was expressed through their use of strategies like stress, high tone and high pitch, they also used indirect speech acts and non-verbal signals to make their points. They used these strategies to articulate their points, express their opinions, undermine male views and enforce their views on their male counterparts.

In the light of the conclusions drawn from the study, the following recommendations are proffered: