INTRODUCTION
Reading may seem difficult to some children if it is not taught the right ways, especially using phonic and syllabic to improve. In this article, learn about how to teach learners and improve reading ability in them using phonic and syllabic. Continue reading.
Background of the Study
Poor standard of education in most public Schools especially in rural and urban poor communities is generally attributed to the poor standard of teaching and learning English as a service language. Proficiency in English guarantees general learning.
It also serves as a medium of instruction, intra and inter-personal communication, moreover the official language of the government coupled with the above reasons, English Language must be carefully and effectively taught in Basic Schools.
English Language has four basic modes. These are listening and speaking as the oral aspect or receptive skills, reading and writing as the productive aspect of the language.
The focus of this study is reading, which is the productive aspect as well as the most essential skill or mode of language.
Because the school is located in an urban poor community where the dwellers are predominantly traders and farmers, the pupils spend much time in helping their parents or guardians in the market or farm.
Because some guardians do not see the value of education, they also feel reluctant in finding solution to their poor reading abilities. Unless pupils can recognize the word in print, reading cannot take place.
Reading is a process of identifying written words and extracting meaning from them. It can also be defined as the ability to gather information from written materials. Reading can be done in several ways. The two main types of reading are (a) reading aloud and (b) silent reading.
Whereas silent reading is the ability to gather information from written materials without the movement of the lips, reading aloud is the ability to gather information from written material with the movement of the lips to the hearing of a listener.
The researcher’s examination and observation on the ground during the school attachment programme at Berekum Methodist Primary ‘B’ Basic two, registered several problems.
Among these, is the poor reading ability of pupils which the researcher considered to be the most essential mode of learning and therefore made a research into it using the action research.
This was detected when the researcher noticed that pupils do answer evaluation questions in all the disciplines especially reading and comprehension exercises orally correct yet get these same exercises wrongly answered when it comes to the written form.
She at first considered the cause to be the inattentiveness of pupils during teaching and learning, until she persistently asked the pupils to read evaluation questions for further explanations.
Most of the pupils could not pronounce the individual words used in the evaluation exercise even by associating the sounds associated with each letter, let alone read. For this reason they find it difficult to provide the expected answers.
The researcher found the root cause of the problem to be that either pupils were not taken through the basic reading activities especially the phonic and Syllabic activities which should have improved their reading abilities using the appropriate activities.
In view of this the researcher decided to improve the pupils reading abilities by taking them through Phonic and Syllabic activities as an intervention to the problem.
Phonic activities are series of instructions designed to guide pupils to read a word by saying the sounds associated with each letter and read as one word. For example, m-a-n-g-o sounds of these letters are used as one word to give the word ‘mango’.
Syllabic activities are series of instructions design to guide pupil to read letter put together to make syllable. The word should either begin with a consonant or end with vowel. For example, the word ‘mango’ can be broken into two syllables as man-go to make pronunciation easily.
Statement of the Problem
Enhancing the reading skill of learners will go a long way to have a great impact on the performance on learners. In my
English lesson I observed that about forty-four pupils out of fifty, were able to answer questions when they are asked orally but when these same questions are put on paper or on the board, they cannot answer.
This is because they cannot read the questions and when notes are written on the board they copy it wrongly because they cannot read, therefore there is the need to enhance their reading skills through phonic and syllabic activities.
Purpose of the Study
Learning as it is, is defined as a process of change in behaviour, which results from experience, knowledge and understanding.
After a careful study of pupils’ ability in reading, the researcher realized that the pupils’ inability to read is due to weak foundation in certain pre-conditions such as reading activities must be put in place at the early stages of the pupils’ life.
The purpose of the study is to improve the pupils reading abilities by taking them through phonic, look and say and syllabic activities to guide pupils to read letter by letter through the sounds of the letters.
It will also train pupils in left to right eye movement since the letters have to be sounded in the right order-from left to right. The use of phonic and syllabic activities as an intervention will encourage pupils to guess the pronunciation of words correctly without teacher’s assistance.
Pupils will be able to read many common syllabic words as they put together syllabic words and pronounce them as a word and also reduce the talking time for teachers during teaching and learning.
Research Questions
These are questions designed by the researcher to serve as a guide for the research. The following are research questions taken into consideration when prompted to use the phonic and syllabic activities as intervention for pupils reading inability.
1. What are the causes of Berekum Methodist B Primary two pupils’ reading disabilities?
2. What are some of the reading activities that can improve Berekum Methodist B Primary two pupils reading abilities?
3. How should phonic and syllabic activities be used to improved Berekum Methodist B Primary two pupils reading abilities?
Significance of the Study
Implementation of phonic and syllabic activities will guide pupils to read written materials and enable them to build on their stock of vocabulary for speaking and writing skills. The activities will create a friendly and enjoyable atmosphere for teaching and learning. It will stimulate pupils to learn on their own.
This will sustain the pupils reading abilities.Implementation of these activities will create avenues for pupils to fully participate in English Language lessons and other reading subjects to make teaching and learning easier.
Effective use of these activities will lay effective foundation that will facilitate learning of Language at the higher level. It will also help pupils to attain proficiency in listening, reading and speaking as well as writing and communicate effectively in English
Limitations
In the course of the study, the researcher encountered a lot of difficulties, for instance, language was a barrier. Some people could not express themselves well in the English language. Also, some teachers and students didn’t see the whole essence of the study. Again, there were absenteeism on the part of learners.
Delimitation
This problem may be present in other schools but to make the work of the researcher fruitful, the research work was limited to the Berekum Methodist B Primary school basic two as that is where the problem was found.
Organization of the Study
This section of the chapter discussed how the study was organized. The chapter one has to do with the following subheadings: Background to the study, Statement of the problem, Purpose of the study, Objective of the Study, Research questions, Significance of the study, Limitation and Delimitation.
The second chapter deals with the review of related literature. This is followed by researcher methodology as the third chapter. The fourth chapter consists of analysis of data and discussions. The last chapter of the study covers summary, conclusion and recommendation.
SOURCE: bbcpulse.com