Effect of Phonics Reading Strategy on Pupils’ Achievement in Word Recognition in Oshimili South Local Government Area
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of the Study
The general purpose of this study is to find out the effect of phonics on pupils‟ achievement in word recognition. Specifically, the study is aimed at finding out the following:
- Whether there is a difference in the post test mean scores in achievement in word recognition of pupils taught reading using phonics and those taught using whole language
- Gender related differences in pupils‟ achievement in word recognition using
- Whether the location will affect pupils‟ achievement in word recognition using phonics
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter presents a review of work related to the study under three broad headings; namely conceptual framework, theoretical framework, empirical studies and summary of literature review.
Conceptual Framework
- Concept of reading
- Stages and component of reading
- Importance of reading
- Concept of word recognition
- Strategies of word recognition
- Phonic reading strategy
- Teacher factor and pupils achievement
- Gender factor and pupils achievement
- Location factor and pupils achievement
- Theoretical Framework
- Phonics theory of reading by Rudolf Flesh
- Review of Empirical Studies Summary of Literature Review
Conceptual Framework
Concept of Reading
Reading is one of the communication skills. It is the third in the row among the four communication skills. Reading is a very imperative skill for effective education and communication. Knowledge is acquired through reading. Kane,( 2005:17) therefore defines reading as a meaning structure process in which the readers must actively construct meaning and work towards fitting new information into the knowledge they already have. Vacca and Vacca, (2002:28) also sees reading as an interactive process. It is seen as a conversation, a give and take exchange between the reader and the text.
Walker (1982) sees reading as an active problem solving process that involves guessing or predicting what the author and about story events. He claims that since reading involves recalling an individual‟s life experiences and trying to understand what is written, it is more than just receiving meaning in a literal sense. Supporting the above view, Hill (1997) opines that reading is the most useful skill that students need to understand a text because it gives them immediate feedback about a text. Obanya (2002) sees reading, as interpreting written language and translating into words and sentences which conveys thoughts and ideas. Burke (1990) is of the idea that reading is the process of getting meaning from and the bringing of meaning into printed words in the text. The implication is that readers should bring their backgrounds, experiences as well as emotions into play, during reading. On his part, Rubin (1991) defined reading as a process in which information from the text and the knowledge possessed by the reader act together to produce meaning.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter presents the Research design, Area of the study, sample and sampling technique, population of the study, instrument for the study, Development of the instrument, validation of the instrument, Reliability of the instrument, method of data collection and method of data analysis.
Research Design
The design of the study was quasi-experimental design. According to Ali (2006) quasi experimental research design can be used when scheduling and implementation of experimental treatment conditions or randomizations and grouping of subjects are not possible. Thus, designs of experiment which offer less well and less rigorous control compared to true experimental designs are quasi experimental designs. Specifically, the design was adopted because the experiment was carried out in intact classes. Intact classes were used to avoid disruption of normal classes. Thus there was no randomization of pupils into treatment and control group. The research design has to be so since the treatment group can not be adequately controlled. The design helped to determine the effect of phonics reading strategy on pupils‟ achievement in word recognition. The design is diagrammatically represented below in appendix vi
Area of the Study
The study was carried out in Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State of Nigeria. Oshimili South Local Government was chosen because it comprises of Asaba town where the head quarter of Delta state is situated and Okoh town. It has 29 primary schools at present. Since Nigerian primary school children are second language readers, knowledge of vocabulary and word recognition are problematic issues. Evidence also abounds that primary school pupils were reading at a frustration level and thus affected their performance in examinations. Observation has also shown that most pupils lack the basic reading skills and this has been traced to poor teaching methods. More also, there is no literature to show that such a study has been carried out in Oshimili South Local Government of Delta State. (See appendix vii)
Population of the Study
The target population for the study consisted of primary one pupil in Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State numbering 4750 and it comprises of 362350 female pupils and 2400 male pupils (Source: Oshimili South Local Education Authority)
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
This chapter deals with the presentation and analysis of data collected. Using appropriate statistical tools, relevant interpretations were made based on the three research questions using mean, standard deviation. Analyses of co-variance (ANCOVA) were used to test the hypotheses. All the hypotheses were tested at the p<0.05 level of significance.
Research Question 1
What is the difference in the post test mean scores in achievement of pupils taught reading using phonics and whole language?
The data presented in Table 1 indicated that the experimental group had a mean of 31.28 and a standard deviation of 17.52 in the pretest and a mean score of 44.21 and standard deviation of 20.44 in the posttest making a pretest, posttest gain in experimental group to be 12.93. The control group had a mean score of 26.03 and a standard deviation of 14.32 in the pretest and a mean of 32.48 and standard deviation of 15.49 in the post test making pre test gain of 6.45.
CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
This chapter discusses the findings of the study as they relate to the research questions and hypotheses, the educational implications, conclusion, recommendations, summary, limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies.
Discussion of Findings
The finding of research questions 1 on what is the post test mean scores in achievement of pupils taught reading using phonics and whole language showed that experimental group achieved better in word recognition using phonics than control group using whole language. The finding indicated that phonic reading strategy has a positive effect on pupils‟ academic achievement in word recognition. The finding of research question 2 on what gender differences are there in the post test mean scores in achievement using phonics and whole language revealed that that phonics favoured male students in word recognition than female counterpart. That is, male achieved higher than female counterpart in word recognition achievement test.
The findings of research question 3 on what is the post test mean scores of pupils achievement in word recognition using phonics with regards to location revealed that phonics favoured pupils in word recognition in urban areas than those in rural areas. That is pupils in urban areas achieved better in word recognition achievement test than pupils in rural areas. The findings on hypotheses 1, 2 and 3 confirmed that significant difference exists between the mean achievements scores of experimental and control groups in the post test. This is an indication that phonics reading strategy has positive effects on pupils‟ academic achievements in word recognition than whole language. This means that phonic reading strategy is an effective teaching strategy. It improves reading skills of primary school children. It encourages children to begin reading through auditory training that is training the ears to recognize the sounds of the letters and associating these sounds and letters with the shapes of the letters in written form (Tompkins, 2003).
The finding is in agreement with finding of Dimeff, and Fox (1989). In their studies they found that the adaptive of the phonics reading strategy greatly resulted in higher students‟ performance and greater productivity, higher cognitive gains, lower levels of subject distress, and higher course satisfaction. The finding is also in agreement with finding of Resnick (2005) who found out phonics reading strategy teaches children to sound out new words. It enables them to learn what a letter stands for and then learn to associate the sound and the letter to specific words. The finding is in line with the finding of Moat (2000) and Tompskin (2003) that phonics method of teaching enables young learners to master the skills of reading. Vacca (1998) explained that phonics strategy is most appropriate for pupils in primary schools when it comes to language development.
The finding is also in agreement with Komolafe and Yara (2010), Akinbode and Komolafe (2010) who concluded from their investigations that teaching students using sentence combining instructional strategy and explicitly grammar instructional strategy performed better than those taught using lecture method or other traditional teaching methods. Involving students in active learning environment where they can participate actively in the learning process with the opportunity to interact freely with the teachers, converse with peers present and defend ideas and questions increases their self confidence and self reliance. This consequently improves their learning and performance. Jarvis (1998) and Jonaasan (1996) in their view affirmed that students learn best when they are actively involved in the learning process and that regardless of the subject matter, students working in groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain longer than when the same content is presented in other format.
Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made:
- Primary school teachers in Delta State should adopt the use of the phonics reading strategy to teach word
- Qualified teachers of English language should be employed by government to teach reading to pupils in primary school
- Curriculum developers should recommend the use of phonics reading strategy for teaching word recognition to pupils in primary
- Workshops and seminars should be organized by Ministries of Education and related government agencies to train primary school teachers on the best ways to use phonics reading strategy for teaching their pupils.
Summary
Primary education is an important level of education which lays the foundation of school subjects on which other levels build. However, poor achievement has been observed in English language especially in reading among children at this level due mainly to teacher‟s use of poor and inappropriate teaching methods. The need therefore arises to integrate a more meaningful approach in the teaching and learning of reading in order that achievement might be enhanced. Consequently, this study was carried out to find out the effect of phonics reading strategy on pupils achievement in word recognition. The study also examined the effect of gender and location on pupils‟ achievement in word recognition.
Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The design used in the study was a quasi experimental design, specifically the non-equivalent control group design. A total of 144 primary one pupils were randomly sampled from four primary schools in Asaba and Okoh. 82 pupils from Asaba and 62 from Oko using multi phase sampling technique which served as experimental and control school. Out of this sample 82 belonged to the experimental group with 45 female and 37 male. Four teachers in the experimental school were trained on the phonics reading strategy.
The word recognition achievement test (WRAT) was developed, validated and used by the researcher in the study. The phonics reading strategy which involves listening, speaking, writing and demonstrations was also exposed to the teachers in the experimental group.
A try out test was carried out to ascertain the reliability of the instrument. The internal consistency reliability coefficients was established for WRAT using K – R 20 (Kuder Richardson) formula. The internal consistency coefficient of 0.77 was obtained. The data generated from the study was analysed using analysis of co- variance (ANCOVA) in which the pre test scores of the dependent measures examined in the study served as covariates.
The result of the study showed that the use of phonics reading strategy significantly enhanced primary school pupil‟s achievement in word recognition. The research finding also revealed that male pupils achieved higher than their female counterpart. Finally, phonics reading strategy favored pupil‟s in word recognition in urban areas than those in rural areas. These results have implications for primary school teachers, curriculum planners, school administrators and the government.
The researcher recommends among others that primary school teachers should integrate the use of phonics in teaching reading and government should ensure that qualified English teachers are employed to teach at this level of education. The government should also organize series of seminars and workshops for primary school teachers to familiarize them on the use of phonics strategy in teaching reading.
Limitation of the Study
Although the researcher trained teachers to implement the teaching of phonics, there could still be some personal teaching styles due to individual differences that might have introduced some extraneous factors in the study. It was very difficult to assign students into control and experiment groups. That might have affected the outcome of the study and caused invalidity.
Suggestions for further Study
Based on the findings and limitations of the study, the researcher suggests that further researches could address the following areas:
- Effects of phonics reading strategy on pupils‟ achievement in word recognition in other local government in Delta State or other States
- Carrying out the study using other classes in the primary school in comprehension.
- Effects of phonics reading strategy on academic achievement of low ability pupils in primary school in English language
- Strategies for effective use of phonics reading method in primary schools in Delta
Conclusions
Based on the finding of this study, the following conclusions were made: Students learn faster and master skills better when appropriate teaching methods are used for instruction. The adoption of the phonics reading strategy in conjunction with other teaching methods will greatly improve academic achievement of pupils in word recognition. Thus pupils taught word recognition using phonics reading strategy achieved significantly higher than those who were not taught using phonics. Male pupils taught word recognition using phonics reading strategy achieved significantly higher than their female counterparts. Also, phonics reading strategy favored pupils in word recognition in the urban areas than pupils in the rural areas
References
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