KOMENDA COLEGE OF EDUCATION

TOPIC

USING THE PHONICS METHOD TO HELP STUDENTS TO OVERCOME

THEIR READING DIFFICULTIES

STUDENT’S NAME
KOJO TUFFOUR

SUPERVISOR’S NAME
REV.WILSON KORTEY KOTEI
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Overview
This chapter comprises the background of the study, which gives an insight into the

study, statement of the problem, highlighting the existed and newly found problems

about the study, the objectives of the study, the significance of the study, which

identifies the people and organization that will benefit from this scope of the study,

limitation of the study, the definition of key terms used in this chapter and how the

study is organized.

1.1 Background to the study

Modern society deems the ability to read as one of the most requisite skills to succeed

at school and in the workplace. Education is also absolutely essential tool in a nation’s

development. It equips the individual with skills, technical knowhow and

competencies that are necessary ingredients for higher productivity. Such

competences include good communication skills stemming from effective reading

ability right at the outset of an individual’s education (Appiah, 2011). According to

Pretorius & Machet (2004) cited in Klapwijk (2011), all academic attainment depends

to a greater degree on reading literacy. Reading ability is fundamentally useful and

important for a successful school work for every student. Ability to read alone is not

enough; it must be backed by comprehension. This is to say reading and

comprehension are inseparable. According to Pickering (1977) reading

comprehension is a meaningful interpretation of graphic symbols or written words.

Parris, Gambrell and Schleicher (2008, p10) argue that the capacity to read is the

primary need for full participation in one’s society and economy. However,
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developing the skills to read happily is not a simple process. Reading is more than the

ability to recognize letters and decode words. Reading is ultimately about composing

meaning from written text (Juel & Graves, 1998. In other words, the aim of reading is

to understand what is being read. For Stanfer (1978) reading comprehension is the

ability to read text, process it and understand its meaning. On his part, Brummitt-Yale

(2008) says reading comprehension is essential to life, in order to survive and thrive

in today’s world. This means, individuals must be able to comprehend basic text such

as bills, housing agreements, direction on packaging and transportation documents.

Again, they should possess the ability to comprehend what they read, and not only to

live safely and productively, but also to continue to develop socially, emotionally and

intellectually.

However, most students have had difficulty to effectively read at the outset of basic

education. According to the West African Examination Councils Chief Examiner’s

report for Basic School Certificate Examination (BECE) 2012, many candidates

demonstrated poor knowledge of subject content of various subjects due to poor

comprehension skills. The report further indicated that lack of comprehension among

such students may partly be due to poor reading skills. (Ministry of Education (MOE),

2012). This is evident of the fact that most students have difficulty in reading to

understand and hence their poor performance in examination (Stanfer, 1978). When a

student lacks reading skills, he or she suffers in all academic subjects (Huntington,

2012). According to Burns, Griffin & Snow (1999) many children who cannot read

well perform poorly in all academic work. Such children get frustrated due to poor

performance and eventually drop out of school.

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 In order to curb students’ reading difficulties, linguists, educationists, teachers,

curriculums experts and others have devised strategies to help students overcome their

reading difficulties. It supplies the students with tools to expand their vocabulary. In

Africa and in Ghana for that matter, the phonics method is profoundly used to

enhance the teaching of reading more importantly at the basic level (MOE, 2007). In

affirmation, Huntington (2012) says instructors develop an individualized programme

that help builds reading skills of students before progressing to the next skill level.

Such programmes according to Huntington (2012) include letter formation, sound

recognition, sight words and reading comprehension. He again, indicates that in a

meaningful reading comprehension, important skills like: looking for main idea(s),

following directions, finding details, reading rates and critical thinking are necessary

to help students improve upon reading ability. Additionally, other methods like the

syllabic, look- and- say and the phonics are used to help students surmount reading

difficulties.

On this part, Huntington (2012) says the phonics method is probably the best known

and widely used method to teach reading and writing in the English language. Again,

the ability to use the letter and sound depends on children being taught. This means,

once children have learnt the letter and sounds, they will begin to blend two letters

together to make simple words, then three letters, then four and so forth. More so,

children are able to associate the shape of the letters with the sound it makes.

Children’s spelling ability is deeply boosted when they are taught using the phonic

method.

The Chief Examiner’s report for 2000 on the general performance of students

particularly in English language (MOE, 2000) indicates that irrespective of slight

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improvement in the general performance, greater majority of BECE candidates

showed less improvement in subjects such as English Language and Science. The

report further shows that particularly, in English Language, most students’ poor

performance is heavily blamed on their inability to correctly read to comprehend

questions. Again, in 2012, similar report shows that BECE candidates did not pass

well in English Language over other subjects (MOE, 2012). In view of these concerns

and for us to help our future leaders; serious attention must be taken to address the

poor reading ability in English of pupils in the Basic schools.

It was realized that, it is a problem of phonetic understanding among Sekyere

Hemang Methodist Primary School Basic five (5) pupils; during my teaching practice.

The pupil’s performance in English language was nothing to write home about in

several evaluation texts conducted after a lesson taught by my mentor. Also, through my

personal experience in class show that most students could not read properly and also

could not make meaning of words they read. It is therefore, imperative as an action

researcher to investigate the perceived problem of students’ inability to read and

understand. In Sekyere Hemang Basic 5, most students have difficulty in reading and

understanding passages particularly during English lessons.

To explore the causes of the inability of the students to read to comprehend, the

designed a series of reading exercises to cover a period of three weeks in order to find

out the causes of the problem. Again, a class test was conducted involving ten words

and a short passage for reading. Through observation, it was found out that the

students were not interested in English reading lessons. Most students engaged

themselves in other activities they found more entertaining rather than reading.

Interview of the students, revealed that the students did not enjoy the reading

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comprehension lessons. An introspection into the researchers own lessons revealed

abstract teaching of reading comprehension leading to students’ poor reading ability

1.2 Statement of the Problem

In the course of teaching at Sekyere Hemang Methodist Primary School, it was

discovered that the pupils of basic five (5) have problems in reading five and six

letters and also unable to read and comprehend words during English reading lesson.

Also, the students’ contributions in class show poor pronunciation and understanding

of words as used in context. Again, the class test indicates that less than 50% of the

students consistently obtained marks below 45%. More so, observing the students’

class performances in relation to reading comprehension and letter formation, it was

found out that more should be done to improve the students’ reading ability because

the students need good word pronunciation ability to catapult them into effective

reading and comprehension necessary for further studies in all subjects. Therefore, the

study was designed to use the phonic method to help students of Sekyere Hemang

Basic 5 learners to overcome their reading challenges.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

This study was aimed at exploring effective use of the phonics method of teaching to

improve Sekyere Hemang Basic five (5) students’ reading difficulties and also help

pupils blend sounds to help them develop words attack skills.

1.4 Research Questions

The study was guided by the following research questions:

1. What are the causes of students’ inability to read?

2. To what extent can the phonics method resolve the students’ reading difficulty
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1.5 Significance of the study
This study looks at the use of the phonic method to improve students’ reading ability.

This will further enhance their reading and communications skills at school and

beyond. More so, the students will develop interest in reading which will eventually

lead to improved performance needed for further studies. Above all, the study will

equip the students with lifelong reading skills since, reading is for life.

1.6 Delimitation of the Study

Many programmes and methods are designed by experts to help students in order to

improve their reading abilities and skills. Such include; the look-and-say method or

the whole- word method and others. However, this study is limited to the use of the

phonics method. Specifically, the study will emphasize the letters and sound of three

to four letter words as the foundation for further reading skills. Also, a chat containing

three to four letters carefully arranged would be used. More so, the study will Centre

on Sekyere Hemang Basic five (5) students in the Western Region.

1.7 Limitation of the study

This study, like any other study had its limitation. Some of the respondents were
found not to be serious with the intervention activities. Moreover, some were absent
during the beginning stage of the intervention period.
The General Layout of the Study
This study has five chapters. Chapter One is the introductory chapter which deals with

background to the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study as well as

research questions. It further looked at the significance and delimitation of the study,

and operational definition of terms. Chapter Two deals with review of related

literature regarding phonic method of teaching and its related theories. The

methodology forms the core of Chapter Three. It describes research design,

population, sample and sampling techniques, data collection instrument and

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processing as well as analysis of data collected. In Chapter Four, the findings were

presented and discussed. Summaries and suggested recommendations of the study

were the subject of Chapter Five.

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 CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.0 Overview

This chapter discusses the related literature to the study. Also, this chapter reviews the

causes of students’ reading difficulties and theoretical framework related to the

phonics method of teaching reading comprehension. The chapter also therefore, will

review the literature under the following headings;

1. The concept of phonics method of teaching

2. Theory of the phonics method

3. Types of phonics method of teaching

4. Importance of the phonics method of teaching

5. Advantages and Disadvantages of the phonics method of teaching

6. Causes of the students’ reading disability

The Concept of Phonics Method of Teaching

According to Borowsky, Esopenko, Cummine & Sarty (2007) phonics is a method for

teaching reading and writing of the English language by developing learners’ phonic

awareness, thus, the ability to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes in order to

teach the correspondence between these sounds and the spelling pattern that represent

them. Similarly, Mackay (2004) indicates that phonics is a method of teaching reading

that ensures virtually all children can learn to read quickly and skillfully. This means

that children are taught the correspondences between sounds (phonemes) and letters.

Again, they identify and blend different letter sounds and letter combinations

together, synthesize them to make a word. For example, pronouncing each phoneme
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in shop /sh/-/o/-/p/ and then blending those phonemes to produce the word. Through

this, children take the first important steps in learning to read. They can also use this

knowledge to begin to spell new words they hear.

Additionally, Adams & Marilyn (1994) educate that phonics method involves

teaching how to connect the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters,

for instance, the sound /k/ can be represented by c, k, ck, or ch, spellings and teaching

them to blend the sounds of letters together to produce approximate pronunciations of

unknown words. Students learn the names of the letters and the sounds they make.

Once they have learnt the letter sounds, they will begin to blend two letters together to

make simple words then three letters, then four and so forth.

The definitions above provide us with the understanding that phonics relates to the

letters of the alphabets, their sounds and the combination of letters and sounds to

ensure correct pronunciation leading to effective reading. It could be deduced that

phonics is a method of teaching where students are taught letters of the alphabets and

the sounds, they make to boost their reading capacity. This means, phonics method of

teaching is an essential tool to improve students’ reading ability. Below is example of

how some words are phonically handled:

“A-t, i-t, o-n, i-f, b-e, m-e, w-e, i-n, he,

C-a-t, m-a-t, f-a-t, p-a-t, r-a-t, c-a-r, g-o-d, m-e-n,F-l-a-t, p-l-a-t, t-h-a-t,s-p-i-t,

s-l-i-t, g-r-i-t.”

Therefore, the goal of the phonics method is to enable beginning readers to decode

new written words by sounding them out, or in phonics terms, blending the sound and

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spelling pattern since it focuses on the spoken and written units within words. This

means, it is important for students to know very well the letters and their sounds.

Theory of the Phonics Method

The theory underpinning this study is the alphabetic principle proposed by Adams

(1994). This principle is of the assumption that letters of the alphabet represent sounds

of the speech and that; there are systematic and predictable relationship between

written letters and spoken words. Therefore, children should learn the letters of the

alphabets as well as the sounds at the same time. For example, children learn the letter

sound “b” the first letter sound in “bat” and “ball” first and then blend them “ bl” –the

first two sounds in “blue” to form words. Children also learn how to segment and

chunk letter sounds together in order to form words like; trap= /t/, /r/, /a/, /p/ or /tr/,

/rp/ (Adams, 1994).

Types of Phonics Method of Teaching

Diane (2004) classified phonics method of teaching as;

Synthetic Phonics

The Synthetic phonics according to Diane (2004), is an approach associated with the

teaching of reading in which phonemes (sounds) associated with particular graphemes

(letters) are pronounced in isolation and blended together (synthesized). For example,

children are taught to take a single-syllable word such as ‘cat’ apart into its three

letters, pronounce a phoneme for each letter in turn /k, æ, t/, and blend the phonemes

together to form a word. Alternatively, Rose (2006) outlines the followings as

strategies to ensure successful teaching of reading using the synthetic approach.

1. Letter–sound correspondences are taught in a clearly defined sequence.

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 2. Children have a short, pacy lesson each day.

3. The initial programme typically must take a little over a term to complete.

4. Children are taught how to blend sounds to make words, and practice this.

5. They learn to spell at the same time as they learn to read.

6. Teaching uses attractive resources, songs, games and actions.

7. Teaching provides many opportunities for language development.

Rose (2006) argues further that children are required to blend sounds from letters to

read words, and the next most important point is that they do this in a systematic way,

beginning with the most straightforward combinations of vowel consonant- vowel

words, and gradually introducing more complex patterns. This approach has the long-

term benefit of preparing children for advanced reading, when they will meet regular

letter combinations in prefixes and suffixes.

Analytic Phonics
Rose (2006) provides that analytic phonics is a subordinate tool to synthetic method

of teaching phonics. This is because in some instances, analytic phonics has been used

as an alternative to synthetic phonics in initial reading teaching, and is sometimes

reduced to having children identify the first letter in a word. The approach does not

teach children to blend sounds to make words. However, in a typical analytical

approach, words are breaking down (Rose, 2006). This means that children are

presented with words and learn to pick out letters and to associate them with the

sounds they represent. Analytic phonics is not, therefore, an effective vehicle for

initial reading teaching. But synthetic phonics does not always work, and it is at this

point that analytic phonics is needed. For example, in the words know, knight,

knuckle, and write, wrong, wrap, analysis shows that the initial, silent letter, is always
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followed by the same letter. This is so regular that the two letters can be considered as

a little phonic group, much like qu. Used in this way, analytic phonics enables

children to learn substantial groups of words, many of them very common, that

require an adjustment to our normal interpretation of letter sounds. Compare warm,

water, war, for example, with bat, sat, that.

In summary, Rose (2006) recommends that phonics lessons should be discreet. This

means that teaching needs to be specific and systematic, but not that phonics should

be taught in isolation from everything else. On the contrary, children should be

encouraged to see patterns and apply sounds and sound patterns in a wide range of

activities, including nursery rhymes, poems, poetry, telling and retelling stories.

Further, the knowledge, skills and understanding that constitute high quality phonics

work should be taught as the prime approach in learning to read, to write and to spell.

Again, phonics work should be set within a broad and rich language curriculum that

takes full account of developing the four interdependent strands of language:

speaking, listening, reading and writing, and enlarging children’s stock of words. This

means that schools need to plan for language development in all of the activity’s

children undertake, and to ensure that teachers and assistants understand the ways in

which language strands depend on and contribute to each other. Reading, for example,

extends children’s knowledge of words and sentence structures beyond those most

will meet in everyday conversation outside school, and this contributes to writing. Our

knowledge, understanding and confidence with words are built up by successful use

of them in speaking as well as in writing.

Again, Rose (2006) cautions that for most children, high-quality, systematic phonic

work should start by the age of five. This should be preceded by pre-reading activities

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that pave the way for such work to start. This implies that teachers will have to track

young children’s progress in language and early literacy activities carefully, in order

to make sure that they are introduced to phonic work as soon as they are ready for it,

but not before. There will be a need to intensify support for children who are not

making normal progress.

Importance of the Phonics Method of Teaching

According to Rose (2006), teaching phonics is of crucial importance for the

following reasons: The majority of the information conveyed by letters concerns

sounds. Thus, Letters tell us more than any other source of information, even when

we have to interpret the information they provide. We cannot read fluently until we

read accurately, and this depends on accurate use of the information conveyed letters.

Also, skilled, fluent readers do not guess. Once we have learned what the letters are

telling us in a word, we can store it in our memory and retrieve it more quickly than

even if we had to work it out. As English is not completely regular, most children are

unlikely to be able to perceive and use patterns in language for themselves. On the

contrary, Clymer (1963) argues that although the teaching of phonics is seen as the

effective way of improving students’ reading ability, we must not conclude that

phonics would always provide the solution to the neglect of other methods of teaching

reading. This means, in using the phonics methods, teachers should consider other

methods such as the look and say including the whole word method.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Phonics Method of Teaching

Rose (2006) educate that many advantages are claimed for the phonics method of

teaching. First, it separates words purely on the basis of their sound division, avoiding

the units of the syllabic method which are determined by philological derivation or

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conventional practice. Second, it is more flexible as it can take into account the

maturity and individuality of children. Third, it tends on the whole to induce the child

to see the word elements in the largest possible units of identification making sound

approximations more accurate and sounder blending more easily. Fourth, it treats

irregular words as a phonic unit or sight word; though not inherent in the method

itself, thus, teachers who use the phonic method find it less necessary to depend on

diacritic marks, accents, printed word divisions, and all other artificial devices that

give words a different appearance from that which they have in normal use.

While struggling whether the use of phonics method is advantageous or otherwise to

improve students’ reading ability, Chall (1976) underscores that the systematic instruction in

teaching letter-sound relationship(phonics) lead to higher achievement. This means, many

educators have agreed in the use of phonics method to improve students reading capacity.

Subsequently, Hempenstall, (2003) finds out that those learners who achieve a good

start in the first few years of reading are very likely to have accelerated progress in

their attainment throughout school and achieve the skills valued by employers. This is

against, the children who achieved the high level 2 in Key Stage 1 reading, 98% went

on to achieve the expected level 4 or above in Key Stage 2 in 2010 and 66% achieved

level 5. By contrast, only 73% of children who achieved the lower level 2c at Key

Stage 1 went on to achieve the expected level 4 or above at Key Stage 2, and just 20%

achieved level 5.

Causes of students’ Reading Disability

Many scholars have proposed and argued strongly in favor of what they believe are

possible causes of reading disability. Felton (2014) argues that research focusing on

the causes of unexpected reading disabilities indicates that, for many individuals, their

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difficulties are related to inherited brain differences. Thus, a deficit in working with

the sounds (phonemes) of language is related to atypical functioning in specific brain

regions. Rose (2006) argues further in support that the strongest finding to date is that

phonological processing is the primary area in which children with reading difficulties

differ from other children. Similarly, Felton (2014) indicates that about 40% of the

general population of students have reading problems sufficient to hinder their

enjoyment of reading but an arbitrary cutoff point of 20% has been utilized in many

research studies to designate children as reading disabled. Which is, for most of these

students, however, the primary problem is poor phonological processing and the

difference between learning disabled and other poor readers is one of degree

(severity) and not a difference in the nature of the problem. In addition, Felton (2006)

posits that the intelligent quotient (IQ) achievement discrepancies have been

determined to be unimportant in the understanding of reading disabilities. The lesson

therein, shows that problems processing the sounds of language, not visual problems,

are responsible for the majority of reading problems.

Moreover, Felton (2014) explains that phonological processing includes three basic

components which have been found to be important for success in reading;

phonological awareness thus, rapid naming and word retrieval or holding sounds in

working memory. In discussing the impact of the phonological awareness, Felton

(2014) believes that students with weaknesses in phonological awareness will have

difficulty developing reading skills which will impact their ability to develop

beginning reading skills. Such students do not understand the alphabetic principle of

English and fail to develop adequate decoding (letter to sound) skills for reading or

encoding (sound to letter) skills for spelling. They may also, be unable to produce

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good invented spellings because they do not have the requisite skills necessary to

segment words into sounds and map those sounds onto the appropriate letters. Such

students tend to rely on their knowledge of words memorized as “sight words” and

attempt to read new words based on context or by guessing based on partial letter

cues.

Contrary, Shankweiler, Crain, Brady & Macarusot (1998) indicate that the origins of

reading disorder should be sought in the language domain, rather than in some other

cognitive system or in a general disruption of cognitive function. This implies, while

Felton (2014) alludes to cognitive malfunction as major cause to reading disability,

Shankweiler et al (1998) emphasise word recognition as a prime cause to reading

disorder. In an extensive discussion, Scholten (1997) looks at common causes of

reading problems as well as symptoms and remedial strategies. Consequently,

Scholten (1997) teaches that visual acuity, eye co-ordination, “scotopic” sensitivity

syndrome, difficulty knowing sounds of the letters make special vowel sounds,

difficulty breaking the words into syllables are among the causes of reading problems.

In discussing the symptoms and remedies to the reading problems, Shankweiler et al

(1998) espouse his argument that squint, complain of losing one’s place, skipping

lines, using finger to track words including complain of words getting blurry or

running off the page at the end of the lines. Other symptoms are, not even realizing

that there is any other way to see, guess at words and make errors where vowels are

involved and read small words and looking at the first few letters and then guess at

longer words. In proffering remedies to the situations, Shankweiler et al (1998)

underscore, eye co-ordination exercises, special combination and teaching remedial

strategies on vowel sounds and rules and auditory discrimination. Other remedies

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include, teaching syllables by feeling movement of jaw or clapping while saying

longer words such as “intelligent” show how to break words into syllables of 2-3

letters with a vowel in each section.

Children’s failure to understand written text can arise at different stages in the

processing of language. For example, children with impoverished vocabularies and or

those who experience difficulties in word reading can fail to understand sentences and

longer piece of text (Libermann & Shankweiler 1991; & Perfetti, 1985.

On the other hand, Anglin (2000) posits that teaching strategies and methodologies

that are employed by teachers can also contribute to students’ inability to read and

comprehend. He underscores that the teacher should be a facilitator rather than an

oracle in teaching and learning process. He further stated that learning should be child

centered. Pupils should be given opportunities to discover and explore for themselves

when lessons are centered on their abilities and interest.

Additionally, Perfetti (1994) educates that the ability to make mapping between

orthography and phonology is a lexical process skill that is vital to reading

comprehension process. Again, students’ inability to decode and identify words

accurately and efficiently allows resource to be devoted to comprehension process. In

consent, Oakhill (1994) asserts that to understand language is often necessary to make

inferences: to go beyond what is stated explicitly in the text or discourse to infer the

intended message. She concluded that poor inference making ability is a cause of poor

reading and languages comprehension.

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 CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.0 Overview

This chapter describes the research procedures and techniques employed by the

researcher for the study. This includes the research design, population, sample and

sampling procedure, instruments for data collection, data collection procedure,

validity and reliability, and how the data was analysed.

3.1 Research Design

The study was action research which sought to improve students of Sekyere Hemang

Basic 5 reading ability using the phonics method. The study was made up of three

different stages namely; the pre-intervention stage, the intervention stage and the post

intervention.

3.2 Population
The target population for the study involved all Sekyere Hemang primary school

students. The accessible population was class 5 students. This comprised 40 students

including 16 females and 24 males.

3.3 Sample and Sampling Procedure

All Sekyere Hemang Basic 5 students totaling 40 were involved in the study. For the

purpose of this study being action research, purposive sampling technique was

employed. This was because the subjects are already known and all shall be involved

in the study.

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3.4 Research Instrument

The researcher used observation and test as the instruments to collect data from the

respondents.

Unstructured observation was employed by the researcher at the pre-intervention

stage as students contributed to questions posed to them. Again, the students were

observed at English reading lessons to find out how well they could read. An

observation guide designed by the researcher was used to check the extent to which

students could read. The observation guide constructed by the researcher was pre-

tested on students with similar characteristics as the sample. A copy of the

observation guide is appendix (I).

The Pre-Intervention

The researcher observed the reading lessons of the students for close to 3 weeks and

noticed how difficult it was for the greater majority to pronounce certain words with

ease. Subsequently, the researcher conducted a series of pre-test to actually assess the

veracity of the problem. The first pre-test was made of Ten English words of varying

number of letters which were written on a manila card.

All the students in the class were sent outside of the classroom. Each student was

called into the classroom to read the words on the manila card after which the student

was asked to go out of the classroom. Those who had their turns to read were asked

not to tell their mates what they read. This was done to prevent other students from

gaining advantage over others. A student was given 10 seconds to pronounce a word.

If he or she was unable to, that word was dropped and a new one picked. 1 mark was
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awarded for correct pronunciation given a total of 10 marks for all Ten words. The

process went on until all 40 students in the class had their chance. The results from

the first pre-test were not good as more than half of the students scored between 3-5

marks. Only 6 students scored the full marks of ten. A copy of the pre-test is appendix

(II)

Additionally, the researcher conducted the second pre-test by writing 5 simple

sentences to be read by students. Again, each sentence was written on a manila card,

while the strategy to allow each student read independently and privately was

employed. The essence among other things was to identify the reading ability of each

student. Each student was given the chance to read as the process ran for all. 10

seconds was allocated for the reading of a sentence. If a student failed to read

correctly, the sentence was dropped, a new one picked. Each sentence carried 2

marks, given a total of Ten marks. The results from the second pre-test were also not

encouraging as more than half of the class scored between 3-5 marks with 7 scoring

the full Ten marks.

Intervention Stage

Introduction

The researcher carefully chose some aspects of the phonics particularly the short and

long vowels in ‘oo-u’, the long ‘e’, ‘ea’, (i:) and consonant diagraphs such as ‘th, ck,

ch, sh, wh, and kn to help the students overcome their reading difficulties. The choice

of these aspects of the phonics was because they seem to pose difficulty to students

when reading.

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The intervention was applied for three weeks. In each week, the intervention activities

used forty- five minutes after class hours every Wednesday. Again, three exercises

were given at the intervention stage during the first and second weeks.

Post Intervention Stage

A post intervention test was conducted after the intervention remedies. The researcher

used the same questions used during the pre-intervention to test the students on

whether they could now pronounce words and read simply sentences. More so, the

researcher observed how students read using the observation guide.

The results of the post-test were tabulated and presented in chapter four. A copy of the

post-intervention test is Appendix (VI) and a copy of the observation guide is

APPENDIX (VII)

Analysis of Data
The data collected were coded, tabulated and processed statistically using Statistical Package

for social sciences (SPSS) and interpreted. The researcher adopted percentages and

frequency to analyses the data.

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 CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS AND DICUSSIONS

Overview
This chapter comprises the analysis, presentation and interpretation of the findings

resulting from this study. The analysis and interpretation of data was carried out in

two phases. The first part was based on the results of the characteristics of the

students. The second part centered on the results of the research questions. In order to

simplify the discussions, the researcher provided tables that summarizes the collective

reactions of the respondents.

Presentation of Pre-intervention and Post intervention Results

The result of the pre-test and post-test conducted by the researcher is shown in Table

1.

Table 1: Results of Pre-test and Post-test

Percentages Score of Pupils Percentage of Pupils

Pre-Intervention (%) Post-Intervention (%)

Above- 80 0.00 28.34

60-79 15.00 31.54

40-59 13.00 30.60

20-39 15.00 10.48

22
 Below-20 57.00 0.00

The results of the pre-test in Table 1 showed that the students did not perform well in

the test conducted. Out of 40 students who took part in the test, none of them scored

marks above 80. 15% of the students scored between 60-79, whist 13% had between

40-59 marks. Again, 15% of the students scored between 20-39 and 57% had marks

below 20. This implied that the students might have difficulty in reading and

comprehension.

Presentation of the Pre-Intervention Test Results

After the intervention conducted for three (3) weeks, a post test was conducted using

the same pre-test questions and the same marking. After scoring, 28% of the students

scored marks above 80, while 32% scored between 60-79 marks. Also, 30% of the

students scored marks between 40-59, while only 10% scored between 20-30. None of

the students scored below 20.

The researcher sought to find out the mean score of the pre-test and the post-test.

The results were summarized in Table 3.

Table 3: Mean Score of Pre-test and Post-test

MARKS MID-POINT(X) FREQUENCY(F) PRODUCT(FX)

Pre-test Post- Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test

test

80-100 90 90 0 10 0.00 720.00

60-79 69.50 69.50 5 14 208.50 695.00

40-59 49.50 49.50 5 11 148.50 445.50

23
 20-39 39.50 39.50 8 5 177.00 88.50

0-19 9.50 9.50 24 0 171.00 0.00

6= ∑f=40 ∑f=40 ∑fx=705 ∑f=1949

Mean score of pre-test= ∑fx Mean score of post-test=∑fx

=705/40 = 1949/40

=17.63 = 48.73

The mean scores for the pre-test at 17.63 and the post-test at 48.73 shows that the

application of the phonics method has improved the reading ability of the students. It

could be concluded that the students’ reading difficulty has improved after the

intervention.

Presentation of the pre-Intervention and post-Intervention Observation

The researcher used an observation guide to monitor the ability of the students to

read. The same observation guide was used at both pre-intervention and post-

intervention stages. The researcher gave the students words and simple sentences in

addition to a short passage to read at both stages.

The results obtained are presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Students Ability to identify letters of the alphabet

Pre-intervention Post-intervention

Number of Percentage Number of Percentage

students % students %
Unable to identify 30 83 8 20
letters of the alphabet

24
 Able to identify letters 10 17 32 80
of the alphabet
TOTAL 40 100 40 100

Results from Table 2 showed that only 10 (17%) of the students were able to identify

letters of the alphabets at the pre-intervention stage as compared to 30(80%) of the

students who were unable to identify letters of the alphabet after the post-intervention.

This means that most of the students could not identify letters of the alphabet.

Students’ ability to identify sounds of the alphabet was analyzed in Table 3

subsequently.

Table 3: Students Ability to Identify Sounds of the Letters of the Alphabet

Per-intervention Post-intervention
Number of Percentage Number of Percentag
students % students e%
Unable to identify the 30 70 10 30
sounds of the letters of the
alphabet
Able to identify the sounds 10 30 30 70
of the letters of the
alphabet

The results from Table 3 indicated that the number of students who could not identify

the sounds of the letters of the alphabet at the pre-intervention stage were 30(70%).

However, the same 30 out of 40 students were able to identify the sounds of the letters

of the alphabet after the post-intervention. This implies that most of the students could

25
identify sounds of the letters of the alphabet which could be translated into reading

ability.

More so, students’ ability to combine letters and sounds of the alphabet was discussed

in Table 4.

Table 4: Students’ Ability to Combine Letters and Sounds of the Alphabet

Pre-Intervention Post-Intervention
Number of Percentage Number of Percentage
students % students %
Unable to combine 34 85 2 5
letters and sounds of
the alphabet
able to combine letters 6 15 38 95
and sounds of the
alphabet
TOTAL 40 100 40 100

The results showed that before the intervention, 34(85%) of the students could not

combine letters and sounds of the alphabet. However, after the intervention, 38(95%)

of the students were able to combine letters and sounds of the alphabet. This indicates

that the students could now pronounce words effectively leading to possible reading

ability.

Table 5 summarized the students’ ability to pronounce words with little difficulty.

Table 5: Students’ Ability to Pronounce Words with Little Difficulty

26
 Pre-Intervention Post-Intervention
Number of Percentage Number of Percentage
students % students %
Unable to pronounce 37 92.5 3 7.5
words with little
difficulty
Able to pronounce words 3 7.5 37 92.5
with little difficulty
TOTAL 40 100 40 100

After the intervention, 37(92.5%) of the students were able to pronounce words with

little difficulty as against only 3(7.5%) who could do so at the pre-intervention. The

implication is that the students could read passages very well.

Students’ ability to read fluently was discussed in the Table 6 below.

Table 6: Students Ability to Read Fluently

Pre-Intervention Post-Intervention
Number of Percentage Number of Percentage
students % students %
Unable to read fluently 36 90 2 5

Able to read fluently 4 10 38 95

Results from Table 5 showed that 38(95%) of the students were able to read fluently

after the post-intervention, whereas only 4(10%) could not read fluently.

This indicates that the students could now read well. This seems to suggest that the

use of the phonics method to help students overcome their reading challenges has

yielded some results. These findings give credence to what Rose (2006) posits that

27
teaching phonics is of crucial importance to helping students to learn reading because

the majority of information conveyed by letters concern sounds. In addition,

Adams(1990) says that phonics method leads students to recognizing the sounds and

letters of words that are always used, while they find it difficult to pronounce

unfamiliar words. More so, Chall (1976) underscores that systematic instruction in

teaching letter-sound relationship i,e. phonics lead to higher achievement.

Hempenstall (2003) concludes that those learners who achieve a good start in the first

five years of reading are very likely to have accelerated progress in their attainment

throughout school and achieve the skills of good reading.

Causes of Students’ Inability to Read

The study sought to find out causes of students’ inability to read. This was the subject

of research question 1, which was posed as follows:

What are the causes of students’ inability to read?

To address this question, the first part of the question consisting of 12 items was used

to gather data from the students. The results of the data gathered so analysed are

shown in Table 2.

28
Table 6: Cause of Students Inability to Read

Agree Disagree
Factors that cause reading difficulties in students N (%) N (%)

Students’ inattention and lack of seriousness 33(74.1) 7(25.9)

Lack of motivation, lack of interest, negative mind set

and negative attitude like fear towards English 34(87.9) 6(12.1)
Students’ negligence to study causes reading difficulties 33(56.9) 7(43.1)
Lack of financial support regarding their education 29(89.7) 11(10.3)

Lack of use of appropriate method of teaching by 31(100) 0(0.00)

teachers
Lack of modern teaching methods and techniques in
handling the language 35(84.5) 5(15.5)
Lack of in-service training and orientation for the 38(67.2) 2(32.8)
teachers in the language
The teacher-student ratio is not ideal hence they do not
give much attention to the students in the classroom 25(94.8) 15(5.2)
Poor classroom environment and poorly furnished
classroom causes reading difficulties among students 34(81.1) 6(18.9)
Lack of modern equipment of classroom (e.g. overhead
projector (OHP), CD, DVD, cassette player, white board, 29(100) 11(0.00)
multimedia system, display board, etc)
My inability to determine the sounds of letters in a 37(92%) 3(8%)
sentence prevent me from reading

Table 6 shows the causes of student’s inability to read the English language. The

students were asked to respond to the questionnaire comprising 12 statements after

using the phonics methods exercise and the post-test. It was found out that the

29
majority (74.1%) of the students agreed that student’s inattention and lack of

seriousness causes reading difficulties in schools. This was followed by 87.9%

students who agreed that lack of motivation, lack of interest, negative mind set and

negative attitude like fear towards the English subject cause reading difficulties. It

was observed in Table 6 that 56.9% of the students agreed that Students negligence to

study causes reading difficulties while 43.1%of them disagreed to the statement. It

was found that 89.7% of the students revealed that lack of family support regarding

their education causes reading difficulties.

From Table 6, it was found that 100% of the students agreed that lack of use of

appropriate teachers to teach the English language causes reading difficulties. The

students, 84.5% further agreed that their inability to reading the English Language is

as a result of lack of modern teaching methods and techniques in handling the subject.

Also, it was reported by 67.2% of the students that lack of in-service training and

orientation for the teachers in the language can cause their inability to read the course.

This was followed by 94.8% of the students who indicated teacher-student ratio is not

ideal hence they do not give much attention to the students in the classroom as the

factor that causes their inability to read English Language. It was obvious from Table

6 that 81.1% of the students agreed to the statement that poor classroom environment

and poorly furnished classroom causes reading difficulties among students while

100% of the students revealed that lack of modern equipment of a classroom e.g.

overhead projector (OHP), CD, DVD, cassette player, white board, multimedia

system, display board, etc can cause their inability to read the subject. Again, 92% of

the respondents indicated that their inability to read as a result of inability to

determine the sounds of the letters.

30
English language is a major subject and an official language of the Ghanaian yet most

Ghanaian students failed the subject annually. According to Ousman (2013), the

reasons why students failed this subject includes: lack of reading and writing English,

poor attention given to the subject, vernacular speaking in schools, the notion students

have about the subject, lack of qualified English teachers, the condition of the

environment amongst host of others. The ability to read is one determiner of students'

success or failure. They must form the habit of reading to perform well in all subjects.

A good reader has a better opportunity for greater achievement. According to Ajibola

(2006) a good reading habit is cultivated by individuals who are ready to give their all

to it.

The skill acquired in reading can promote the acquisition of language skills like

listening, speaking, and writing. Some Junior High School (JHS) pupils find it

difficult to read and understand despite the fact that reading is indispensable. Some

show a carefree attitude towards reading. This problem is not peculiar to JHS, but

pertains to all categories of readers. Some English teachers are lagging behind in their

approach to teaching reading comprehension. The effect is poor performance among

students. These teachers lack methods of imparting reading skills to pupils. The

condition is so bad that some pupils find it difficult to read and understand a simple

sentence. Amutheaz (2000) notes that there is an urgent need to investigate into the

causes of poor reading comprehension among our pupils with a view to finding a

lasting solution to the problem.

Oyetunde and Unoh (1986) list impediments to positive reading habits and attitude.

These includes lack of materials, poor preparation of teachers, lack of interest, poor

libraries or none at all, home background, and lack of adult readers as models. Ojo

31
(1993) finds that the major causes of students' poor performance in English Language

and other school subjects is their inability to read effectively, which, in tend, is largely

is due to the attitude of learners toward reading. Similarly, Chihemen (2007) argues

that government has an interest in this matter, and put in place a training programme

called “The Special Teacher Upgrading Programme (STUP)” to address the

deficiency among pupils.

Extent to Which the Use of phonics method can resolve the students’ reading

difficulty

The study sought to find out the extent to which the use of phonics method can

resolve the students’ reading difficulty. This was the subject of research question 2,

which was posed as follows:

What is the extent to which the use of phonics method can resolve students’ reading

difficulty?

To address this question, the first part of the question comprising 7 items was used to

gather data from the students. The results of the data collected so analysed are in

Table 7.

32
Table 7: Extent to Which the Use of phonics method can resolve the students’
reading difficulty
Statement Yes No
N (%) N (%)
Phonics method can increase the amount of attention
students give to the words, thus increasing greater retention 40(100) 0(0.00)
and memorization of vocabulary

Using phonics method is a desirable learning method as

they can make studying more enjoyable 35(95) 5(5.00)

Phonics method can help students to extend their

vocabulary knowledge by filling the words in the clues and 38(96) 2(4.00)
reading the clues of pronounce words

Phonics method can be used to teach terminology,

definitions, spelling, and pairing key concepts 40(100) 0(0.00)

Phonics method helps students to practice more on new

words they have just learned from the textbook 40(100) 0(0.00)

Phonics method increases students’ motivation and

students’ interest in reading 40(100) 0(0.00)

Phonics methods can train the students’ spelling and

reading skills 40(100) 0(0.00)

From Table 7, it was found out that 100% of the students agreed that the Phonics

method can increase the amount of attention students give to words thus increasing

greater retention and memorization of vocabulary. Also, 95% of respondents agreed

that using phonics method is a desirable learning method as it can make studying

more enjoyable. More so, 100% of the students affirmed that Phonics method can be

used to teach terminology, definitions, spelling, and pairing key concepts. It was also

found out that 100% of the students agreed to the statement that phonics method helps

33
students to practice more on new words they have just learned from the textbook,

while the statement “phonics method increase students’ motivation and students’

interest in the topic” it was found that all 100% of the students agreed to the

statement. Finally, the statement Phonics methods can train the students’ spelling and

reading skills saw 100% of the respondents agreeing.

The findings from Table 7 answer the research question which is “to what extent will

the use of phonics method resolve the students’ reading difficulty”. It is seen clearly

from the findings that the use of phonics method to a very large extent improved the

students’ reading ability and learning of vocabulary. This was evident from the

progress the students made during the pre-intervention, the intervention and the post-

intervention stages.

These findings are not different from the findings of Rose (2006) that teaching

phonics is of crucial importance. Thus, the majority of the information conveyed by

letters concerns sounds, thus, Letters tell us more than any other source of

information, even when we have to interpret the information they provide. This

means, students cannot read fluently until they read accurately, and this depends on

accurate use of the information conveyed by letters. Also, skilled, fluent readers do

not guess. Once they have learned what the letters are telling them in a word, they can

store it in their memory and retrieve it more quickly than even if they had to work it

out. This was evident from the research when respondents pointed out that learning

how to read or pronounce words using the phonics methods help them to memorise

letters of words leading to reading ability. On the contrary, Clymer (1963) argues that

although the teaching of phonics is seen as the effective way of improving students’

reading ability, we must not conclude that phonics would always provide the solution

34
to the neglect of other methods of teaching reading. This means, in using the phonics

methods to aid students reading difficulties, teachers should blind it with other

methods such as the look and say including the whole word method. This in effect

will offer students the opportunity to learn and memories new words to boost their

reading skills.

Block & Israel (2005) indicate that the importance of phonics method will be

meaningless unless, teachers keep phonics lessons more playful and fun; thus,

teachers should avoid drill and rote memorization. Besides, they should use settings

that encourage interaction among learners as well as encourage children’s curiosity

about language and their experience with it. This was indicated from the study that

when a conducive learning environment is provided and studying of the sounds of the

letters is made very interesting, students’ interest is whipped up to study. In support,

Stahl (1999) maintains, if a learning environment is conducive, it is sufficient to

make children read. This means, a conducive environment is necessary to boost

reading ability of students. In addition, Klepper, (2003) maintains students are able to

improve vocabulary when their use phonics and games to learn how to read.

35
 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Overview
This last chapter firstly provides summary of the key findings that emanated from the

study in relations to the stated research questions. The chapter further provides

conclusions of the study and offered recommendation

ns so as to improve effective teaching and learning of English Language.

Summary of Key Findings

The following findings were observed:

1.The study brought to fore that the use of the phonics method helped the students to

overcome their reading difficulty.

2.The study revealed that the causes of students’ inability to read were: students’

inattention, lack of seriousness, lack of students’ motivation, lack of interest, negative

mind set, lack of family support, lack of teacher’s knowledge in teaching reading

effectively, lack of modern English teaching methods and techniques, lack of

sufficient teaching materials and resources and poor school environment and

classroom climate.

3.There were statistically significant differences in the average score in the pre-test

and post-test of the use of the phonics methods. The Phonics method of teaching gave

certain influence in improving the student’s reading ability, learning vocabulary,

36
because the student’s achievement had increased after the students studied reading

using the phonics method.

37
Conclusion

There is no absolute answer to the best method of teaching English. Some techniques

may suit some students at certain levels, while the same technique which worked well

for some students may not be successful with others. Therefore, the aim of this study

was to improve students’ reading ability using the phonics method. As found by this

study, learning how to read using the phonics method is one of the best ways to

improve students’ reading ability. In achieving this, Students’ motivation to learn

English can be increased if the teacher provides them with enjoyable learning

environments. The phonics method of teaching stimulates students towards an

independent practice of English language instead of direct instruction. Subsequently,

it provides a context in which words are pronounced in a meaningful way that helps

students to develop good communicative competence in the English language.

Phonics method of teaching reading provides students with enjoyment, pleasure,

enthusiasm and variation which are significant enough to affect the students'

achievement positively.

Recommendations
The following recommendations are made by the researcher to improve students

reading ability in Sekyere Hemang Basic 5.

1. Curriculum designers and educational policy makers are required to enrich the

English language curriculum at the basic school level with varying phonic

games that will improve students’ reading skills.

2. District Director of Education, Assistant Director, supervision and Circuit

Supervisors of Sekyere Krobo circuit are recommended to supervise teachers

38
 work and provide teachers with instructional materials which will improve

students reading ability.

3. English language teachers are recommended to vary their methods and

approaches of teaching reading from traditional to communicative which is

based on the students' real involvement in the teaching-learning process. Also,

they need to change their roles as instructors who dominate the class into

facilitators whose role is to assist, guide, organize, help, coordinate and

support the students to communicate and acquire the needed reading skills.

4. Teachers should be aware of the needs of their students as well as their

abilities and accordingly choose suitable techniques and strategies to enhance

students reading skills.

5. Teachers should encourage student-centred learning approach and use

strategies which will promote learners` motivation

Suggestions for Further Studies

The researcher suggests the following areas for further studies:

1. The effect of computerized competitions on developing students reading

comprehension skills.

2. The effectiveness of using puzzles on developing listening and reading

comprehension skills.

39
 APPENDICES
APPENDIX I

Observation guide for monitoring student’s performance in reading comprehension

Name of Able to Able to Able to Able to Able to read

student identify identify sounds combine pronounce fluently
letters of of the letters of the words with
the the alphabet letters little
alphabet and difficulty
sounds
of the
alphabet
1

2
3
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26

40
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40

41