IMPROVING THE READING DIFFICULTIES OF

PUPILS USING PHONIC AND SYLLABIC METHOD

IN BAAZING BASIC SCHOOL CLASS 3B

BUGA DEL-MWIN ERIC

MCCE/PRI/0021/21
 2024/2025

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
English Language is one of the fundamental subjects through which the Ghanaian society can be

directed towards, achieving its educational and developmental objectives or goals. Thus, the success

of our dear nation’s development rest partly on the subject English Language.The importance of

reading among pupils in any society cannot be overemphasized as it is the key to academic, social and

economic progression of children. For a society to grow, the teaching of reading especially using

phonic and syllables must be effective. A reading society is likely to succeed in sustainable

development as its citizenry will participate in decision making and economic development with an

informed mind (Ahamefuna :2000).A lot of countries all over the world have one way or the other

been compelled by circumstance to adopt English as a national language. English language became

the only alternative as a national language in Ghana unifying tool due to there long relationship with

the British our formal colonial masters (Ambless: 1990). It occupies the central position in the

educational enterprise and it impacts neither positive nor negative is felt in all other disciplines. Apart

from formal education, English language enables us to communicate effectively with other users of

the language throughout the world. English language is the medium of instruction and it is used in our

Ghanaian schools from lower primary to the university level. The language serves as the medium for

learning, understand, gaining competence in all subjects in school curriculum. It has been the
foundation for all academic work. The English language has become a lingua Franca and the official

language of the press as well as commerce. It is against this background that learner’s inability to

pronounce English words correctly made the researcher became interested in investigating why

learners of basic four pupils cannot pronounce English words correctly. It has taken the first in

international communication and for carrying out business transaction world wide. It is not easily

known that much of the English language teaching that goes on in the classroom do not teach learners

to speak the language learners rather learn word and sentences in a root manner and therefore are not

able to use the language as it is done in real life situations. This is because the language items are not

demonstrated in real life situation to learners to enable them to know how to use them in every day

expressions. Gurvey, P.(1970:17-19) explains that nearly all the languages most learners try to

master, is the surface of sounds, and dictionary meaning which means, the language is not heard and

studied as a language which fulfills social or contextual needs. Most of the school going children

finds it extremely difficult to express themselves effectively with others, master the English language

and use phonic and syllabic methods. This is not because they do not have the ideas of what to say

but how to say it has brought the barrier in communication.Durkin (1996) said that there is no

substitute to reading. Reading remains second to speech as the major means for communication. It is

a learnt skill and therefore has to be taught, the more pupils read the more they will have a good

academic foundation. It also plays a very essential role in our daily lives since it involves reading,

writing, speaking and listening skills.Mclntyre et al,(2011) says that children will be inadequate in

life if they do not acquire reading skills.They further assert that children who read proficiently

generally do better in school including mathematics and science.These children will have a positive

self-image and are likely to excel into college with much knowledge about the world better than those

who are not proficient readers.

 In all the aspects of English Language, the researcher has taken it upon himself to find out the

possible causes of reading difficulties of pupils in Baazing Basic three,where the researcher had his

teaching practice.

It is said that reading is the act of getting meaning from printed or written words. This definition of

reading simply means, reading is having an in-depth understanding on written words .Sweet (1996)

also says reading is a gateway skills; with the necessary abilities to read, children will not be able to

advance into all other learning areas.The implication of this explanation of learning is that reading is

complex process of identification, recognition, perception, mental integration and application of

written language.

It is also known that, reading plays a very important role in the use of every individual. The

importance of reading as a skill now transcends the borders of white -collar jobs and reaches far into

occupations like farming and hawking.

In some years back, reading was one of the chief sources of information and entertainment, but that

was before radio and television became widely available even the writing on the chalkboard by most

teachers was carelessly written due to speed work and time factor. It was explained that most teachers

were mostly concerned about the objectives being achieved and not the words being achieved, the

then teachers write anyhow on the chalkboard with their only concern about the child achieving the

goals of the lessons.Hafner(1999) maintains that reading is a complex process involving the

perceiving of written meaning and the reaction to its application of meaning to live. It involves an

active process that requires an individual to demand and to bring ideas to the printed page. Dawson

and Bamman(1975) described reading as a process, a mode of thinking, a kind of real experience, an

aspect of communication and a subject. Children experience some real life issues through reading

texts that contain real life stories and it's also a way of thinking creativity to get answers to questions
in texts.Reading is a form communication as the writter shares his or her ideas for the receiver to

decote meanings from the text.

Reading has been considered as a real experience as driving and typing. It is an integral part of

everyday life. We read on tables of various items and products we purchase.We read daily

newspapers to be abreast with what is happening in the world.We also read on signboards to know

where to get certain items and where to locate sihops.

According to Strange,MC McCullough and Trailer(1997-67) reading is more than seeing words

clearly, more than pronouncing printed words correctly, and more than recognizing the meaning of

isolated words.

Reading requires the reader to think creatively, imagine something and make effective reading.It also

determines what the reader reads, why the reader reads and how he/ she reads.

Cline et.al(2006:2) states that reading is decoding and understanding written texts.Decoding requires

translating the symbols of writing system (including Braille) into the spoken words which they

represent. Understanding is determined by the purposes for reading, the context, the nature of the text,

and the readers' strategy and knowledge.

Statement of the Problem

During the researcher’s teaching practice at Baazing Basic school, it was observed that most of the

pupils in Baazing Basic three were not able to pronounce key words correctly in the reading lessons.

It was observed also that, the pupils also found it very difficult pronouncing three, four and five letter

words. Many of them could not read a paragraph of a passage. The problem was identified when they

were given English textbooks to read.A checked on their previous report cards confirmed how poorly

they have been performing in English Language exams. It has been observed that pupils low
performance in reading contributes to the high role of pupils failure in English and other related

English subjects. During my teaching practice at Baazing Basic School, I observed that majority of

the pupils in basic three (3) could not read a complete sentence from their text books, library books

and even what were written on the chalkboard.

It was this observations that made the researcher to do a study into basic three pupils inability to read

simple sentences in English at Baazing Basic School

Research Instrument; the instruments for the study were observation, test and interview.

Observation

Information was collected on pupils performance in reading through observation. Before observing

the pupils, an observation checklist was prepared to specify what actually the researcher wanted to

observe about the pupils reading. Example correct pronunciation. The researcher observed pupils

reading several occasions and noticed the various difficulties they encountered in reading. In all these

activities, the consent of the class teacher and the head teacher was sort. A check on their English

exercise books indicated how poorly they have been performing in the English language

comprehension and reading.

Also, probing into what they did from KG to B3, it was identified that they did very little in basic

two due to the coronavirus outbreak in the world which forced schools in the country to closed down

for almost a year. It was also observed with keen interest that, the pupils’ inability to read and

pronounce words correctly might have been the result of poor pre-reading foundation.A checked on

pupils attendance register showed that pupils absent themselves from school a lot in the farming

season and lawra market days which is another cause of pupils inability to read. It is in this light that

the researcher had to research into the pupils’ inability to read words correctly in English Language
by the use of appropriate methods and strategies to help find possible solutions to the improving

Blazing Basic three pupils reading skills through phonic and syllabic method of teaching.

Objectives of the Study

The main objective is to know the effect of phonic and syllabic method of teaching in improving the

reading difficulty of pupils.

Specific objectives;

(i)To help pupils through the use of phonic and syllabic method of pronouncing English words.

(ii)To use adequate and appropriate teaching materials in teaching English reading

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to;

1) Identify the factors that have led to pupils’ poor reading skills

2) Find the effect of poor reading ability on pupils’ academic performance.

3) Use the appropriate methods and strategies to help improve pupils’ reading skills

4) Help pupils of Baazing Basic 3B to overcome their reading difficulties.

5) Suggest to school authorities measures to put in place to help eradicate reading difficulties of

pupils.

Research Questions

To achieve the purpose of the study, the researcher intends to address the following research

questions:

1) What is reading?

2)What factors have led to the poor reading ability of pupils?

 2) What are the effects of poor reading ability on pupils’ performance?

3) What available strategies and methods can be used to improve the reading ability of pupils?

Significance of the Study

The study is significant because it helps us to find the causes of the problem and the possible

solution to the problem. This can be viewed in many ways.This study which was conducted at

Baazing Basic School in the Lawra Municipality of the Upper West Region would help improve the

reading habits of pupils.

The suggestions that will emerge from the study will prompt teachers to use appropriate methods to

develop good reading habits and skills in pupils. For instance, pre-reading activities are to be ensured

and employed at the early stages of pupils before the actual reading stage.

This research work will equip language teachers on the field to be informed that reading can be taught

well when teaching and learning materials are employed.

This research work will equip pupils with more vocabulary and help improve upon their reading

skills.

This research will help improve pupils’ performance in English reading. This is because, the

researcher’s successful use of the method, like phonic and syllabic will make other teachers aware of

the existence of the methods.

The recommendations stated in this research will also serve as a reference guide to teachers. Again,

the teachers will also benefit from the suggested ways by which their pupils’ interest in English

Language could be generated and sustained.

 Also, policy makers such as Ghana Education Service (GES) under the Ministry of Education

(MOE) will be able to know the sort of help to extend to the various schools in Ghana. Also, National

Council for Curriculum Assessment (NACCA) will be able to re-structure the curriculum and the

appropriate strategies and methods to use in order to help improve the education system in Ghana.

Delimitations

This project was confined to pupils in Baazing Basic three pupils. Baazing Basic school is located in

Lawra Municipality of the Upper West Region of Ghana.Baazing Basic three pupils were used

because that was the only class the researcher was handling and as a result, identified the problem.

Due to brevity of time, the researcher addressed the problem with twenty seven pupils in Baazing

Basic three.The research was limited to only Basic 3B pupils of Baazing Basic School. The entire

school population could not be covered under the umbrella.

It was possible that the problem persisted in most of the classes that the researcher could not cover.

When the population or class coverage is pushed aside, the research was restricted to only reading as

an aspect of English language. Other aspects such as grammar, listening and speaking was not

captured in the research work.

Limitations

To come out with this project work meant a lot, many problems were encounted based on limited

time, inadequate materials like textbooks for pupils and absenteeism of some of the pupils.

Firstly, one needs to review related literature when researching but the school lacked relevant

materials and that made the work tiresome.The library where one can just walk in to get what other

researchers have done on the topic inability of basic three pupils to read

Secondly; some pupils were not present at school throughout the period of the intervention as such

not all the pupils benefited from the exercise and even some of those whose were present were
reluctant to talk for fear of being laughed at when they make mistakes.Pupils absent themselves from

school during harvest time to help their relatives in the farms.Most of the inhabitants of Tumu engage

in farming activities for their daily bread.

The time given was not sufficient for the researcher in the sense that he had to simultaneously

engage in this study with other academic work.The researcher had to combine lesson notes, student

reflective journal, scheme of learning and other academic works with the research work.

Financial constraints tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant

materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet). Money is needed to

buy internet data and use it to search for a lot of the information since the internet is where we can get

data easier and faster.

Organization of the Study

This research is made up of five (5) chapters.

Chapter one deals with the introduction. It also contains or provide information to the background of

the study, the purpose for the study or undertaking the project as well as significance of the study. It

gives highlights on the limitations and the delimitations of the study.

Chapter two focuses on literature review. It seeks to examine what other authorities or master minds

say on important aspects of the subject under study.

The chapter three brings forth the methodology. It deals with the various intervention activities used

to solve the problems for the study.

Chapter four handles the results of the study. This chapter contains the analyzed data and discusses

the findings.
Chapter five, which is the last chapter of the project work gives the summary of the research findings

and concludes the study with the recommendations given by the researcher. It also gives suggestions

on similar topic.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELEVANT RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter examines the related literature to the study. It discusses what some authorities in the

field of learning have come out to serve as a theoretical bases of this research work. The researcher

reviewed literature relating to the problem. The literature

materials reviewed include the wisdom, the sayings and recommendations of scholars who

have spoken about similar or the same issues under the study. The researcher also resorts to books

and websites relating to the problem. Ministry of Education/Ghana Education Servicepublications,

reports and publication from other bodies or organizations were also consulted.The main objective

here was to utilize the material as a reliable tool upon which effectiveanalysis, discussions and

conclusions could be drawn

The researcher reviewed literature relating to theoretical framework, definition/concept of

reading, the nature of reading,benefits of reading, causes of pupils inability to read, the effects of

pupils inability to read on academic

performance as well as interventions that will improve pupils reading abilities.

It enlightens us on what reading is, the phonic technique, its educational significance and demerits

and the syllabic technique, its significance and demerits. It discusses the causes of pupils’ inability to

read, the methods some people have designed to remedy the situation

What is reading?

Day and Bamford(1998:12) state that reading is the construction of meaning a printed or written

message. It means the construction of meaning involves the reader connecting information from the

written message with previous knowledge to arrive at meaning and understanding. The ability to read

and extract meaning from the printed text is a skill essential for everyone to be able to live

comfortably a world dominated by printing materials

Sweet (1996) also says reading is the gateway skills; with the necessary abilities to read, children

will not be able to advance into all other learning areas. The implication of this explanation of
learning is that reading is complex process of identification, recognition, perception, mental

integration and application of written language. Reading skills give students academic excellence and

in all areas of human life. When a student is able to read perfectly, he/she understands better and

performs better than the one who does not know how to read.According to Rockets (2011), reading is

a multifaceted process involving

word recognition, comprehension, fluency and motivation. Reading also means

making meaning from print. This simply means that the end result of any act of

engagement should be comprehension of a text. She emphasized four principles of

effective readers. In investigating the possible mismatch between training in teaching

reading comprehension at college and the teachers’ application of the methods in the

classroom, the constructivist theoretical framework was used in this study. The

constructivist theory is based on the tenet that people construct their understanding of

phenomena by actively interacting with other people and ‘objects’ in the world around

them. Dawson and Bamman (1975) gave a fine description of reading as one that embraces the

concepts that various authorities in the field leave enunciated. They described it as a process, a mode

of thinking, a kind of real experience, an aspect of communication and a subject tool.

Reading has been considered as a real experience as driving and typing. It is an integral part of

everyday life. We read on tables of various items and products we purchase. Seen through news in the

daily newspapers to be abreast with what is happening in the world. We also observe signboards to

know where to get certain items and where shops can be located. It can be realized from this

description that, on every side we are surrounded with reading: that is an integral part of or analysis,

it can be concluded that, there are at least four dimensions in the reading act namely, the perception of

words, understanding the meaning of a text interpretation and application of ideas acquired from

reading.
 Hafner (1999) maintains that reading is a complex process involving the perceiving of written

meaning and the reaction to its application of meaning to live. It involves an active process that

requires an individual to demand and to bring ideas to the printed page. Reading requires a lot of rules

and technicalities before it makes sense and meaning in reality. If one reads without following the

rules of English, understanding can not be extracted from the text he/she read.Pronouncing words

anyhow is not considered as reading because it does not have meaning

Grellet (1992) and Sesan (1997) also share the same view on reading. They consider reading as one

of the essential for survival in the modern world. To them, reading is a skill known as micro-skill.

Reading cuts across all these fields of life; education, agriculture, industry, heath, music,

business,media etc. A lot of people would not be able to succeed in all the fields without reading

skills. It includes reading from left to right, reading without using finger to trace; this does not mean

that when one reads from right to left, he/she is not a good reader, but reading from left to right is the

commonest throughout the world.

According to Johnson (1982) in the attempt to define reading, one must consider the reader’s

purpose since what is referred to as “reading” varies with the intent of the reader, at its lowest

mechanical level. Reading is the interpretation of printed or written symbols into speech or its mental

equivalent. The suggestion that poor reading is due to lack of “phonic” begins to lack some

credibility. All that children need in order to learn is the desire to do so, hence begin to look equally

simplistic. Other writers have outlined the major influences in the process but rather constantly

ignored the things that happened to the child after he finished reading.

Durkin (1996) said that there is no substitute for reading. Reading remains second to speech as the

major means for communication. It is a learnt skill and therefore has to be taught, the more pupils

read the more they will have a good academic foundation.

 Boston (1992) discusses that you go ahead to attain the reading ability so necessary for college

adjustment as well as success for success after graduation, you have the satisfaction of knowing that,

you are getting skills, basic to the highest educational endeavor.

Thirty (30) years ago, reading was one of the chief sources of information and entertainment, but

that was before radio and television became widely available.

Furthermore, the writing on the chalkboard by most teachers was carelessly written due to speed

work and time factor. It was explained that most teachers were mostly concerned about the objectives

being achieved and not the words being read properly by pupils. Objectives here, means what the

lesson intends to achieve and not the words being achieved, the then teachers write anyhow on the

chalkboard with their only concern about the child achieving the goals of the lesson.

Boer (1998) also said that, a child get confused when words are doubled during English lesson and

this prove the fact that the repetition or doubling of consonants or silent sounds treatment confused

pupils hence making it difficult to identify words, hence making it difficult to read the words.

The Phonic Technique

According to Foorman (1995), phonics can be defined as the process of linking sound to the

symbols that stand for them. When pupils apply the phonic technique, they use phonic information to

correct letters and words into speech sounds. Writing English has letters which stand as speech

sounds.Translating these symbols into sounds is known as phonics.In brief, phonic method a method

of teaching reading using the sounds of the alphabet. For example: Cat becomes /C / - / a / - / t /,

Mark becomes /M/ - /a/ - /r/ - /k/ and Pen becomes /P/ - /e/ - /n/ The more phonic skill children

acquire, the more they become aware of speech sound.According to Grayling, (1997) one wayto help

pupil to improve upon their reading habits is by using the phonic technique.This technique places
emphasis on the individual letter making up the word. It could be called reading by spelling. In this

technique, the pupil pronounces by saying it. For instance, H-A-T = HAT, D-O-G = DOG, M-A-N =

MAN etc. while this technique helps the pupil to embolden their efforts and to spell some words that

may be completely new to them, it has some limitations.However, modern phonic approaches to

reading start whole words instead of sound. But each letter is considered equally important. Phonics

can also be viewed as a systematic teaching of the sounds conveyed by letters and groups of letters,

and includes teaching children to combine and blend these to read or write words. It is of crucial

importance, for the following reasons: majority of the information conveyed by letters concerns

sounds. 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. 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 if we had to work it out. Research over the past 30 years has contributed

greatly to our understanding of the thinking processes involved in reading

Phonic technique is the technique used by the teacher to treat words relative to speech sounds. This

method allows the child to read a new word by saying the the sound associated with each letter sound.

He/she puts the sounds realized together and says the word. For example, thin, sea, sew, fun, thing,

see,mama,sow

Phonetic instruction is used to teach children to identify sounds as associated with letters in

isolation.Throughout the process, pupils are encouraged to put these isolated sounds together to form

words. Asamoah, Hammond and Ayivi-Touch (2003) describe the phonic method as follows: in this

method the child reads a new word by saying the sound associated with each letter aloud. He/she puts

the sounds realized together and says the word. Written English has letters which stand as speech
sounds. Translating these symbols into sounds is known as phonics. One of the reading skills is of

relating visual symbols to the sounds they represent. In brief phonic method is a method of teaching

reading using the sounds of the letters of the alphabet. The procedure for using the phonic method are

as follows:

1. Associating capital letters with small letters

A B C D E

a b c d e

2. The next step is Associating sounds with letter symbols. The teacher at this stage teaches pupils the

sounds the letters of the alphabet make.

It is often recommended that consonants that are common be taught first. These are

c, d, f, l, m, n, p, s, t

e.g. c is /k/ as in Cat and Cup

d is /d/ as in day, den

f is /f/ as in fence

n is /n/ as in new

s /s/as in sit

m /m/ as in mate

t /t/ as in talk

p /p/ as in page
Next vowels are taught. These are; a, i, e, o, u

/ a / as in Rat and Sat

/e/ as in Get and Hen

/ i / as in Sit and fit

/o/ as in Not and Pot

/u/ as in Cut and But

3. The third step is Blending sounds to form words.

(a) m + a => ma

m + a + m + a => mama

p + a => p

p + a + p + a => papa,

Nartey (1996) also gave this definition to the phonic technique. The phonic technique is a method

which enables the teacher to treat words of common sound together. He continued by saying that this

technique is also useful for kids in the lower primary. He gave this example:

Tool book pool we father

Stool good took wee further

 Phonics instruction is divided into four lessons according to Asamoah (2006). They are associating

uppercase with letter symbols, example: Aa, Bb, Tt, Ww, Mm. Associating sounds with letter

symbols,

Example, A as in cat mat fat

B as in met pet set

I as in pit sit lit fit

O as in pot dog hop

U as in put push wood

Blending sound to form words. Example:

/ t / as in table

/ e / as in bed

/ i/ as in tin

/ t / - / e / - / n / makes the words ‘ten’

Varying initials, medium and final consonant sounds to form new words. Writing on the educational

significance of the phonic technique; Swerling (1995) emphasized that phonic has a positive relation

with beginning reading, phonics instruction is important to deficient readers, because it provides them

with a useful decoding strategy as emphasized by Coles (1987).

Phonics instruction is systematic. It gradually builds from basic element to more subtle and

complex patterns as stated by Canning (1995). To the researcher, this means that phonic technique

teaches from the known to unknown or from simple to complex.

However, Adurn (1997) had this to say about the demerits of phonic techniques. He said, phonics can

make no sense without the awareness of common sound. The phonic technique is a boring technique

to the teaching of reading. The phonic technique leads to parrot learning (Nartey, 1998).
 The Syllabic Technique

According to Tsadidey (1999), the syllabic technique refers to the technique which the teacher uses

to teach reading by relating to syllable of words. The technique enables pupils to be conversant with

syllables. He continues by saying that pupils are taught to read letter, put together to make syllabus.

The words selected either begin in a common vowel. For example; /ab/, /be/, /ai/ Asamoah,

Hammond and Ayivi-Touch (2003) describe the syllabic method as the type in which a long word

spoken is broken into syllables to help the pupils to read with ease. When children are able to

recognize letters, the teacher concentrates on helping them read the letters and put together to use in

syllables. The words the teacher selects should begin with a consonant or end with a vowel. For

example a, la, ma, etc. Many teachers disapprove of this kind of exercise because most words

identified are meaningless. Others however, have the view that, the syllabic method is effective. For

example if a pupil fails to read the word banana, it could be broken into three syllabus ba, na, and na

so that it becomes easier to read.

Tsadidey (1999) said that, it is true that syllabic technique helps children to progress fast at the

initial stages since it becomes very easy to read a lot of different syllabic words. Nartey (1998) also

says “syllabic technique is the technique which the class teacher uses to teach reading by relating

syllabus to words. Example:

Television – Te – le – vi – sion

Bicycle - Bi – cy – cle

Happiness - Hap – pi – ness

President - Pre – si – dent

Window - Win - dow

 Market - Mar - ket

Kenkey - Ken - key

Pencil - Pen - cil

Water - Wa -ter

Fufu - Fu -fu

According to Karlin (1991) it is more efficient to analyze words recognizing their phonic elements

However, many multi-syllabic words do not contain these structural features and children fail to

recognize them?

Thus children need other ways of breaking down unknown words to more than one syllabic into

manageable parts so that they can apply their phonic skills to pronounce them.

A child is less likely to succeed in pronouncing a word if he does not divide words into syllabics

first and then pronounce them syllables by syllables. Many children who can divide words into

syllables will know where the accent falls into a word, because they recognize that it is one they have

heard before particularly when the word is in a text.

Agyeman (2001) said that this method of teaching reading creates a whole lot of problems for the

children.Children find it difficult breaking some words into syllabus.For instance, individual - in-di-

vi-dual Here, it is not implying that syllabic technique is not suitable for teaching English but with

the addition of other techniques like the phonic, sentence and look and say methods. It can be used to

teach English as far as reading is concerned.

Writing on the problems of the syllabic technique, Boateng (2004) continued that English is an

intonation language. This means that it observed to stress patterns seriously and that words are not all
syllabic stressed. Children need to understand the sound of each letter separately so that they can

make the various combinations into syllables.

The use of the syllabic technique will mislead learners into stressing each and every single syllable

when they are read. Reading syllabic is very slow and pupils can therefore not read fast. This

technique lends itself to finger tracing in which pupils point at every syllable as they read. This is the

need to discourage it.

The methods of teaching selected for this research are the phonic and syllabic technique, which are

no doubt very good. They both have education significance. However, it is true to say that the

selected technique which is a combination of the entire techniques make a lot of room for innovation.

This is because the method that will succeed with pupils in Accra may fail with pupils in Baazing

Basic School. The best technique is the one which yields the very best of results as far as reading

difficulty is concerned.

For this reason, it is believed that teachers, parents and school librarians should co-operate in

making up book list and these list should be constantly be used. Books which students like and books

which they dislike should be carefully identified.

Summary of Review

From the above review, it was noted that there are several definitions on reading given by prominent

scholars and dictionaries. Reading is a complete activity and involves many skills. Some of the

literature reviewed indicated that pupils do not understand.

Other writers highlighted on the importance of reading, some of which are;

Helps to entertain persons

Developing writing as well as reading.

Furthermore, it has stressed that the methods of teaching reading will help pupils to read.

For this reason, it is believed that teachers, parents and school librarians should co-operate in making

up books lists and these list should be constantly be revised. Books which students like and books

which they dislike should be carefully identified.

The above information reviewed will help researcher to use an intervention that will help pupils to

overcome their difficulties in reading.

 CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the researcher’s design and methodology used in the study. It explains the

population, sample, sampling procedures and interventions used for the study. The teaching and

learning materials preparation,pre -intervention and post - interventions procedures are also

discussed.The instrument used in the data collection as well as the analysis of data are also discussed.

Research Design

The design used for this study is basically an action research. An action research to solve perceived

problems. It is an approach which aims at improving a problem-related situation through John

(1991:61) defined action research as the study of a social institution of life within it.

The researcher chose this design because the design does not only focus on generating new

knowledge, it also enables both the participants that is ( the teacher-researcher and the pupils to

develop appropriate intervention strategies aimed at finding solutions to the problems identified in the

teaching and learning situation). It is an approach which aims at improving a problem-related

situation through change. Action research encourages teachers to prepare to change. Action research

has its own strengths and weaknesses.

 One of the strengths of action research is that, it enables the teacher to evaluate his or her teaching

effectiveness as to which approach or method will be best for his or her pupils.

Also:action research provides teachers with better understanding of all aspects of their own

practices. Thus can be the subject, the curriculum or the method appropriate to the level of pupils in

the class.

Moreover, action research encourage the teacher to be critical of those practices and to be prepared to

change.

Furthermore, the design has been selected to investigate into pupils’ inability to read correctly and

fluently. The use of this design helped in the identification of problem pupils’ encounter and also

elicit information from the class teacher and the pupils.

Lastly, action research helps the teacher to understand what actually goes on in the teaching and

learning situation and it does not only enhance the teacher’s professional status but also promotes

personal development and the improvement of his or her practices

Writing on the weaknesses, less time is given for the researcher to gather the information to solve a

problem at hand. Due to this, one will not be able to go into details of a particular problem before

solving it, rather, there is rush in the intervention which the researcher thinks is good for the research.

Also, the researcher is put under pressure to work within a given time which is limited as compared

to other methods in which the researcher could have used more than a year on a particular problem.

In addition, the researcher is limited to a specific problem which makes it difficult to get more

information on the problem chosen. That is attitudinal problems are not to be tackled.

Population
 The population for the study covers all the pupils in Baazing Basic School which has three hundred

and thirty-three (333) pupils, out of this 154 are boys and 179 are girls. Also, the researcher used the

population of the teachers which is fifteen in number but for the case of the study, the research is to

consider only basic 3B of Baazing Basic School.

Samples and Sampling

Sampling is the process, selecting a portion of the population to represent the entire population.

During the sampling, the researcher used particular criteria to help achieve the results more easily. In

the selection, purposive sampling was used to sample all pupils. This reason for the choice of

selection is that the pupils were not many for the researcher to use quota sampling. Again the problem

under study affected all pupils and therefore needed a holistic approach.

The researcher gave the pupils some words to read and they were not able to read it well. This

prompted the researcher to choose all twenty-four (24) pupils in the class.

Research Instruments

The research instruments employed in carrying out this project were observation, test and interview

Observation
Observation is a method of data collection that employs vision as its main means of data collection.

During this process, the researcher observed the students, for a while and diagnose their problem of

reading difficulties. To get first-hand information on the real situation, the researcher observed how

pupils read words during the comprehension lessons, he also observed with concern about teachers’

methodology and how pupils participated in the lessons. The researcher looked into the pupils

exercise books to check on pupils’ performance.

 Test

After the observation, a test was also given to the pupils to find out how best they could read words

correctly. The test was used to diagnose the extent of the problem and again to determine how

effective the interventions was.

Interview

An interview is a form of question characterized by the fact that it employs questions as its principle

technique of data collection. During this process, the researcher interviewed pupils during break to

find out why they were not able to read the words given to them properly. Also the researcher

interviewed the class teacher why pupils were not able to read well.

Pre-Intervention Data Collection

During the pre-intervention, the researcher used observation, test and interview to diagnose the

problem of reading difficulties at Baazing Basic Three. The researcher observed that the class teacher

did not use enough teaching and learning materials in her teaching.

During the two weeks observation which started from 6th of November, 2024, two days were used

namely Wednesday and Friday within the week. In those weeks, the researcher observed that the

pupils found it difficult to pronounce words when reading and also pupils found it difficult to spell

words correctly when asked to.

 Even those who were able to read pointed their fingers at the words which does not show good

reading. It was also observed that word recognitions and sounds of the alphabets posed great

difficulty to them. This made pupils to read poorly in the English lessons.

A pre-test was conducted to assess the level of competence of pupils in word recognition. The test

was made up of words written on flash cards. The cards were put into four groups which each group

providing a different level of difficulty. The first group of cards had two letter words, the second had

three letters, the third had four letter words and the fourth group of cards had five letter words. Each

pupil was expected to pick a card from each of the four groups show it to the class and pronounce the

word written on it.

The total marks that was to be awarded for the test was eight marks, consisting of two marks for

each correct pronunciation.

Twenty-four (24) pupils being the total number on roll took part in the test and the performance on

the pre-test was not encouraging.

Lastly, the researcher interviewed the pupils on why they could not read well and the pupils said,

that they did not get enough teaching in basic two due to COVID-19 pandemic

The researcher went ahead to interview the teacher and his respond was that;

The school does not have teaching and learning materials to be used such as flash cards and

other materials.

2) The pupils absent themselves from school regularly.

3) Parents did not provide reading materials for their wards.

Intervention
 The researcher first conducted pre-test on pronunciation of words on flash cards and on fluency in

reading. The pupils were given a short passage to read. The number of mistakes pupils made as they

read individually was deducted from their marks which were eight marks in all. The number of pupils

who took the test were thirty. The marks obtained by each pupil were then recorded.

In order to overcome pupils’ difficulty to read fluently, the syllabic and phonic techniques were

adapted or used as an intervention strategy to help improve the performance of pupils’ reading

difficulty. The researcher used two weeks in administering his intervention.

In the first week, the phonic technique was used. Phonic technique is a method which enables the

teacher to treat words of common sound together. For example; fine, thin, sea, sew, fun, thing and

see. Phonics instruction is also used to teach children to identify sound as associated with letters in

isolation.

First, the materials used included the “gate way to English” for Primary schools and an English

Course” for primary schools. A passage was selected from the book and this can be found in

Appendix ‘A’. Based on their inability to read words in the passage correctly, the intervention of

which the ability to pronounce two words correctly attracted one(1) mark which made a total marks

of five(5).

The researcher decided to use flash cards to teach. The letters of alphabets were written on

cardboards to help pupils form three or more letter words. The purpose of the card was to secure

mental and visual alertness. The cardboard was cut into different sizes in order to contain all the

numbers of keywords on a particular card. After this, a pencil was used to write all the keywords on

the cardboard. Then the marker was used to write the keywords boldly for pupils to see and read

easily. The keywords selected were as follows: Break, Think, Luck, Bag, and Truth.
 In using the cards, they were to place downward on a table and raised up a number of times to the

level of the pupils’ eyes for them to see and pronounce.

BREAK LUCK

With the blank side towards the pupils, the card was quickly turned and the written side was

exposed to be viewed three or four times by pupils as shown below;

TRUTH BAG THINK

Pupils were drilled on the selected keywords from the passage. When a card was picked the word

written on it was pronounced for the pupils to repeat. This enabled the pupils to listen and to acquire

the vocabulary skills.

So when a word like luck was formed with letter cards pupils came forward holding a letter each to

form the word “Luck”. L u c k

In using the letter cards, the letters written on the cards are shown to pupils, then they are joined

together to form a word. This helped pupils to pronounce letters of the alphabet linking it with their

sound.

On the second week of the intervention process, the syllabic technique which the teachers used to

teach reading by relating to syllable of words. The technique enabled pupils to be conversant with

syllables. For example; bicycle, Bi-cy-cle. The teaching and learning materials used were the letter

cards and word cards. The letter cards were used first to help pupils to read correctly. The same

passage in Appendix ‘A’ was used and the keywords selected were “Suddenly”, “Generous”,

“Apologize”, “Television”, and “Careless”. Pupils were made to read to the researcher’s hearing. The

pupils tried but their best was not good enough. Therefore the keywords were written on letter cards

as shown below:

P E N C I L
 R E G I S T E R

K E N K E Y

W A T E R

T E L E V I S I O N

The letters on the cards were then shown to the pupils to pronounce their sounds after the researcher

had introduced the phonic technique. The pupils were to pronounce the letters and also pronounce the

words formed after the researcher put together letters to form words.

Then pupils were made to pronounce after the researcher. The researcher then broke the words into

syllables for the pupils to read. This was how the broken syllables looked like;

Pencil - Pen - cil

Register - Re - gis - ter

Kenkey - Ken - key

Water - Wa - ter

Television - Te-le-vi-sion

Table - Ta - ble

Careful - Care - ful

Banana - Ba -na -na

Lawra - Law- ra

River - Ri - ver
 Pupils were made to read after the researcher repeatedly and it was observed that they could read

better. The word cards were also used during the second week of the project. In using the word cards,

the words were written on the cardboard boldly for pupils to see from angles in the classroom.

The words on the cardboard were shown to pupils to pronounce the words as the researcher showed

it to the pupils. The researcher broke the keywords into syllables and wrote them on the chalkboard as

shown below:

SUDD-EN-LY APO-LO-GIZE

TE-LE-VI-SION CARE-LESS GE-NE-ROUS

The researcher combined the two methods and used the teaching and learning materials to teach the

pupils. On the last day, a reading test was conducted and pupils were able to read words correctly to

the researcher’s satisfaction (See Appendix ‘B’ for lesson used)

Post-Intervention

After using the teaching and learning materials to teach reading, a post-test was carried out to assess

pupils’ level of improvement in reading. The test was made up of words written on flash cards. The

cards were put into four groups with each group providing a different level of difficulty. The first

group of cards had two lettered words, the second had three lettered words, the third group had four

lettered words and the last group had five lettered words.

Each pupil had the chance of picking a card from each of the four groups for pronunciation. The

total marks that was to be awarded for the test was eight (8) marks consisting of two marks for each
correct pronunciation. In all twenty four (24) pupils being the total number on roll took part in the

test.

It was observe that there was a tremendous improvement in the pupils’ pronunciation and reading

skills.

Data Analysis Plan

The responses from the pupils were recorded based on defined information that answered the

research questions. The result was finally translated into figures and categories. Tables were drawn

and used as basis for discussion.

Simple percentages were used because they were easy and appropriate under the study and also

could be well understood by a reader.

Summary

In conclusion, reading is a complete activity and involves many skills.The ability to read is an

essential tool for progress in schools and a necessity for essential living as a whole.The used of

diverse teaching and learning materials, phonics and syllabic methods of teaching and appropriate

strategies were employ to help pupils.

 CHAPTER FOUR

RESULTS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter deals with the data analysis and the evaluation of the research work which

constitutes the presentation of the results, description of the data obtained and the impact of the

intervention. The study was to find out how the phonic and syllabic technique in improving

pupils’ reading and pronunciation of words.

In finding out if the use of syllabic and phonic technique could bring out any significant

improvement in performance, two tests were conducted, that is pre-test and post-test.

The results of these tests were analyzed and used in answering the research questions, how can

syllabic and phonic method/technique help pupils to pronounce and read words correctly”

The marks scored by the twenty four (24) pupils marked out of eight (8) were recorded. The

number of pupils means the number of pupils who scored the particular marks. Below is the table

of results for the pre-test.

Table 1: Results of the Pre-test

Marks scored Number of Pupils Percentages(%)

0 - 2 16 66.7%

3 - 4 6 25%

5 - 6 2 8.3%
7- 8 0 00%

Total 24 100%

The above table represents the scores of the pre-test. Four questions were set with passing mark

set at 50%. None (0%) was able to get all the four questions correctly.

Two(2) pupils received a passing score constituting 8.3% of the class. Six (6) pupils received a

scored representing 25% of the class. Sixteen(16) pupils got at least two questions correct

representing 66.7%. The detailed results of the pupils can be found in Appendix ‘C’

Following the results of the pre-test is a table for the post-test which shows the marks and

percentages scored by the pupils.

Table 2: Results of the Post-test

Marks scored Number of Pupils Percentages(%)

0 - 2 1 4.2%

3 - 4 3 12.5%

5 - 6 6 25%

7- 8 14 58.3%

Total 24 100%
 Table 2 represents the scores of pupils in the post-test. It can be seen from the table that

fourteen(14) pupils constituting 58.3% of the class scored all the test items, 25% of the pupils

performed averagely, and 12.5% of the pupils performed fairly while 4.2% of the pupils

performed poorly. From the results, it can be realized that pupils’ performance on reading had

improved as compared to that of their performance in the pre-test.

This implies that the use of the techniques had spontaneous change in pupils reading ability.

Due to this change, the study can be described as successful when both results are compared.

This therefore shows that the researcher’s method/technique has made an impact which invited

correct responses from the pupils.

Discussion of Results/findings

In the course of the observation done before the intervention, it was realized that most pupils

found it difficult to read during the comprehension lesson. Again, reading of words and sounds

of the alphabets posed great difficulty to pupils. But after the introduction of phonic and syllabic

techniques, it was discovered that pupils who find it difficult to read words during reading lesson

could now do that.

During the test, it was revealed that pupils got words wrong when they were asked to read. Also

without a model reading pupils could not read, but after the intervention, pupils could read with

ease without the model reading.

Furthermore, it was realized that learners were motivated through the use of the syllabic and

phonic methods which the class teacher did not use in her teaching. Other positive impacts were

that, pupils have developed interest to read books during their leisure periods. However, before
the research, pupils used their leisure time to play football and ampe on the school compound.

But now pupils also read inscription on the school blocks and notices.

Also, majority of pupils performed better in the post-test and this performance could not be

attributed to chance but rather than the intervention put in place. This means that the use of the

letter cards game together with the active participation of the pupils.

This therefore shows that the researcher’s methods used made an impact and invited correct

responses from the pupils. From this, the researcher can confidently conclude that these were a

remarkable change in the pupils’ reading ability after they had gone through the activities and

methods used for the intervention.

Summary of the Results/Findings

The discussion from the pre-test, post-test, observation and test show that there has been great

improvement in pupils’ reading.

The most significant outcome of the study was that when the letter cards game was used, the

pupils were highly motivated and displayed considerable interests which stimulated discussion in

the class.

Additionally, the use of letter cube game in teaching reading was an effective way of helping

pupils to read words during reading words.

It was discovered that the teacher was not using any teaching and learning material to aid in her

teaching. Teaching therefore was not practical and real for the pupils. As the behaviorist Bruner
stated that learning is ideal when the environment is well structured. Due to the improvised

teaching and learning materials (letter cube) prepared and used by the researcher, the pupils were

able to read sentences correctly.

Also, the use of the phonic and syllabic techniques in teaching reading was an effective way of

helping pupils to read words well or correctly. Moreover, the use of letter cards game to support

the teaching also helped pupils to form the habit of observing since they usually came with

description of whatever features that was seen on the cable game. As a result, pupils were able to

express themselves well. This supports the view of Steel (1974) that games can be used to

develop numerous skills, observation being one of them.

Again, this work has also given the pupils the opportunity to use letter cards, letter cubes which

most of them had not seen before. Also, pupils’ ability to handle the material successfully to read

words is an indication that they have acquired manipulative skills which would help them in

future.

Therefore the use of the phonic and syllabic technique and other games such as flash cards, in

teaching reading has brought out favourable response and understanding to the pupils