CHAPTER ONE 1.

0 Introduction The importance of reading in the education of the child cannot be overemphasized in the global world. Reading is very essential since it cuts across all the subject areas. It is one of the basis for which every child could be successful in education this skill however seems to be lacking in the pupils in Kanimo R/C Primary School P. 6. Kanimo is a community under Yendi municipality This chapter of the research report seeks to address the following background to the study. Statement of the problem Purpose of the study Research questions Significance of the study delimitations Organization 1.1 background of the study English language is undoubtedly used as the medium of instruction from basic three (3) through the level of education system in Ghana. Notwithstanding, the call for new education reform with which the English language shall be used as medium of instruction from the basic level. As part of the language skills, reading and writing are interrelated and developed concurrently. The development of these two language arts in young children is called emergent literacy. As a teacher in Kanimo R/C Primary School from 2010 to 2012, in Kanimo a village under Yendi municipality Assembly within Sambu circuit, it is about 16 to 17 away from Yendi Township with a student population of three hundred and ninety eight (398). The major occupation of the area is purely farming and sometimes trading, but 95% out of the total population there are mainly farmers with few or no educated persons. The people of Kanimo have little formal education because they perceive education to be a waste of time and resources and put more emphasis on farming practices. They also encourage their children to travel and housel for their future more especially the female who end up as kaayayo and sometimes street children. As a teacher in the community and also the head of the school I once enquired from a parent to know why her son is not more coming to school. She said my son has secured a job, he is now a corn-mill operator and that he is making money out of that which does make any different because we wanted him to make money out the schooling to help himself and the family. This negative attitude towards education in this community has increased the illiteracy rate of the people since time in memorial. During my first year in the community as teacher in Kanimo R/C Primary School, I realized that the pupils were not able to read. Out of investigation, I also realized that about 90% of the pupils parent and sibling were

illiterates. Apart from that, there are other factors contributing to poor reading skills of the pupils. Some of which are: Wrong methods of teaching employed by teachers who teach English language. Pupils mingling with their peers or friends who do not attend school and as a result pass on their behaviors or attitude to them. Also, lack of qualified teachers in the school is another factor, I was the second trained teacher posted to the school since the establishment of the school from 2001 to now why because, the trained teachers do not always want to go to the villages. Lastly, I always answer questions like who will help me in the farm when I sent my child to school? during educating the parents on the need to sent their children to school. 1.2 statement of the problem As the head teacher in Kanimo R/C Primary School, I observed some common problem among the pupils in P. six (6). The problem was brought to notice during inter school reading competition when my circuit supervisor and I tested pupil to get some qualified student to represent the school. None of the pupils could read the first unit of the English textbook six. From this, it was realized that most of the pupils could neither read nor pronounce words properly. The end of every term performance is not left out, and other assessments. When the Circuit Supervisor asked the class after the program why most of them could not read, the answer they gave was that reading is difficult and even when they try reading, they do not understand The encouraged me to conduct this study to find solution to the problem and make recommendation for further action. 1.3 purpose of the study The purpose of this study is to: find out the causes of poor reading skills of pupils in Kanimo R/C Primary School P. 6 II. find out the effects of poor reading skills of pupils in Kanimo R/C Primary School P. 6 III. design a strategy or activity that would be used to improve upon the reading skills of the pupils in Kanimo R/C Primary School P. 6 IV. to bring to the notice of policy makers and stakeholder in education, the causes and effect of poor reading on the academic performance of students in general. 1.4 research Questions a) What are the causes of Kanimo R/C Primary School P. 6 pupils poor reading skills? b) What effects of poor reading skill have no the academic performance c) What strategy or activity can help improve upon the poor reading skills of the pupils in Kanimo R/C Primary School P. 6 d) What type of policies will help improve pupils poor reading skills in Kanimo R/C Primary School P. 6
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I.

1.5 significance of the study: One of the major significance of this research is to enable English teachers to identify the different way which can be used to teach children how to read properly. Parents as well as stakeholders of ecuation are also not far from benefiting this study. Besides, policy makers, Non-Governmental Organization (N.G.Os) and other agencies who are in to education would also find this research to be very useful. 1.6 delimitation This research was carried out in Kanimo R/C Primary School. However, not all the classroom were researched in to, but only Primary six (6) in particular. The work was concerned with the reading aspect of the English language but not other aspect such as writing or grammar that is communication or writing. This is only on the reading aspect of English language. 1.7 Limitations. In actual sense, the researcher encountered some difficulties during research writing and collection of data. Inadequate funds were also a problem of the researcher because it prevented him from carrying out extensive interventions. Another problematic aspect other research was, most of the respondents if not all were illiterates and for that matter the researcher could not translated some terms being described for the local language properly. Some respondents even showed reluctance to answer some items in the questionnaire due to the fact that those items were so personal. There was an instance where a university student on community study asked a landlord at Sambu near the community how much he gave out to his wife daily for meals and the man got angry. He asked the student whether he is the one who gave him the money to marry his wife or he produces the family for him. So, out anger and other personal problems, it was difficult to make and extensive research. 1.8 Organization of the study: The research study is made up of five (5) main chapters. Chapter one of the research study is the introduction which contains the following: Background to the study Statement of the problem Purpose of the study Research questions Significance of the study Delimitations Limitation
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 Organization Chapter two is the review of related literature. This part covers what has already been written on the topic, how the present study intends to address the weakness and gaps in what has been. Chapter three is the methodology of the study. This chapter also has the following Research design Population and sample selection Development of research instruments Data analysis

Chapter four of the research study is the results or findings and discussions, present results by research questions. The final chapter which is chapter five focuses on the summary, conclusion and recommendations. I t contains the review of the research problem and methodology.

CHAPTER TWO 2.0 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE INTRODUCTION There has always been the need to find a lasting solution to any problem identify. Normally, this requires a critical and sound practical analysis of the problem understudy. One way of acquiring comprehensive information on the problem is to consult the literature related to this. These literature materials are materials that contain the saying, wisdoms and recommendation of scholars who have spoken largely about the same issue understudy. Significantly, the main focus of this chapter is to examine and review the various literature materials on the causes, effects and recommendations to enhance reading abilities of pupils in
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our educational institutions. Hence, literature related to poor reading skills of pupils was reviewed under the following sub-headings. 1. Causes of poor reading ability of pupils. 2. Effects of poor reading on academic performance of pupils. 3. Activities to improve upon pupils reading skills in school. 4. The role of a teacher in promoting reading skills in school. 5. Student-teacher relationship.

CAUSES OF POOR READING AMONG PUPILS Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia standard (2006). From ten to fifteen percentages of all children had reading disabilities. That is, they read, significantly below mental average. Most professional turn to use the term reading disability to refer discrepancy that is cause by vision hearing or motor handicap, mental disadvantage but rather by a pressure underlying neurological difficulty. Adu (1996) indicates that the term individual difference refers to a condition where by every body is different from-everybody that event existed and will never exist. This is a direct result of differences in genetic physiology and environmental difference. It is inferred from the argument of Adu that pupils reading difficulties could be a result of physical, potential, oral and intellectual problems and many more. Adu argues further that, the inborn ability between children can be responsible for the disparity of low or high achievement of some children. As pointed out by J.S Farrant (1999) the physical environment can be a powerful factor or force for good or ill in child learning process. Stated differently, the arrangement of the school blocks, furniture, compound, trees and flower, proximity to an industrial factory for example, Can result in the childs inability to carry out a successful and meaningful reading. In other words given the entire genetic wave up of a child, the learning environment of the child can cause his or her inability to perform meaningful reading. According to the ministry of Education Youth and Sports (2004), the pupils inability to read can be attributed to three (3) reasons as outlined below: A learner who is sick (or a child) and is reading a passage for understanding. A student who is reading in a roomful of mosquitoes buzzing around him or her. A student reading in an environment where some people are noisy quarrelling. You will agree with no doubt that such a reader will have a divided attention. Such as a reader will be doing two things at the same time. Incas of the reader who is sick, he or she will be thinking of his or her sickness, and the reading at the same time. On the part of the student who reads in the mist of mosquitoes, he or she will be thinking of the mosquitoes and
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how to get rid of them and at the same time doing reading. So applies to the student who reads in a noisy quarreling environment, he or she too will have a divide attention. Secondly, the inability to connect new information in the text to the background of the reader. As we grow up, we learn a lot of things, some of them were taught by our teacher and others were learning informally. Background describes our knowledge of the world. If you stay in the Northern part of Ghana, you have a better knowledge of the people their culture the weather especially the harmattan. Similarly to those on the coast they have knowledge of the practice of fishermen. According to ministry of Education Youth and Sport, it is our Background that helps us to understand what we read. If we cannot connect our background to what we read, we shall find problems with what we are reading. The reads attitude to what He/she read. When a reader has no interest in what he or she is reading. It becomes very difficult for him or her to understand what he or she reads. You have heard some students describing some subjects as being very difficult. If you do that you do not motivate yourself to do will. It appears you have cursed yourself and even when you try, the result is not good enough. According to Oliver and Boyd (1986), it is possible to isolate some important issues that appear to contribute to many issue of reading problems. Some pupils are slow Learners. The quality of their learning is satisfactory but they appear to adapt slowly to new situations, ideas and informations. By and large, these pupils will learn to read adequately if they are given sufficient time. But trouble often arises if they are forced to work at a quicker pass than they can handle easily. Oliver and Boyd argue that very often emotional or behavior disturbances are symptoms of some underlying worry and stress that cases tiredness, lack of concentration, lost of interest and of course poor reading. If however a pupil is subjected to undue stress over a considerable length of time then the results is poor learning attitude and the continuing emotional outbursts become a source of deteriorating relationships between pupils and the school. This according to Oliver and Boyd, will almost inevitably create sever learning problems. They indicate some children are born in semi-literate homes where they is an inferior model of reading for them to observed and reflect. 2.2 EFFECT OF POOR READING ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF PUPIL Oliver and Boyd (1986) identified two effects of poor reading pupils with poor reading ability experience failure across the curriculum and may develop compensating behavior that move teacher-pupil relationship very difficult. They maintain that slow learning a cause of poor reading may extend to all areas of curriculum; it may be limited to language activities. It may be specific reading. Oliver and Boyd conclude that poor readers also have trouble with other aspects of language and the majority fails to some extend right across the curriculum. The second effects they identify is that sever reading failure will almost certainly be accompanied by some behavioral problems somehow, failure in reading carries with it a special stigma children permitted to fail in art and music.

Inability in mathematics can be condoned if there are compensatory achievements in other areas; but reading must be mastered. Hence a considerable amount of pressure is brought to bear on the failing reader from both parents and teachers. John Willinsky (1950) indicates that reading is a basic life skill. It is a cornerstone for a childs success and indeed throughout life. Without the ability to read will, opportunities for personal fulfillment and job success inevitable will be lost. Zaner-blaser (1980), reading is undoubtedly the most important academic skill. All other subjects are dependable upon the ability to extract meaning from written symbols. The child who has reading difficulties invariable manifests correctitude problem in other disciplines. 2,3 ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE READING OF PUPILS Zaner (1980) provide further recommendation as the effective measure to build reading ability upon a pre-reading base. As mentioned previously the logical thinking components of problem solving is closely intertwined with reading ability (signesl978). Direct instruction, natural experiences or contrived circumstances in which logical thought is developed are lively to enhance later reading ability. Sawyer (1975) indicates that a child who learns to recognize individual words as basic units of communication is better prepared to begin reading than the one who cannot identify the boundaries of a spoken word. Montgomery (1977) describes as assessment tool and instructional procedures base on patterns which consist of the strokes of the printed alphabet, children who are trained with the pattern of words recognition, materials were reported to have improved significantly in reading performance. The teacher should make efforts to design and use instructional materials as well as employ teaching methodologies that accommodates childs perceptual learning abilities level. (Gilberg and Gilberg 1979, p.43) In discussing measures that can further reading performance discrimination among letters, numerals, words and pictures should be taken into consideration. Finally, the child must know how to use printed materials such as the front of a book as oppose to the back and the versus the bottom where a line of print stand and ends how one page leads to another. Oliver and Boyd (1986) also emphasized that in practice it is necessary to consider the treatment of reading inability from two points of views. First when the fundamental causes of reading inability are recognized, it may be necessary to consider both general curriculum and organization issues as well as the problems of individual pupils. In some schools what is taught and how it is taught inhibits rather than encourages language development. Reading problems proliferate and remedial measures are

ineffective. Some change in content of teaching and in the quality of the classroom relationship must accompany remedial action. Second, some acceptable strategy for classroom action needs to be established. One useful approach is to isolate to short term objectives for individuals or small groups of pupils:These goals should be simple to define and attainable within one or two weeks.

2.4 THE ROLE OF A TEACHER IN PROMOTING READING SKILLS ON PUPILS Tsadidey (2002) advocate three (3) activities on the part of the teacher to improve upon the reading abilities of pupils. Here a teacher makes a collection of a host objects such as bottle tops buttons and stencils of letters of the alphabets or various geometrical shapes. These items shall be differentiated by size, colour and shape. The child is given the box containing the assorted items according to their kind. Example, if bottle tops are from different brands of drinks, the child could be asked to sort and group the tops according to Malta Guinness. There is some kind of mark to help the child to make the grouping. The activity is an aid to reading in that it provides the much needed training in visual discrimination. The ability to tell one size or colour from another will prepare the reader to be able to state the differences existing among the various shapes of the letters of the alphabets. Story-telling in pictures; for this activity a series of pictures are prepared by the teacher and which are so arranged tells the story. We only mean that the pictures should show some kind of logical connection one to the other so that we can see a beginning and an end of some sort. The pictures are then pasted along the wall for pupils to see. Naturally their curiosity will make them move from picture to the other given them their eyes and practice reading. Oliver and Boyd (1986) also emphasized that in practice it is necessary to consider the treatment of reading inability from two points of views. First when the fundamental causes of reading inability are recognized, it may be necessary to consider both general curriculum and organization issues as well as the problems of individual pupils. In some schools what is taught and how it is taught inhibits rather than encourages language development. Reading problems proliferate and remedial measures are ineffective. Some change in content of teaching and in the quality of the classroom relationship must accompany remedial action. Second, some acceptable strategy for classroom action needs to be established. One useful approach is to isolate to short term objectives for individuals or small groups of pupils. These goals should be simple to define and attainable within one or two weeks.

2.4 THE ROLE OF A TEACHER IN PROMOTING READING SKILLS ON PUPILS Tsadidey (2002) advocate three (3) activities on the part of the teacher to improve upon the reading abilities of pupils. Here a teacher makes a collection of a host objects such as bottle tops buttons and stencils of letters of the alphabets or various geometrical shapes. These items shall be differentiated by size, colour and shape. The child is given the box containing the assorted items according to their kind. Example, if bottle tops are from different brands of drinks, the child could be asked to sort and group the tops according to Malta Guinness. There is some kind of mark to help the child to make the grouping. The activity is an aid to reading in that it provides the much needed training in visual discrimination. The ability to tell one size or colour from another will prepare the reader to be able to state the differences existing among the various shapes of the letters of the alphabets. Story-telling in pictures; for this activity a series of pictures are prepared by the teacher and which are so arranged tells the story. We only mean that the pictures should show some kind of logical connection one to the other so that we can see a beginning and an end of some sort. The pictures are then pasted along the wall for pupils to see. Naturally their curiosity will make them move from picture to the other given them their eyes and practice reading. The jig-saw puzzle. A variety of jig-saw puzzle are new on sale in commercial houses and book shops but the teacher should make his/her own. The principle is to get the child to match shapes that are discrete. The teacher procures two pictures of the same object. He/she mounts one of these on a hard cardboard or the plywood. He/she proceeds next to cut up this mounted picture in to various shapes and sizes , thus reducing the complete picture to bits and pieces are then given to the child to arrange so as to arrive at the original picture. According to Ghana Education Service Communication and study skills for Untrained Teachers Diploma in Basic Education(2004) in reading comprehension, the teacher is interested in his/her pupils reading with understanding. He/She does everything to help them to understand what they read. For example he or she use a lot of teaching and learning materials and explain the difficult words in the passage. Among Zamer (1980) recommendations he maintains that teachers should make effort to design and use instruction materials as well as employ teaching methodologies that accommodate the childs perceptual learning level (Gilberg and Gilberg 1979 p.43) 2.5 STUDENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIP C.K Dondieu Gude notes to the study of education volume two (2) indicates that learning takes place through the organization of old ideas which permit the learner to grasp the relationship in the new problem. When these new relationships are perceived is said to have gained insight into the problem to be able to do this.

The teacher must prepare his /her lesson carefully and select the materials through thoughtful. These must be presented systematically by effectively leaving previous relevant knowledge with the new knowledge or material. Encourage children to make their own discoveries through trial and error and help them reflect on their performance. He also maintained that the teacher can offer group counseling to pupils to interact with him or her. The teacher should identify problems of children arid find solution for them. Mary K.D (2002) discusses the student-teacher relation in the following verbal clues this is where teacher gives directions with which pupils are expected to comply, teachers lectures offering facts, expresses ideas, explanation e.t.c. reinforcement: this could be verbal or non-verbal word responses, example well done, excellent, good, a good try e.t.c. these develop confidence and a positive self-image in children. Research evidence indicates that various aspects of praises and corrective feedback are positive attitudes towards correlated with pupils achievement and positive attitude towards learning. Non-verbal reinforcement is made through gestures similes and other body expression discussed under non-verbal communication.

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