INVESTIGATING THE LEVELS OF READING SKILLS AMONG GRADE THREE PUPILS IN NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.2379Keywords:
reading, reading skills, letter reading, letter soundAbstract
Reading skills are vital to lower primary school pupils because it is the foundation for learning. However, studies worldwide indicate low levels of reading skills in schools and little has been done to find out how different instructional strategies used in lower grade schools influence learners’ acquisition of reading skills. The purpose of this study was to establish levels of reading skills among the Grade Three Pupils The research was guided by Holdaway’s Theory of Literacy Development and supported by Instructional Theory by Robert Gagne. The study established that 50% of the pupils were below average in reading of letter and letter sound recognition, 57.1% in sentence and paragraph reading, 53.6% in story reading and a mere 60.7% in comprehension skills.
Article visualizations:
References
Alexander, P. (2006). The path to competence: A lifespan developmental perspective on reading. Journal of Literacy Research.
Alfassi, M. (2014). Reading to learn: Effects of combined strategy instruction on high school students. Journal of Educational Research, 97(4), 171.
Amer, A. (2012). Using literature in reading English as second/foreign language.(Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). Egypt: Tanta University.
Armbruster, B., Lehr & Osborn. (2013). The building blocks of reading and writing, pp. 5-11 in a child becomes a reader: Proven ideas from research for parents (2nd Edition). Washington, DC: The Partnership for Reading. Available online at www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading.
Bean, R. M., and Morewood, A. L. (2011). Best practices in professional development for improving literacy instruction in schools. In L. M. Morrow, and L. Gambrell (Eds.), Best practices for literacy instruction (4th ed.), (pp. 455- 478). New York, NY: Guilford.
Bell, K., & Limber, J. (2010). Reading skill, textbook marking, and course performance. Literacy Research and Instruction, 49, 56–67.
Block, C., & Pressley, M. (2012). Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices. New York: Guilford Press.
Blog, H. (2015). The reading strategies book: Your everything guide to developing skilled readers.
Bomengen, M. (2010). What is the "Whole Language" Approach to Teaching Reading? Reading Horizons.
Chaplain, R., (2012). Parents helping their children learn to read: The effectiveness of paired reading and hearing reading in a developing country context. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 13(4), pp.471–500.
Duke, N., & Block, M. (2012). Improving reading in the primary grades.The Future of Children, 22:2pp55-72.
etscher, Y., & Foorman, B. R. (2011). Summary of the predictive relationship between the FAIR and FCAT in grades 3–10: 2010–2011. Tallahassee, Florida: Florida Center for Reading Research
Genishi, C., & Dyson, A. H. (2009). Children, language, and literacy: diverse learners in diverse times. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Gove, A., & Cvelich, P. (2011). Early reading: Igniting education for all. Research Triangle Park, NC: RTI International.
Hanson, S., & Padua, J. (2014). Effective instructional strategies series: Teaching vocabulary explicitly. Retrieved from http://prel.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/vocabulary_lo_res.pdf.
Hardie, A. (2012). CQPweb – combining power, flexibility and usability in a corpus analysis tool. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 17, 380-409.
Helfrich, S. R., & Bosh, A. J. (2011). Teaching English language learners: strategies for overcoming barriers. The Educational Forum, 75(3), 260-270.
Hempenstall, K. (2009). The whole language-phonics controversy: A historical perspective. Education News.
Howie, S. (2010, July).The relationship between early childhood backgrounds and reading achievement in low and high achieving countries in PIRLS 2006. Paper presented at the International Research Conference of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, Gothenburg, Sweden.
IPAR, (2008). Radical reform for Kenya’s Education Sector: Implementing policies responsive to vision 2030. Policy Review, Issue (4).
Jollife, W., et al. (2012).Teaching systematic synthetic phonics in primary schools. London, Sage.
Kimberly, T. (2013).The elements of a literacy-rich classroom Environment. http://www.teachthought.com/uncategorized/the-elements-of-a-literacy-rich-classroom-environment/.
Marima E. (2014). A survey of approaches used in teaching of reading in early childhood grades in Dagoretti and Westlands Divisions, Nairobi county, Kenya. Unpublished Thesis.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, (2013). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
National Reading Panel (2011). Report of the national reading panel:Teaching people to read. Washington: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Ngure W. (2019). Instructional Strategies and Resources Used in Teaching Reading: An Implication On Grade Three Pupils’ Reading Skills In Nairobi County, (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), Kenyatta University, Kenya
Nyamu, F. (2015).Assessment of factors influencing achievement in basic reading in primary schools in Nyeri County, Kenya.The Catholic University of Eastern Africa.
Ogola, P. (2011). The pedagogical hindrances to oral communication skills in English in Kenya: A case of secondary schools in Kisii County. Edu. Res. vol. 4 (7):536-542.
Ouellette, G. P. (2006). What's meaning got to do with it: The role of vocabulary in word reading and reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 554-566. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.98.3.554
Perfetti, C. A., Landi, N., & Oakhill, J. (2005). The Acquisition of Reading Comprehension Skill. In M. J. Snowling, & C. Hulme (Eds.), The Science of Reading: A Handbook (pp. 227-247). Oxford: Blackwell.
Reeb, K. (2011). Phonics strategies and letter-sound acquisition knowledge.St. John Fisher College Fisher Digital Publication.
Roe, B., & Smith, S. (2012). Teaching reading in today’s elementary schools. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Serravallo, J. (2010). Teaching reading in small groups: Differentiated instruction for building strategic, independent readers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Smeda, N., Dakich, E., & Sharda, N. (2014). The effectiveness of digital storytelling in the classrooms: A comprehensive study. Smart Learning Environments, 1(1), 1-21.
Stahl, S. (2012). Saying the “p” wird: Nine guidelines for exemplary phonics instruction. The Reading Teacher, 52,114-124.
Strickland, D. (2011). Teaching phonics today: Word study strategies through the grades (2nd ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Teale, W. (2013). Beginning reading and writing: Perspectives on instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association and New York: teachers College Press.
Teng, Y. (2009). The Relationship of reading methods and learning styles to Taiwanese 12th Grade male students’ reading comprehension in English. A Dissertation presented to The Faculty of the School of Education International and Multicultural Education Department. The University of San Francisco.
Toste, J., Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L. (2013).Supporting struggling readers in high school.In R. T. Boon & V. G. Spencer (Eds.), Adolescent literacy (pp. 79–91). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
Tracey, D., & Morrow, L. (2006). Lenses on reading: An introduction to theories and models (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.
Treiman, R., and Kessler, B. (2013).Learning to use an alphabetic writing system. Language Learning and Development, 9 317-330.
Ulusoy, M., & Dedeoğlu, H. (2011). Content-area reading and writing: Practices and beliefs. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 36(4), 1-17.
UNESCO, (2011). Challenges of implementing free primary education in Kenya: assessment report. Kenya. Nairobi: Ministry of Education, Science & Technology.
UWEZO. (2011). Are our children learning? Annual learning assessment report, 2011.
Vadasy, P. F., Sanders, E. A. (2010). Efficacy of supplemental phonics-based instruction for low-skilled kindergarteners in the context of language minority status and classroom phonics instruction.Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 786–803.
Wangui, K. (2011). Influence of learning environment on reading comprehension among pre-unit children in Kikuyu Division Kiambu County. Unpublished M.Ed Thesis University of Nairobi.
Wicox, A. K. et al., (2013). Just-in-time pedagogy: Teachers’ perspectives on the response to intervention framework. Journal of Research in Reading, 36(1).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).


