The Practice of Teaching Reading in English at First Cycle Primary Schools: Grade Four in Focus
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Date
2008-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The main objective of this study is to find out how students learn to read
English and teachers teach reading skill in government primary schools
especially in grade four. It is also to investigate students English reading
ability in the grade level mentioned.
To gather information on the above main objectives various instruments have
been used. These are: classroom observation, teachers’ questionnaire,
teachers’ and students’ focus group discussions, teachers’ and students’
interviews and a reading comprehension test.
The data were categorized and descriptively analyzed. As a result, the
findings depicted that inappropriate reading techniques and procedures were
used in the mentioned grade level. Teachers were observed using the
traditional way of teaching reading which is dominated by reading aloud.
There has been little or no time given for silent reading. Techniques of
reading such as pre- and post- reading were not used at all.
The consequence of wrong reading practices used has resulted in the weak
performances of the students in their reading ability. To that end, this
research paper provides recommendation that could bring about a change in
the practice of teaching and learning reading in the grade level studied so
that current techniques and procedures of teaching reading could be
employed.
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Keywords
Teaching Reading