EFFECTS OF PHONICS AND FLUENCY METHODS ON READING ACHIEVEMENTS OF PUPILS IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN NIGER STATE

Abstract

The need to improve the teaching of reading at the foundation level has become imperative. For children to be able to read, write and communicate effectively, attention must focus on the teaching of reading at the primary school level. This is globally acclaimed. This work, therefore, compared the uses of phonics and fluency methods for teaching reading achievements of pupils at the foundation level in Niger State. The aim is to highlight which of the methods is better for the teaching of reading at the primary one level. To be able to do this, the study adopted quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test analysis. Three hundred and forty (340) pupils were sampled. The instrument used for data collection was designed by the researchers. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The major findings of the study are that the primary school pupils taught letter sound identification, blending of sounds, isolation of initial phonemes and substitution of phonemes through the phonics method performed better than those taught with traditional method. Secondly, the performance of the pupils taught word recognition through the fluency method was higher than those taught with traditional method. The study recommended that phonics and fluency methods should be considered for the teaching of reading skill in the primary schools.