TITTLE/TOPIC

THE CAUSES OF POOR READING AT MBASWA PRIMARY SCHOOL BY TWO

GADE 8A PUPILS IN SERENJE DISTRICT.

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 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this work presents my own work; all borrowed information has been
acknowledged.

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

TITLE-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------i
DECLARATION ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii
DEDICATION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------iii
ABSTRACT ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------iv

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------------1
BACK GROUND ------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
STATE MENT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
PURPOSE OF STUDY ----------------------------------------------------------------------4
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ---------------------------------------------------------5

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW -------------------------------------------------------------------6~7

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY -----------------------------------------------------------8

POPULATION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9
SAMPLE PROCEDURE --------------------------------------------------------------------10

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------11

FINDINGS------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12

CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION --------------------------------------------------------------------------------13
TAKING AN INFORMED DECISSION-----------------------------------------------------14
BIBLIOGRAPHY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------15
APPENDICES ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------16

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 DEDICATION

With all love and adoration, passion, vigour, power and enthusiasm, I dedicate this action
research to my humble family. Not forgetting my best friends, chipulu Hastings, Raphael
kunda, Innocent kafusu, Lungu Simon, Joseph malama and Musonda Costa for all the
encouragements and support But I fully dedicate it to my wife Mukuka Susan M for always
kindling my ambition of going higher and higher in my education.
Thank you and May Jehovah bless you forever for the continuous encouragement and support
that you have been rendering during the period of study. Jehovah is always there and he
always cares for his people. May Jehovah bless you once more and peace abides forever.

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 ABSTRACT

The abstract idea of this research is to find ways of improving the low reading levels at
Mbaswa primary school.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

A million thanks to the family. The family has been so supportive that I have achieved
some of my dreams in my life so far. I convey my heartfelt gratitude to my wife,
brothers and sisters for the great love and care given to me during triumph and
challenging moments.
May I thank everyone who has been there for me and giving me encouraging word,
constructive words and always telling me that I have potential to embark on such a
project. I recognize all members under the Education Research Department at
Malcolm College of Education for the knowledge imparted in me to make it easier to
work out this project. Above all, I thank Jehovah God for giving me the courage and
power to carry out this project which I believe is of great benefits to the pupils,
parents and the nation at large. To my family I say many thanks and May Jehovah
richly bless you in all your endeavors.

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 CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Ensuring the full course of primary schooling for every child is one of the UN Millennium
Development Goals. In Zambia, the performance today is among the lowest in Africa. All
developing countries have educational challenges relating to poverty and other cultural
factors, but one major under-estimated factor concerns is lack of adequate knowledge to
support learning opportunities. As a result, dramatic numbers of children fail to acquire the
basic academic skills.

In Zambia, during the 1980s and 1990s, it became increasingly evident that literacy standards
among Zambian school children were distressingly low. It was neither found that the higher
percentage of pupils who completed grade 7 could hardly read nor write. Less than 10% of a
class could read with less difficulty. Parent and people in the education system became very
worried over the horrible situation prevailing in most Zambian schools. This unwanted
situation forced the government to come up with the new national language policy.
According to this policy initial literacy instruction should begin in a familiar local language
of the area. The media of instruction should be in English, but the first language to be taught
in one of the seven local languages taught in schools.

In 1995, the Ministry of Education convened a National Reading Forum to look into this
problem. The findings and recommendation of this forum led to a radical change of policy
regarding the teaching of literacy.
The ministry of education came with primary reading program (PRP), a seven years national
program. The main aim of this program was to improve literacy level in Zambia after much
research, the ministry of education came up with the policy which states ‘’all pupils to be
given an opportunity to learn initial basic skills of reading and writing in local language’’
(Educating Our Future, 1996: 39).
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The first move, undertaken in 1998 was the breakthrough to literacy course which was
developed by South African N.G.O the molten project. This was implemented in 50 grade 1
pupils in kalulushi district of copperbelt Province on a one year trial basis, and was very
successful in that children in grade one were able to read and write at a level equivalent to
grade four or above grade. The Primary Reading Program, located within the broader Basic
of Education Sub-Sector Investment Programmer, BESSIP, was then established with the
mission to improve literacy levels among Zambian school children. One of the early
successes of the Primary Reading Programme was the production of the Zambian New
Breakthrough to Literacy (NBTL). This course is now in all primary schools. This course has
a great benefit to Zambian schools and it has been proved to be the best where reading level
is concerned. There is great expectation that the course be the foundation for fluent literacy
and improved educational standard in all grades throughout primary and secondary schools.
The course went through a rigorous piloting, monitoring evaluation, to ensure quality and
success.

The Department for Continuing Education in the Ministry of Education and some NGOs
provide literacy training through open learning centers, night schools, and the National
Correspondence College. About 4,600 youths are trained every year through the open
learning centers and distance education. High levels of participation are recorded in rural
areas because literacy training is directed to reach rural women. Since the illiteracy level is
higher for rural women than men, more women enroll in the literacy classes. In urban areas, a
few municipalities and city councils provide basic literacy training. (Education Encyclopedia
- StateUniversity.com).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

There is no doubt that the primary reading program (PRP) is an avenue of success to reading.
However, despite its conspicuous successes and its implementation at Mbaswa Primary
School, the number of pupils who are able to read is small as compared to those who cannot.
The expected outcomes of the literacy hour have not been achieved.

1.1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The major reason behind the study is to find out the factors behind the low reading levels at
Mbaswa Primary School and establish measures to undertake in order to restore high reading
levels at the school. The findings will be used by teacher trainer, head teacher, teachers,
inspectors and educational administrators e.g. to improve upon their effectiveness.

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 To find out the causes of low reading levels at Mbaswa Primary school in grade 8A.
 To assess the altitude of pupils towards reading at primary school.
 To assess pupils perception over reading at primary school.
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  To assess attitude of teachers towards the teaching of reading at Mbaswa primary
school.
 To examine the measures the school authority has taken to reduce the poor reading
levels at Mbaswa primary school.
 To investigate whether the qualification and experience of the teacher affect reading
performance at the same school.

1.3 MAIN RESEARCH QUESTION

 What could be the cause of poor reading levels at Mbaswa primary school?

1.4 SUB RESEARCH QUESTIONS

 What is the attitude of learners’ towards reading?
 How do learners perceive reading?
 What is the main significance of reading?
 Does reading affect the performance of learners?
 What is the attitude of teachers toward the teaching and learning of reading?
 Does the school have enough reading materials?
 Do teachers inform parents of those learners who cannot able to read? If not what
response have parents offered?
 What measures has the school authority taken to improve reading?
 Does the qualification and experience of the teacher influence the reading
performance on learners?

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study is paramount as it will assist in improving reading levels at school. It is my
endeavor that the study might benefit policy makers to find the means of improving the
standards of teaching and learning reading at Mbaswa primary school.

1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The time to carry out the research was not enough as the study was being carried out in the
second busy term of the second year period when I was doing my first school teaching
experience and writing the assignments in other study areas at the same time. Most parents I
visited were not within the catchment area as a result distance was an issue. In most cases, the
people concerned were not readily available.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, relevant literature on development of reading and writing skills, common
reading and writing difficulties and strategies for teaching reading and writing has been
reviewed.

Reading and writing development

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According to the oxford advanced learners dictionary, states that reading is the identifying of
written or printed words, the process of identifying and understanding the meaning of
characters and words in written or printed. Learning to read is one of the greatest
accomplishments in childhood because it is the foundation for learning and academic
achievement later in someone’s life. Therefore, it is not surprising that debates among
educators about how best to help children learn to read have been heated and unsettled for
many years (Paris, 2005).

One of the definitions of reading states that reading is a complex visual-auditory task that
involves obtaining meaning from symbols (letters and words). It involves two basic
processes: a decoding process and a comprehension process. The decoding process involves
understanding relationships between letters and symbols which is similar to oral language and
this enables the learner to pronounce words correctly. Comprehension skills on the other hand
enable the learner to understand the meaning of words in isolation and in context (Mercer and
Mercer 1993).

Reading is a developmental skill which is influenced by a number of interacting factors. For

example, phonological awareness is awareness of the phonological units represented by a
given writing system which is positively correlated with reading ability in every language
studied to date (National Reading Panel, 2000). On the other hand, Woolley-Wade and Gave
(2000), hold the view that because of the substantial body of research spanning two decades
that demonstrates the crucial role of phonological awareness in reading acquisition in an
alphabetic language, researchers and educators agree that a conscious awareness of the
sounds of oral language is a necessary precursor skill to the acquisition of the alphabetic
principle. What is yet unknown, however, is the extent to which this skill plays a similar role
in learning to read in a second language (L2) and whether language specific factors increase
levels of difficulty in literacy acquisition. An important question is the degree to which
language transfer, or the influence of the first language (L1) on the processing of (L2)
learner. It is possible that phonological awareness is a skill that is entirely linguistically
interdependent, in which a general metalinguistic ability underlies phonemic analysis on both
L1 and L2 regardless of similarities and differences in the elements that make up the
phonological repertoires of the two languages.

Phonological ability could also depend on the extent to which phonological inventories of the
L1 and L2 overlap or share certain features such as phonemes and syllables. Furthermore,
language transfer and phonological awareness abilities might interact with reading ability
because of the reciprocal development of reading and phonological awareness. Skilled and
less skilled readers might be differentially affected by the demands inherent in processing
phonological elements that are L2 specific. In other words children who are less skilled
readers might be those who are less competent at processing the phonemes and phonemic
contrasts that are specific to L2. This is an important issue to investigate because the
acquisition often entails the challenge of learning new phonological information and the
ability to reliably assign this information to the appropriate graphemic representation
(Stanovich and Siegal, 1994).
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Swanepoel van de (2009), observes that a spoken language does not require a conscious
awareness of the speech sounds in words. Speech is produced and understood automatically,
with little conscious attention given to sounds. However, phonological awareness is the
conscious awareness of the sounds of language. It is the ability to reflect on the sounds in
words separately from the meaning of words. As the alphabet represents speech sounds, the
beginning reader must become aware of these sounds in order to understand how the alphabet
works, but awareness of these sounds may not always be easy for young children, hence the
need for systematic phonemic instruction in order to attain superior performance in reading.

Ziegler and Goswami (2005), also hold the view that the development of reading depends on
phonological awareness across all languages so far studied. However, languages vary in the
consistency with which phonology is represented in orthography. In addition, Crystal (1996)
notes that one theory of reading which is a phonic or phonologic step implies that reading
takes place letter by letter, with large units gradually being built. The two points presented
above can apply to all languages although there could be certain peculiarities which cannot be
ruled out. Phonological awareness, therefore, follows a developmental schedule, with
awareness of syllables developing before awareness onset which in turn develops awareness
of phonemes. An awareness of phonemes and the ability to reflect on and manipulate them
increases the chances that young children will develop good decoding skills leading to
success at reading from early grades ( Elbro, Bostron and Peterson 1998). On the same point,
Glazer (1998) states that phonics is the relationship between the sounds of language and the
letters used to represent them. In the classroom, phonics is instruction that guides children to
decode words using these relationships, in order to learn to read. It has been agreed upon by
many scholars that in order to read and also write successfully, learners must be aware of
sound/symbol relationships. Conclusions from many scholarly works indicate that phonics
instruction is important for many children in the earliest grades and Perfetti and Zhang
(1996), agree that the ability to understand phonological (the sound system) concepts
associated with our language is important for reading.

With specific focus on initial literacy, Schroeder (2005), observes that using the mother
tongue is of utmost importance because it facilitates children’s development of concepts that
enable them to easily acquire knowledge in second or third language and to further expose
the children to cultures of their communities. It can then be stressed here that the New Break
through to Literacy (NBTL) of the Primary Reading Programme (PRP) in Zambia operates
alongside this language experience principle. Schroeder (ibid), further argues that a mother
tongue is a language a learner needs to rely on as an emergent reader in the first grade
although literacy proficiency in English is the ultimate goal. This is made possible by the
psycholinguistic argument which suggests that people think in mother tongues and then
attempt to translate or articulate their thoughts in English. In addition, Ziegler and Goswami
(2005), state that for children to acquire reading, they must learn codes used in their culture
for representing speech as a form of visual symbols. Learning to read is thus fundamentally a
process of matching distinctive visual symbols to units of sound (phonology). In most
languages, the relationship between symbols and sound is systematic. This is the case with
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Zambian languages such as Bemba. In such languages, the first step of becoming literate,
therefore, requires the acquisition of the system for mapping between symbols and sound.
Mastery of this system allows pupils to access thousands of words available in their spoken
lexicons. The process of learning and applying these mappings has been called phonological
recoding.

In most countries with regular orthographies, there is little or no reading preparation before
formal schooling. According to Wimmer, Landerl, and Frith (1999), in German kindergartens
(pre-schools) there is no reading preparation at all. This sweeping assertion has empirical
backing. Mann and Wimmer (2002), found that English preschoolers were far superior in
naming letters, word reading, phonological awareness, and knowledge of environmental print
compared with matched German speakers.

Eysenck and Keane (1990), point out that the use of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules
should permit accurate pronunciation and possibly writing of words having regular spelling-
sound correspondences, but not of irregular ones. Woolley-Wade and Geva (2000:300), also
note that “accurate pronunciation of words that follow regular orthographic conversions is
believed to provide a window into which phonological skills are directly applied to reading.
This is only more applicable to languages that are consistent and regular in terms of
phonemic and orthographic dimensions.” On the other hand, Liow and Lau (2006), argue that
recent work on how children learn to read and write syllabic and alphabetic languages has
highlighted how the orthography-phonology (printed-sound) relationship for English is
atypical.

Savage, Pillay and Melidona (2008), have noted that English is known to be forward irregular
and backward irregular for both reading and spelling. Thus, phonological decoding skills
remain a major obstacle for reading and spelling in English language. Puolakanaho et al.
(2008), also note that studies conducted in orthographically regular languages, such as Italian,
Greek and Finnish have shown that in such language environments, for children to learn to
read they can shift the emphasis from decoding accuracy towards decoding fluency during
their first and second school years. In contrast, in more irregular languages such as Danish
and English, children’s accuracy varies on the accuracy phase of reading, with the eventual
phase taking place much later. They also report that recent longitudinal studies indicate that
the best predictors of future reading achievement are the letter knowledge, phonological
awareness, short-term memory, rapid serial naming speed, pseudo repetition and expressive
vocabulary.

Regarding writing as a literacy skill, Mercer and Mercer (1993), indicate that writing is a
highly complex form of communication. It is both a skill and a means of self-expression. The
writing process integrates and depends on visual, motor and conceptual abilities. Writing
skills are the best correlate of reading. Farris (1993), describes writing as a demanding but
valuable skill which involves transforming thoughts and ideas into meaningful words and
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sentences. Young writers need to develop the ability to use the structures of language in an
appropriate and mature manner. This ability takes several years to emerge. It is further argued
that reading and writing have long been thought of as complementary skills. Crystal (1996),
on the other hand argues that in addition to motor ability and functionally recognize words, to
read is to interpret language while to write is to plan and produce language so that it can be
read. It can, therefore, be assumed that being able to read implies being able to write or at
least being able to spell. It is further assumed that when learners face reading difficulties,
they are very likely to experience writing problems as well because reading and writing are
complementary skills that usually develop simultaneously.

Reading and writing difficulties

Acquisition of skills usually goes with challenges. Concerning reading difficulties in a second
language, Droop and Verhoeven (2003), indicate that children with the task of learning to
read in a language that they have not yet mastered orally perform poorly. Because reading
instruction strongly builds on oral language proficiency, second-language speaking children
may therefore experience a considerable gap. Droop and Verhoeven (ibid), further argue that
for second-language readers, it can be expected that the network of connections between the
various graphemic, phonological and semantic nodes needed to read will be weaker than for
the first language reader. Paris (2005), reveals that research on assessment and instruction
shows that alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness and oral reading fluency are the
enabling skills and significant predictors of later reading achievement. Unfortunately, there
has been less emphasis on vocabulary and comprehension to date perhaps because of the
difficulty in assessing and teaching these skills to children who are beginning to read.

Dixon and Nessel (1983), also argue that in order to learn sound-letter association, one must
first be able to discriminate sounds orally and then must learn to associate them those sounds
with letters that they represent. Successful application of phonics is dependent on the reader’s
ability to hear and produce the sounds of a language. Lack of adequate experience with
English sounds and patterns make ESL learner unable to recognize a sound, discriminate and
use those sounds in speech. This inability, in turn makes it difficult for students to sound out
words in print resulting in reading difficulties.

The MOE (2002), claims that the Step In To English (SITE) course of the Primary Reading
Programme in Zambia will enable learners to read fluently and write clearly and accurately in
English in Grade Two as learners will be building on the skills developed in the Zambian
language through the New Break Through To Literacy (NBTL) in Grade 1. However,
teachers neglect the NBTL because it is done in local languages especially if the language is
not a mother tongue. According to Holt, (1997), suggest that teachers have contributed to
negative attitude and poor habits students. This assumption is not likely to be so due to a
number of factors such as consistency and regularity of Zambian language versus the
inconsistency and irregularity of English in phonemic and orthographic features. On the
other hand, Ziegler and Goswami (2005), revealed that more inconsistent orthographies seem
to force the reading system into developing multiple grain size mappings and so learning to
read inconsistent orthographies depends on greater development of flexibility and the
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development of extra-cognitive architecture. Leong (2000), states that morphological
awareness makes a significant contribution to spelling during intermediate grades. Other
findings suggest that morphological awareness in spelling is first phonetic, and only later do
children make links to grammar. In other words, children may need to have grasped
phonological consistency before morphological consistency becomes salient.

Crystal (1996), also indicates that languages vary greatly in their graphic-phonic regularity.
At one extreme, we find such a language as Finnish which has a very regular system, at the
other we find such a case as English where there is a marked degree of irregularity.
Highlighting the issues of phonemic and orthographic consistency and regularity cited above,
Commeyras and Inyega (2007), hold the view that the consistency problem reflects the fact
that some orthographic units have multiple pronunciation and phonological units with
multiple spellings. Such types of inconsistency are assumed to show reading development
problems and English language is also such a language with orthographic units with multiple
pronunciation and phonological units.

Ard (1989), reports that an investigation of the connection between phonological processing
and reading leads naturally into the question of L2 literacy acquisition. Because the role of
phonological processing is highly implied in successful reading acquisition in L1, L2
speakers and learners, who are likely to be experiencing radical restructuring of inter-
language phonologies might be particularly at risk for unstable phonological representation,
hence, the difficulty in reading and spelling. Both perception and production are involved in
the acquisition of L2 phonology. In addition, Liow and Lau (2006), observe that although it is
clear that phonemic knowledge is used for reading and spelling by kindergarten (pre-schools)
in North America, the same might not be true for bilingual English speaking children
elsewhere. This suggests that the influence of a child’s home language, on English literacy
development is not unitary, and cross-linguistic transfer could have negative as well as
positive consequences. Simoes (1976), argues that particularly where literacy in the home is
in a home language until children start school, and where the objective is transition, from
home language to the school language for all further educational purposes, it is very likely
that once literacy in the latter (school) is attained, it seems to be implicitly accepted that most
of those who do not speak the school language at home, in comparison to those who do, will
remain permanently retarded in education. However, for the child who, before entering
school, has become familiar with material written in the language of his/her parents, even
though he/she may not have learned to read, the school experience may easily be felt as an
extension of home experience, and the transition from primary to secondary socialization
may be experienced with a minimum of trauma.

According to Martha (2002), disability causes a lot of problems in reading, ‘perhaps dyslexia
is the most obvious cause of low reading level in children. To solve this problem the ministry
of education should allocate more time to the disabled learners. And for the ministry of
education to train more teacher s who can specialize in handling learners who are disabled
.With regards to writing problems, Commeyras and Inyega (2007:4), state that, “In all
languages studied so far, a group of children experience severe reading problems
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(developmental dyslexia) despite normal intelligence, good educational opportunities and no
obvious sensory or neurological damage.” This point suggests that reading skills in irregular
languages like English pose more literacy development challenges than is the case with
regular ones. Remarkably, approximately 5-18 % of the population is affected by dyslexia
(Shaywitz; 1998: Snowling, 2000), and individuals with dyslexia often have associated
difficulties with writing, spelling, motor co-ordination and attention abilities, which vary
across individuals making it difficult to specify the etiology ( Habib, 2000; Snowling, 2000).

Elbro, Bostron and Peterson (1998), report that research has shown that children who
experience reading difficulty are those who have limited ability to perform sub-lexical
manipulation tasks and those deficits persist until adulthood. Fowler (1991), on the other
hand argues that deficient phonological representation might be a key underlying factor
behind the poor working memory, perceptual deficits and underspecified lexical
representations typical to children with reading disability.

On writing, Farris (1993), also notes that writing in the second-grade classroom can be quite
diversified. Some children write as confidently and as enthusiastically as they did in the first
grade. For other children, writing becomes a dreaded, anxious activity, as they wrestle for
perfection with pencil strokes, word spellings and stray marks resulting in children discarding
the work and beginning anew. Woolley-Wade and Geva (2000), have recorded that illiteracy
acquisition often entails the challenge of learning new phonological information and the
ability to reliably assign this information to the appropriate graphic representation. Therefore,
the challenge of learning to read and write in two orthographies simultaneously or
immediately one after the other is a great challenge on the learner especially in initial grades.

Dixon and Nessel (1983), state that it is generally accepted that writing is more difficulty than
listening, speaking or reading. Producing meaning through writing requires more effort than
recognizing meaning through listening or reading. What can be said aloud cannot be
expressed as easily or quickly in writing. Besides, deciding what to say learners must follow
the conversions of spelling and pronunciation that will make the message understandable to
others. Usually students develop writing abilities after oral language abilities are rather well
established. Hence, problems with oral language point to problems with reading as well as
writing skills because learning the skills of written expression can be difficult for ESL
learners who must learn to write a language which is orally unfamiliar.

In attempting to remedy early reading difficulties, Swanepoel van de (2009) notes that when
a phonological awareness deficiency is identified as a major contributor to a child’s reading
and spelling difficulties, it is , in a way, a relief, because it is a ‘trainable’ system that can be
taught and practiced, especially in the early stages of reading development. Training
undoubtedly improves reading and spelling systems.

Teaching strategies for reading and writing

15
There are various teaching strategies applied in the teaching of reading and writing. The
choice of each of these strategies is guided by a number of factors some of which are age and
grade of learners and the linguistic structure of the languages involved.
Ziegler and Goswami (2005), have revealed that despite the similar developmental trajectory
of phonological representation across many European languages, reading acquisition itself
varies markedly across the very same languages. This is attributed to consistency of spellings
to sound relations, granularity (gain size) of orthographic and phonological representation
and teaching methods. The three factors mentioned here could be of great focus in the
teaching of local languages in the first grade, but more so to English language in the second
grade.

Additionally, Dunn (1983), holds the view that skills learned in one language are not only
applicable in one language but also in other concurrent languages. Teachers will have noticed
when teaching children to count in English, for instance, children who already know how to
use numbers in L1 learn such concepts more quickly in English. This may also apply to
learning literacy skills. However, some teachers trying to teach new concepts in English to
children who have already learnt them in L1 are often left in doubt as to whether the children
have really understood. Savain (1981:6), in Dunn (1983), also points out that where children
have not sufficient oral ability in Language 2, it is a good idea for teachers to wait to teach
new concepts in Language 2 until it has been taught in Language 1.Once it has been taught in
Language 1, it can easily be transferred.” So the issue of language experience approach is an
important factor in the choice of teaching methodology.

Concerning teaching methodologies, Commeyras and Inyega (2007), argue that all language
teachers, whether of English or African languages need education in general language
teaching methodologies for teaching specific languages more effectively. Owino (1987), also
notes that when the teachers are not fluent in English and African languages, they make
mistakes in teaching reading. So, teachers’ knowledge both in content and methodology is of
great importance if the teaching of the two language media is to succeed. Furthermore,
Shcroeder (2005), points out that reading instruction depend on the teacher’s knowledge and
effective use of instructional methods.

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 CHAPTER THREE

1.9 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter contains research design, population, and sample research procedures qualitative
and quantitative data collection.

2.0 RESEARCH DESIGN

Research design is the step of logical steps taken by the researcher to answer research
question. It is the blue print for the study and determines the method used by the researcher to
obtain subject, collect data, analysis and interpret result. In other ways, it is the programme
which guides the researcher in collecting, analyzing and interpreting observed facts. This was
designed as follows:

Interview: Unstructured interviews will be conducted in order to collect information from

different people with different interest.

Questionnaire: The list questions will be made and delivered to the teacher and learner’s in
order to gather information on this research.

Observation: intensive samples will be taken for the purpose of matching the planned
objective of the study, as well as research question and the hypothesis in order to obtain
necessary information. The performance of leaner’s with reading and none reading skills will
also be taken much less those of special education needs (SEN) and the schedule was as
follows:
The symbols below were used to depict learners with reading and none reading skills.
A - Learner with reading skills.
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B - Learners without reading skills.
√- Good performance.
×- Bad performance.

CAUSES OF THESE PERFORMANCES

W- Skilled reading.
Z- Unskilled

GRADE 8A
ACTIVITY GROUP PERFORMNCE CAUSES OF THIS
PERFORMANCE
Reading a paragraph B X Z
A √ W
Answering questions B X Z
A √ W

CHOICE OF SITE
The research was done at Mbaswa primary school in room 2 on the second block just along
the Head teacher’s office. The school is situated in mbaswa village in Serenje district.

2.1 RESEARCH POPULATION

Population is the total number of people living in a country but for this research it will be
defined as the entire set of objects and event or group of people which is object of research
and bout which is the researcher wants to determine some characteristics or the number of
objects, personal event and so on and many more to which the actual information needs to be
drawn. The people involved in the research are learners, parents and teachers. These are the
people that will be consulted.

2.2 SAMPLING PROCEDURE

For the sampling procedure, a random reading sample on pupils from grade 8A was used. I
sampled the reading from the three ability groups (Green, yellow and red levels).

2.3 QUANTITATIVE DATA COLLECTION

Simple observation was conducted as the pupils were seeing reading books aloud to their
friends according to their pace groups in class.

10% READING ABOUT 35% 55% FAILING TO

WELL. TRYING. READ.
NUMBER OF PUPILS 60
PARTICIPATED.

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Self-administered questionnaires were used which were formulated questions and gave the
response. The questionnaires were distributed to different people such as teachers and some
pupils. Questionnaires and answers were collected after they were completed.

2.4QUALITATIVE DATA COLLECTION

Under this structure, interviews were conducted and questionnaires were established
proceeded by getting information direct from the response.

2.5 QUESTIONNAIRE FOR LEARNERS

No Yes
Do you read?
Do your parents help you in
reading?
Does your teacher help you or
teach you well on how to read?
If yes, how many times do you Once Twice
read?
Do you like reading?
Do you come to school every
day?
Do your parents force you to
come to school?

2.6 QUESTIONNAIRE
It has been observed at Mbaswa Primary School in grade 8A that, the ratio of those who are
able to read is different from those who are not able to read. This may be the sign of low
literacy level at this school. Therefore, this questionnaire saves as the tool for conducting
what might be the cause of the situation.

2.7 QUESTIONNAIRE TO TEACHER (Researcher)

 How many children do you have in your class?
 Do you teach reading? If yes, how is the improvement?
 Are you ever present and punctual for lessons?
 How many children are able to read?
 How many pupils are unable to read?
 Do you provide extra lessons to these pupils? If not, why?
 Do you inform the parents of those pupils who are unable to read? If yes, what have
they done?
 What could be the cause of poor reading difficulties in your opinion?
 What measures have you put in place to assist those pupils with reading difficulties?
 As teachers do you meet to discuss the performance of pupils?
 What could be the cause of the inability to read for some pupils?
 Are you one of those who believe that some children are naturally dull?

19
  Do you lose temper on those pupils who are unable to read?
 Do the community activities carried out at this school?

YES/NO DATE/DATE ATTENDANCE

LAST CHANGE
PARENTS DAY Yes 20 /05/2018 5
(PTA) CLASS
VISITS
OPEN DAYS Nil 05/08/2018 ----------
OTHERS PLEASE
COMMENT

 Do inspectors come to inspect your teaching? If yes, how often per term?
 Do deputy/head of department teachers come to observe your teaching? If yes, how
often per month?
 What is your highest qualification?

CHAPTER FOUR
2.8 RESEARCH FINDINGS

DATA ANALYSIS
From the data collected, it was observed that poor reading levels for Denise banda of Mbaswa
Primary School are mostly caused by parents and the Environment. The observation in the
increase of the number of pupils with poor reading performance and the compiled data
obtained from head of department and class teacher affirmed the realization that the school is
experiencing poor reading levels.

8.2
8

3.2
3

2
1.4
1.2
1

20
FINDINGS

2.9 LEARNERS PERCEPTION TOWARDS READING

From the data collected, few learners perceived reading positively. Though most of
them agreed that reading is so difficult and that their teacher when they were in lower
grades was not often coming to teach.

3.0 PUPILS ATITUDE TOWARDS READING

The majority of pupils interviewed from the visited classes had a negative attitude
towards reading. This was noticed through their responses. Most of them confessed
that they were unable to express their opinions in reading lessons. The result of the
findings about learner’s attitude towards reading could be attributed to pupils
misunderstanding of the item in the questionnaire, for example most of the pupils
interviewed consider reading to be difficult.

3.1 ATTITUDE OF THE TEACHERS TOWARDS TEACHING OF READING

Most of the male teachers have no interest in teaching literacy because they think that
literacy is for female teachers only. Therefore, male teachers must develop interest in
teaching literacy courses. From the responses of teachers interviewed, it was evident
that some have a strong belief that most learners are naturally born dull in knowing
how to read. Some teachers have come to accept that low reading levels are normal
and that there is absolutely nothing that can be done to correct the situation. Some
teachers see some wrongs in their attitude, methods and approaches applied in
learner’s classes. Most of the teachers use lecture method, which discourages active
participation on the learners.
Some teachers tend to put off learners by demanding too much from them or giving
them work which may be difficult for them, some teachers even gives them
punishment. This attitude discourages pupils especially those who fail to read. This
sort of treatment contributes a lot to poor reading levels. Besides, some teachers do
not know how to teach reading according to its procedure. Their teaching of reading
best suits the upper grades at high schools.

3.2 TEACHERS QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE

The majority of teachers interviewed were certificate holders. These certificates were
obtained at a time when colleges were offering one academic years This implies that
they were living colleges not fully fledged. Primary schools are supposed to be taught
by diploma holders which were not the case in the visited classes. This reviews that
teachers in most primary schools are under qualified which can easily lead to poor
reading levels in schools. Coming to teacher’s experience, it was observed that most
of the teachers have taught in primary schools for 10 years and less.

21
 CONCLUSIONS
Looking at the shortcomings that have loomed our primary education in Zambia today, there
is need for consented effort from all stake holders ranging from the Government, Ministry of
Education, School Administrators, Teachers and Parents to realize the dream of making the
Zambian child attain the literacy levels. The blue print is there: the Primary Reading Program
(PRP) to necessitate literacy competency (reading to be specific) upon the Zambian child.

22
TAKING AN INFORMED DECISION
It was discovered that parents and the Environment are the major causes of Chanda’s poor
reading. Therefore, parents were visited regularly over Chanda’s problem so that they can put
more effort to help Chanda.
On Chanda’s problem, it was resolved by giving him some books to read at his spare time at
home under the supervision of the parents. In addition, the parents were advised to exhibit
Chanda denies from his bad group. This has brought change to all teachers Male and female

23
 REFERENCES

 Savage, R., Pillay, V.andMelidona, S. (2008), Rapid Serial Naming is a Unique

Predictor of Spelling in Children, Journal of Learning Disability Vol. 41 No.3 235-
250.

 Stanovich, K.E. and Siegel, L.S. (1994), Thephonetypic performance profile of

reading disabled children: A regression-based test of the phonological-core variable-
difference model. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 24-53.

 Schroeder,L.(2001), Mother Tongue Education in Schools in Tharaka Language

Group in Kenya: Notes on Literacy, 27 (3), 8-22.

 Schroeder, L. (2005), Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education: Promoting

Cognitive Development in Children from Minority Language Groups: A Paper
Presented at the 4th Pan African Reading for All Conference, Ezulwini, Swaziland.
 Simoes, A. Jr. (Ed) (1976), The Bilingual Child: Research and Analysis of
Existing Educational Themes: Academic Press, New York.

 StevichW.E (1992), Teaching and Learning Language Group, Melbourne.

Mrs. Ngalende’s General outcome of Action Research; 2012

 Wimmer, H., Landerl, K., &Frith, U. (1999), Learning to read German: Normal
and impaired acquisition. In M. Harris & G. Hatano (Eds.),Learning to read and
write: A cross-linguistic perspective (pp. 34–50).Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.

 Woolley-Wade, L.W. and Geva, E. (2000), Scientific Studies of Reading, Lawrence

Earlbaum Associates.
24
 Ziegler, J.C. and Goswani, U. (2005), Psychology Bulletin, 131 (1) 3-29, American
Psychology Association.

24
APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR LEARNERS

No Yes
Do you read?
Do your parents help you in
reading?
Does your teacher help you or
teach you well on how to read?
If yes, how many times do you Once twice
read?
Do you like reading?
Do you come to school every
day?
Do your parents force you to
come to come to school?

25
APPENDIX 2

QUESTIONNAIRE TO TEACHERS
 How many children do you have in your class?
 Do you teach reading? If yes, how is the improvement?
 Are you ever present and punctual for lessons?
 How many children are able to read?
 How many pupils are unable to read?
 Do you provide extra lessons to these pupils? If not, why is it like that?
 Do you inform the parents of those pupils who are unable to read? If yes, what have
they done?
 What could be the cause of poor reading difficulties in your opinion?
 What measures have you put in place to assist those pupils with reading difficulties?
 As teachers do you meet to discuss the performance of pupils?
 What could be the cause of the inability to read for some pupils?
 Are you one of those who believe that some children are naturally dull?
 Do you lose temper on those pupils who are unable to read?
 Do this community activities carried out at this school?

YES/NO DATE/DATE ATTENDANCE

LAST CHANGE
PARENTS DAY (PTA)
CLASS VISITS
OPEN DAYS OTHERS
PLEASE COMMENT

 Do inspectors come to inspect your teaching? If yes, how often per term?
 Do senior teachers come to observe your teaching? If yes, how often per month?
 What is your highest qualification?

26