ADDO MAXWELL – PRCE / JHS / 18 / 0059

The use of stories to improve reading habits of pupils in Nsawam

Methodist basic seven (7).
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH STUDY
Background of Study
Education is the key to unlock success in the life of every individual.
Reading forms an integral part of education. In view of this, the skills
and knowledge of reading are essential for pupil’s success in virtually all
areas of curriculum. An American educationist once said, the ability to
read is complex process that is basic, not only to education in school,
but also to the acquisition of many out of school learning.
The English language has become a universal language, contrary to the
early centuries which considered English as a language native to only a
few. Many centuries and people all over the world have in one way or
the other been compelled by circumstances to adopt English as a
second language. It has therefore become incumbent upon all
stakeholders to extensively forge ahead towards equipping themselves
with the correct way of learning the language.
In Ghana, our first contact with the language took place at the same
time that formal education was introduced by the missionaries of
English origin.
It is clear that the ability to read English is highly crucial in educational
achievement in all subjects. While it is important that children learn to
read, it is equally important that they do read voluntarily and
appreciatively. Most Teachers do not know this and that is why the
habit of reading on ones own is a problem for the pupils in Nsawam
Methodist basic seven (7).
Stories have been in the world over to teach as well as to entertain.
Until recently, every evening was a story time. In Ghana, for instance, it
was common to find an elderly person seated near a fire with both
children and adults listening to stories. The hero of the story especially
amongst the Akan community was and still is Kwaku Ananse. It was
occasionally accompanied with folk songs known as “mmoguo” to make
the period lively and to sustain the interest of the listeners.
Actually, this was not for fun, but moral lessons were transmitted as
well. In fact, education was going on because culture was being
transferred from one generation to another. In modern times, with the
development of science and technology, one could easily see children
and adults glued to television sets listening to storytelling. For example,
Grace Omaboe (Maame Dokono), Uncle Chester and others. The daily
newspapers also feature stories in children’s corner. On the radio, there
is a program for storytelling in the indigenous language in the evenings.
In the school system, provision is made in the curriculum for
storytelling especially at the basic levels and this depicts the usefulness
of stories in language learning.

Through stories, children learn new vocabularies. Research evidence in

the acquisition of the mother tongue (L1) shows that the importance of
stories goes beyond that, because stories help children to use spoken
language effectively in both formal and informal situations to
communicate ideas, give information and to ask and answer questions.

There are a lot of approaches but the one to increase learning and
literacy most is to bring pupils’ natural learning abilities into the
environment of the school. The researcher did that by selecting good
stories like “why a crab does not have a head”,” why a hawk catches
chicks” and others.
In a playful manner, the researcher used demonstration with pictures,
role play and songs as techniques to win pupils learning pressure, in
simple language to understand and capture their interests. Stories are
really indispensable spices in reading in both English language (L2) and
the local language.
From the above, it is clear that the importance of reading in our
educational set up cannot be over-emphasized. This has called for the
need to carry out a very comprehensive action research on the problem
of poor reading ability among pupils of Nsawam Methodist Basic Seven
(7) in order to improve upon their performance in reading using stories.

Brief Background of Nsawam Community

Nsawam is a large community in Nsawam – Adoagyiri
Constituency of the Eastern Region. It is located between Accra –
Kumasi high way. They have a large population consisting of different
ethnic groups such as Akuapem, Akyem, Gas, Ewes, Asantes, Fantis and
many others. Nsawam is known to produce bread and ‘’kyofi’’ and due
to their business/activities, most parents do not pay attention to their
wards’ education. These people are business minded and as a result,
see no importance of their children’s education.

Statement of the problem

During the researcher’s teaching practice at Nsawam Methodist
School, he observed pupils in basic seven (7) could not read simple
sentences in English. This problem was discovered by the researcher
during his familiarizing with the pupils.
Rationale / Purpose of the Study
The oral English language is known to play an important role as far
as communication is concerned. The rationale of this study is to go into
the pedagogical problems which are connected to the use of stories in
reading lessons in order to help pupils of Nsawam Methodist Basic
Seven (7) acquire more vocabulary, improve on the phonic aspect of
reading so as to read fluently and also use spoken language effectively.

Aims / Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are:
1. To use stories to improve on the pupils’ stock of vocabulary.
2. To use stories to improve on the pupils’ phonic aspect of reading.
3. To use stories to improve on pupils’ fluency in reading.

Research Questions
This study will revolve around the following questions in the bid to find
the possible solutions to the problem.
 What are some of the possible causes of reading deficiency
among the Basic Seven (7) pupils of Nsawam Methodist School?
 What are some of the possible strategies that can help improve
reading among the Basic Seven (7) of Nsawam Methodist School?
 What are the possible solutions to the causes of poor reading
among the Basic Seven (7) pupils of Nsawam Methodist School?

Significance of the Study

The study will help expand the knowledge of the pupils of Nsawam
Methodist School in particular and the Ghanaian learners at the basic
schools in general in the acquisition of reading skills. It will also serve as
an aide to basic school teachers in choosing and designing appropriate
teaching techniques for their reading lessons.

Limitations
The researcher encountered some problems in the course of the entire
project. The most prominent among these is the difficulty in getting
required literature on the subject for the work. This has caused the
researcher to explore the interest to access information on the topic
mainly for the literature review. Also, there were instances where
pupils absented themselves from school to assist take part in the
intervention carried out by the researcher. This is likely to affect the
result and the findings of the study. Correspondence between the
researcher and the Supervisor also faced some setbacks as regular
travelling from field of study to the supervisor became difficult.

Delimitations
This research is restricted to Basic Seven (7) pupils of Nsawam
Methodist School because this is a particular class where the researcher
encountered the problems. The scope of the issues is also confined to
identifying the possible causes of poor reading in English language
among these pupils and to develop possible strategies to find solutions
to the problem.

Definition of Terms
Reading Instructions: Any lesson that aims at developing pupils reading
ability
L1 (First Language): Any language a child acquires first right after birth.
It is often the mother tongue.
L2 (Second Language): Any official language a person learns. In this
study, the L2 refers to English language.
Pedagogical problems: Problems that hinder effective teaching and
learning.
Story: A story is a description either true or imagined of connected
series of events.
Empirical finding: Findings based on, concerned with, or verifiable by
observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.
Phonic: Relating to speech sounds.

Organization of Study
The study is made of five (5) chapters.
The first chapter presents the introduction and the background to
the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, research
questions, significance of the study, limitations, delimitations of the
study, definition of terms as well as organization of study.
Chapter two (2) is devoted to review of the related literature.
Here, theoretical and empirical findings of other theorists in relation to
the problem of reading are reviewed.
Chapter three (3) includes methodology used by the researcher to
arrive at the findings. These are population and the sample size,
sampling procedure, research and materials used, design of the
intervention thus pre-intervention, intervention and post intervention
stages.
Chapter four (4) deals with the interpretation and analysis of data
gathered after the whole research study.
 Finally, the chapter (5) captions the main summary of the study,
conclusions and recommendations that will assist to improve academic
performance in Basic seven (7) pupils in Nsawam Methodist School.

References?