Introduction

Good reading comprehension comes only with practice. The basic aspects of reading, such as word recognition, phonetics and fluency, can be mastered in just a few years. However, throughout this process reading comprehension must be emphasized. Students may be able to eloquently repeat the words that they see on a page all day, but without reading comprehension skills, they're unable to fully understand the content, predict what will happen next, recognize characters, gain insight or understanding to build upon, or relate what they're reading to their own life's experience.

Background

I noticed that many of my students could not comprehend what they had just read. Even though they could read well, but they could not explain the story they read.

• What do good readers do? Use pictures, their knowledge of sounds and letters, letter blends and the shapes of words, experience of subject matter and the flow of language to help them make sense of the text that is laid before them.

• What happens with poor readers? Don't look for what the text means. They don't use all the clues in the surrounding print and by the time they get to the end of the sentence, all meaning is lost. They haven't grasped the flow of language or looked for meaning in other areas of the text, such as pictures etc.

Problem Statement

This action research project proposal about the English reading strategies in Primary school. The problems faced in school by a child who cant read are serious. Students with a slow grasp of English comprehension have a problem with understand the meaning of a sentence. Comprehension is essential to construct the meaning of a sentence and hence the underlying message of the author. Without a good Comprehension, a student is unable to grasp the mean of a sentence. Consequently, the student cannot make up what the student is reading. Any subsequent understanding is completely lost. This action research project proposal about the English reading strategies in Primary school. The problems faced in school by a child who cant read are serious. As children progress through primary or elementary school, they need to be able to read more and more. Therefore a failure in reading can lead to a failure in school generally and a low self-confidence.

Research Questions

1. Can the English reading comprehension abilities of Grade 11 students be improved by a teacher’s explanation or instruction before the student's reading?

2. What strategies or technique can we use to help students in Primary school to influence reading in English?

Research Objectives

1. To compare the English reading comprehension abilities of Grade 11 students before and after teacher’s explanation or instruction

2. To find out if teacher’s explanation or instruction before the actual reading will affect the result or not.

Purpose of Study

This study aims to explore the strategies we used to overcome reading problems. The findings can help provide insights into the types of strategies the teacher used to solve their students’ reading problems.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Reading skill plays an important role in teaching English as a second language. N. Anderson. For those who study English as a second language, ability in English reading comprehension is a must. Learners need reading comprehension to be able to continually increase their knowledge.

According to Jennifer Jones, Comprehension strategies are conscious plans — sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of text.

Sheryl Anderson, research shows that instruction, even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension. Students who are good at monitoring their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not.

Plan

From the earlier Pareto analysis, it is clear that English is the major cause of student failures. Hence, a Cause-Effect analysis was conducted to identify the cause of failure, i.e. Poor English. From the Cause-Effect analysis, it was identified that Comprehension was the major factor for Poor English.Research Design

Research Design

An intervention method is used to show students the reading must be conducted. The teachers will show how each sentence must be interpreted for meaning. Then, the story line must be developed.

The intervention method will be based on

1. Formulate a Comprehension Method

2. Evaluate the Current Performance

3. Develop the PRISM Method

4. Practice with the students

5. Conduct a Comprehension Test

6. Asses the New Performance

The student assessment for the Current Performance and the New Performance will be based on the following Assessment sheet.

Research Instrument

The research instrument consists of the Tests used to evaluate the student performance in English comprehension.

Do

All the ten students selected for the study were given practice tests. They were guided on how to use the PRISM method to improve their comprehension.

Data Collection

Students were given a comprehension test after they had two practice tests. The marks of their performance was recorded as follows.

Study

The student performance was evaluated using the English Comprehension Evaluation test. The students were give an hour to complete the test. They were reminded of how to use the PRISM Method.

Data Analysis

Data from the English reading comprehension ability test is gotten from the five stages of reading comprehension assessment in the cycle of without instructional and with instructional. The result is analyzed for mean and percentage in each time.

A qualitative analysis was conducted on the comments from the students and an Affinity Diagram was conducted. The analysis showed that the Environment was most important for the students English comprehension.

Findings

Research Findings show that the

1. Result before the PRISM Method was an average of 45%

2. Result after the PRISM Method was an average of 65%

This shows that the overall improvement in comprehension is 20% points.

Discussion

Teacher’s explanation or instruction is an important part of helping student reading improvement. The study shows that direct instruction of vocabulary improved reading comprehension. Based on the finding, ability of the student was increased after explanation in the mean of 33 % and the students’ view is a lot easier than without explanation. Therefore, all teachers play either a primary or secondary role in teaching students to read. All classroom teachers who expect students to learn the content of specific subjects need to be teaching reading.

Act

The results of the PRISM Method was very encouraging. The improvement in student performance was shown to other staff in the department. The idea of the PRISM Method was suggested for use in the other subjects. The method was subsequently use for the Primary 4 and 6 levels.

Reflect

The results of this study suggest that students in primary schools can and do benefit from PRISM Method. The majority of the students in this study developed positive attitudes towards reading in English as the term progressed, although they were initially reluctant readers. However, PRISM Method helped to increase their proficiency in English and the effects of extensive reading on the students language proficiency can best be seen in the long term.

Conclusion

The PRISM Method of improving the students English comprehension was carried out on the students. Students showed a 20% points improvement. The method is now being used at the other levels of primary students.