1NWAFO, CHINEDUM UGONWA AND 2ONUNZE, ONYEMAECHI ANNE
1Department of Languages, School of General Studies, Federal Polytechnic, Oko.
2Department of Education Management, AtcoiColege of Education, Enugu.
Corresponding Author’s email:chinedum.nwafo@federalpolyoko.edu.ng
Abstract
The foundational skills for learning the English language are reading and comprehension, which pupils cannot achieve without maintaining proper spelling and pronunciation; hence, we investigated how phonics instruction affected primary school pupils’ reading and comprehension skills. Using a straightforward random sampling procedure, 120 pupils from the primary two classes made up the experimental and control groups. The researchers used the English Reading Test (ERT) and English Comprehension Test (EVT) to gather data for the study. The results show that there is no significant effect between pupils exposed to synthetic phonics instruction methods and their ability to read and comprehend. The pupils in the control group who were taught using the traditional look-and-say instruction method performed better. To ensure that before primary four, every student will be able to read and primarily comprehend, understand other subjects, excel academically, and pursue other endeavours, the researchers recommend that primary school teachers receive training, especially those teaching in basic one classes. Thereby ensuring their capability of handling English literacy lessons using traditional, synthetic, and other alternative instructional methods. Consequently, this will increase the level of comprehension and reading ability of the public primary school pupils.