Improving the Reading Ability of Grade VI Pupils through Vocabulary Drills

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Reading is the mother of all study skills. It is one of the most valuable skills a person can acquire. Oson Elementary School is concerned with improving the reading ability of the pupils after analyzing the result of Phil-IRI pre-test. There were lots of slow readers due to limited activities. This is the reason why the researcher tried the Vocabulary Drills strategy which aimed to improve the reading ability of pupils.

METHODS

The respondents of the study were the grade six pupils. This action research attempted to determine the effects of the reading program to the reading ability of the pupils during pre and post-test. This study used one of the passages in the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory (Phil-IRI) as the instrument in gathering the data. The interventions were provided through the activities which developed the reading ability of the pupils who were non-readers and to those pupils who were under frustration level.

RESULTS

It was found that the percentage of non-readers during the pre-test was equivalent to 13.89% and down to 0% during the post-test. There were 27 grade six pupils or 75% under frustration level during the pre-test while 5 pupils or 13.89% during the post-test. There were 4 pupils or 11.11% under instructional level during pre-test and 14 pupils or 38.89% during the post-test and there was no pupil under independent level during pre-test while during post-test there were 17 grade six pupils or 47.22%. This implies that there was an improvement in the reading ability of grade six pupils after utilizing vocabulary drills.

DISCUSSIONS

The chi-square (x²) computed value of 42.68 was greater than the chi square (x²) tabular value of 7.815 at 0.05 level of significance with 3 degrees of freedom, the null hypothesis was rejected. It implies that there was a significant difference in the reading ability of the grade six pupils after utilizing the vocabulary drills.