Oral Reading Performance of Emergent Readers through Technology-Based instruction at Bawi Elementary School

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Children today are termed as 21st-century learners because of their vast exposure to different technologies. At home, children are most often busily engaged in some activities like watching TV, playing computer games, and going out with friends that less time is devoted to reading and making assignments. Consequently, the diagnostic test in oral reading conducted by teachers revealed that there were pupils who have difficulty in word recognition as well as in comprehension. With this, the researcher was encouraged to conduct this study to improve the oral reading performance of emergent readers through the integration of technology-based instruction.

METHODS

This study will utilize an experimental research design which dwells into the phenomenon of the oral reading performance of emergent readers once technology-based instruction was applied. There will be two groups; the controlled experimental group who will undergo oral reading classes applying technology-based reading instruction while the uncontrolled group will use the traditional method. This research is experimental in approach and sought to determine whether a technology-based instruction is more effective than the traditional one. Since the two approaches focused on the improvement of pupils' reading performance, this research tries to find out which of the two approaches is more effective.

RESULTS

The following summarized findings are presented, based on the results of the study. The pupils' oral reading performance using traditional reading method was considered slow, as sustained by a mean score of 4.74. The pupils' oral reading performance utilizing technology-based instruction in oral reading is average, as reflected by a mean score of 17. A highly significant difference was found between the pupils' performance before and after their exposure to computer-assisted instruction in oral reading, as confirmed by a computed t value of 0.0001, which signified an extremely statistically significant difference between the pupils' performance utilizing traditional and technology-based reading instruction.

DISCUSSIONS

Based on the findings of the study, a highly significant difference was found between the pupils' performance before and after their exposure to computer-assisted instruction in oral reading and it is advisable for teachers to use computer technology in teaching, not only in oral reading but also in other subject areas where it is applicable.