Fianu E. (2003) was also of the view that “reading aloud serves as a comprehension and preparatory stage for that matter is an undeniable fact that as pupils gets more confident in reading aloud, they are indirectly being prepared for the more difficult reading lessons which is reading comprehension or silent reading.
Last but not least, “it is used for pronunciation practice” by Fianu E. (2003). Pronunciation mistakes are quite rampant when pupils begin taking passages because the pupils are still in the process of building up enough sight vocabularies.
To conclude, reading aloud has its role in the reading programme because it helps pupils to learn recognition and correct pronunciation of words. So all the above seems to suggest that when this aspect of English study is not treated well there will be a large gap left in the life of the pupils.
Nonetheless, oral reading goes through three main stages namely, Preliminary Reading Stage, Reading Stage and Post Reading Stage.
These are discussed below.
Preliminary Reading Stage (I)
According to R.T Agboglati (2004) the passage used for reading comprehension in the previous lesson should be used for this lesson. He added that the teacher’s task here is mainly to revise the pronunciation of all the unfamiliar words and expressions treated in the reading comprehension lesson.
It is also advisable to ask two or three general review questions to refresh the pupils’ minds about the passage. According to Fianu E. (2003), “the reason for this stage is to enable learners have a feel of what they are going to read”. Meaning of difficult vocabularies are also taught here in order to make the understanding of the passage easy.
Harris and Sipay (1990) also added their views on this. According to them a “successful teachers introduces new concepts and verbal labels that learners will need in order to “read to learn contents, subjects, texts and lesson”. Prediction activities are also carried out here in order to ascertain the knowledge pupils have about the topic.
This implies that the text selected must be highly predictable. Peterson B., in Tomkins, (2003) state that is highly predictable, with one or two patterns for words changes, is easier to read then less predictable text with varied sentence patterns”.
Fianu E. (2005), identified for activities to perform here. These are prediction teaching of vocabulary pronunciation of vocabularies taught and the use of such vocabularies in sentences.
Reading Stage (II)
This is where the real reading is done. Fainu E. (2003), identified two activities to be carried out here, these are model reading by the teacher and individual reading by individual pupils. At this stage, pupils look on in their books as the teacher does the model reading for a number of times, may be once or twice.
This model reading enables pupils to observe how the passage flows, the sentence groups, punctuations, pronunciations and intonations.
According to Fianu E. (2003), “as the teacher’s model reading ends, individuals are called to read as others listen and wait for their turns”.
He further states that, it will however be advisable not to involve too much slow reader in the reading aloud as it can lead to time wasting and incompletion of the lesson.
Post – Reading Stage (III)
During the second stage, teacher has to observe and take note of words whose pronunciation the pupils find difficult and help them to do further pronunciation practice.
There are activities that must be observed after the individuals reading aloud. Fianu E. (2003) stated the following activities “answering oral question, reinforcement of pronunciation and follow – up activities”. These activities are very important since they give the feedback of what has been achieved. The question can be in the following forms.
(i) New words listed on the chalkboard for pupils to read.
(ii) Sentences lifted from the passage for pupils to read in order to check their pronunciation.
(iii) Oral questions based on the passage.
When all the above activities are observed it is believed that a large impact will be created in the pupil’s ability to read. Therefore, it will be very important for teachers teaching reading aloud to have a well-planned lesson which will embody all the above advanced activities. This is to make the lesson very attractive and easy for pupils.
Summary of the Literature Review
In this chapter, the researcher talks about the importance of reading in the lives of the pupils. It also talks about the suggested approaches for teaching reading aloud from the view point of many writers. The stages of a reading lesson were thoroughly discussed and were suggested to assist teachers put a stop to the over whelming problem of pupils’ inability to read or pronounce words correctly.
However, the previous literatures were thoroughly combined carefully scrutinized in order to come out with relevant findings for this study. But certainly, certain key aspects that are very crucial for rectifying the pupils reading and pronunciation problem are skipped.
First of all, the researcher will like to commend all the authors whose books where reviewed for delving adequately into how to teach reading aloud. Congratulations for a good work done.
Nonetheless, the researcher’s concern is to find the causes and the effects of reading difficulties among the pupils. In Apeyime R.C Primary Six (6), it is perceived that much of the causes will be laid at the doorstep of the class teacher. This is because, as a teacher, you must;
(a) Create a conducive classroom environment for different ability groups to learn;
(b) Prepare adequate lesson plan to guide your teaching;
(c) Create many activities that should allow children to participate fully in lesson;
(d) Assess every child’s performance as well as the overall performance of your class.
We can equally blame the parents for not doing much to help their wards learn in school. The researcher is also concerned with the interventional techniques that can be used to rectify the problem of reading and pronunciation among the pupils.
All these techniques were adequately delved into in the recommendation Column.
The researcher will like to put on record that though many writers had delved (search) adequately into teaching reading aloud, still one has to accept the fact that Apeyime R.C Primary School at a different geographical location has its own peculiar problems.
