THE ALPHABETIC APPROACH

The researcher started by taking the pupils through the recognition of letters of the

alphabet and asked them to listen while the researcher pronounced them. The drilling

continued until they could recognize them. A follow-up activity was conducted to test

their ability to recognize the alphabet from any given angle.

Aa Bb Dd Ee εε

Ff Gg Hh Ii Kk

Ll Mm Nn Oo ‫ככ‬

Pp Rr Ss Tt Uu

Yy
Ww

individual pupils were asked to read them to the hearing of the whole class. This looked

simple but it proved extremely useful. Afterwards pupils were tested to see if they could

recognize the alphabet, so the researcher called the letter and pupils search from the

alphabet. In that activity pupils performed very well.

WORD FORMATION APPROACH

The researcher moved to the next level where the researcher assisted the pupils to put the

alphabet together to form two letter words. Example:

k‫כ‬ fa ma da si
The researcher gave examples of the two letter words for pupils to see how the words are

formed. The researcher then guided them to give examples on their own.

Researcher:- take the letter ‘k’

- Add the letter ‘‫’כ‬

- The words that comes out is ‘k‫’כ‬

The researcher continually added the alphabet to form three letter words.

Examples are:

bra fie din nom tew d‫כ‬w

The researcher gave examples of three letter words for pupils to see how the

words are formed; the researcher then guided them to give examples on their own.

Researcher: -Take the letter ‘b’

- Add the letter ‘a’ to the two letters.

- The word that comes out is ‘bra’.

The researcher continually added the alphabet to form more three letter words on their

own and write them out. In this method pupils learn both the upper case and lower case

letters of the alphabet.

SENTENCE FORMATION APPROACH

In this approach, the researcher used words and sentence cards. These cards were showed

to the pupils a number of times and then the researcher read it to the hearing of the whole
class. The activity was repeated until the pupils could make them out. The researcher then

showed the letters one after the other to the class to read them. The researcher read to

them the words they could not read. This was done for a period of time and then pupils

were called to pronounce the words and sentences one after the other. Pupils were then

asked to pick a card, look on it, pronounce or read the word or sentence and then show it

to the class for confirmation as to whether the pronunciations was right.

The sentence card was also shown to the pupils one after the other and it was read

to them. The researcher asked the whole class to read. They read in rows and

individually. This interesting activity was included some sentences on cards on which

there were in questions form.

Example: ‘Wo din de sεn?’ so with the cards on which there were instructions, the

researcher called two pupils to act them out.

For instance one pupil will ask his/her mate.

PUPIL1: Wo din de sεn?

PUPIL 2: me din de ………….

Having taken the necessary actions to help pupils overcome their reading

difficulties, a reading test was conducted at the end of it, as an evidence to what had been

achieved after the activities mentioned above. The paragraph of “‫כ‬k‫כ‬mfo An‫כ‬kye ne

N’anwonwade Ahorow”. In unit 17 of their Twi reader (Nimdeε kwan) was used. Even

though they could not read as fast and fluent as the good ones, the fact cannot be denied

that there was a remarkable improvement in pupils’ performance. Due to this, the

researcher undertook different sets of strategies to address the problem at hand, namely
alphabetic, word and sentence approach. It took the researcher three weeks to carry out

the intervention.

WEEK 1

Activities: Reading of the letters of the Twi alphabet by using flash cards and

writing them on the chalkboard.

The researcher drilled the pupils on the letters of the Twi alphabet. Example, a, b, d, e, ε,

f, g, h, I, k, l, m, n, o, ‫כ‬, p, r, s, t, u, w, y.

Researcher: ‘a’

Pupils: ‘a’

Researcher: e’

Pupils: ‘e’ etc.

The researcher did these as she showed the flash cards to the pupils for them learn

both the upper case and the lower case letters.

WEEK 2

Activities: identification and pronunciation of the letters of the Twi alphabet.

The researcher wrote the alphabet in the Twi language on the chalkboard along side the

flash cards which also have the same letters of the Twi alphabet. The researcher guided

the pupils to read the alphabet after which the researcher pointed to the individual letters

randomly for pupils to identify the particular letter.

Example.

Researcher: point to the letter ‘ε’.

Pupils: mention the name of the letter ‘ε’

pick out the letter ‘ε’ and show it to the class. The pupil then pronounces the letter ‘ε’ for

the rest of the pupils to respond or say it after them.

WEEK 3

Activities: Word formation of the Twi alphabet.

The researcher guided the pupils to read simple words such as ‘k‫’כ‬. ‘fa’, na, di, ma,

Researcher: what letter is this?

Pupil: k.

Researcher: so if we put the two letters together we will get ‘k‫ ’כ‬so say it after.

‘k’ + ‘‫‘ = ’כ‬k‫’כ‬.

Researcher: now come and pick ‘k‫ ’כ‬from the flash cards.

Pupil : He/she comes to pick the word ‘k‫ ’כ‬from the flash cards and pronounce it to the

rest to respond.

WEEK 4

Activities: Formation of sentences.

The researcher guided the pupils to read some two or three letter words to form simple

sentences with the use of the flash cards.

Example.

Researcher: How do we pronounce this word?

Pupil: ‘k‫’כ‬

Researcher: How do you pronounce this word?

Pupil: ‘fa’
Researcher: How do you pronounce this word?

Pupil: ‘bra’

Researcher: how do we pronounce the three words put together?

Pupils: ‘k‫ כ‬fa bra’

POST INTERVENTION

After the interventional activities, the researcher gave the pupils other works, being the

letters of the Twi alphabet to read aloud and they were successful. In addition the

researcher went ahead to give three letter words to pupils to read. The pupils were able to

read it well.

Moreover, simple sentences were shown to pupils for which they were asked to read.

Pupils successfully applied the sentence approach to read those sentences very well.
 CHAPTER 4

ANALYSIS OF RESULTS AND FINDINGS

This chapter presents and analysis the data collected. Relevant data related to the topic

under study which involve figures are presented in tabular forms using percentages to

analyse them. However, those data related to the study which do not involve figures are

analysed objectively.

The respondents were the class teacher and the basic two teacher and head teacher who is

also basic one teacher, the twenty-five (25) pupils in Odumase Anglican primary three (3)

make up of both boys and girls with average age of eight to ten years.

PRESENTATION OF THE DATA COLLECTED

This part deals with the presentation of the positive and negative outcomes of the

researcher work and provides possible explanations to them. Below are the tables records

of the interviews conducted on the teachers.

Table 1

Reasons for Pupils Inability To Read Twi

Reasons Respondents Percentage (%)

Poor teaching methods 18 72

Words and letters identification 2 8

at home

Total 25 100

From the table 1, it seen that out of the 25 respondents, 18 pupils representing

72% had their problem of Twi resulting from the poor teaching methods used. 2 of them

indicating 8% had problem with Twi reading owing to their inability to identify letters

and words of the Twi alphabets and the remaining 5 representing 20% had problem with

Twi reading as a result of parents’ inability to help pupils at home to do Twi reading.

Table 2

Views of Teachers on Strategies That Can Be Used To Improve Pupils Twi Reading

Strategies Respondents Percentage (%)

Alphabetic method 2 66.7

Word formation method 1 33.3

Sentence formation 0 0

Total 3 100

From the table, it could be seen that 2 teachers who represent 66.7% gave the

opinion that the use of alphabetic method where by the letters in the alphabet are taught

can go a long way to help pupils as the use of flash cards are involved. Letters are written
on flash cards for teaching for easy identification under the guidance of the teacher.

Another teacher representing 33.3% had the opinion that since letters are put together to

form words before reading is done it better using word formation for teaching reading as

it facilitate faster reading. But he also had this to say that the other methods are not

effective because word formation for instance will serve as the basis for building the use

of the sentence strategy for teaching reading.

None of the teachers representing 0% said nothing about the use of sentence formation.

Table 3

Involving the Pupils in Solving the Problem

Ways of involvement Respondents Percentage (%)

Use of teaching-learning

materials 1 33.3

making teaching

pupil-centred 1 33.3

motivation 1 33,3

Total 3 100

From the table one of the three teachers interviewed representing 33.3 % said that

the use of teaching-learning materials, which include the reading of text books, flash

cards and chalkboard are very effective for the teaching of reading in general and in
specific Twi as subject. In reality, the use of concrete materials in teaching stabilizes

understanding on the side of the pupils as pupils always remember what they were taught

whenever they set eyes on the teaching-learning materials used. Another teacher

representing 33.3 voiced out that he preferred making reading lessons pupil-centred as

this allows for pupils maximum participation in the lesson. By so doing the pupils’

interest are aroused and maintained throughout the reading period. The last teacher

representing another 33.3% gave the view that, motivation from the teacher to the pupils

also encourages them to read further, thus improve upon their Twi reading. Motivation

as he said has two sides being intrinsic and extrinsic motivation respectively. Intrinsic

motivation must come from pupils whereas extrinsic motivation roots from giving out

gifts such as books, pens, toffee, etc. and motivational words such as very good, well

done, clap for him/her and excellent. This he said would boost the pupils’ moral to do

more thus gradually attaining perfection.

ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF THE PROJECT

To assess the impact of this project, it is necessary to make comparison of the situation

before the study and the effort made and the result or outcome. Having noticed this

problem, it was necessary to engage the pupils to engage in pre reading activities.

Firm emphasis was made on reading exercises from the pupils text books. This included

pronunciation of words with their correct intonation and stresses. These exercises were

undertaken to help pupils read effectively.

After much of these exercises, pupils were able to read better than they were at first.

Besides, pupils who read with assistance earlier began to read on their own and those
who could not read anything at all can now do so with little assistance. It is hereby

suggested that other teachers should do their best to involve their pupils in more of such

exercises to ensure better performance.

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter summarizes and concludes the whole research work. It also provides

recommendations for future improvement on the subject under study at Odumase

Anglican Primary three (3).

SUMMARY

There is the need to obtain result for every problem identified and investigated. The

results suggests whether the investigations undertaken was successful or not.

A thorough observation and interview was made by the researcher and discovered the

following causes of the problem under study. These were:

Firstly, pupils problem with identification, pronunciation and recognition of the

letters of the Twi alphabet. Inadequate teaching-learning materials use for Twi reading

lessons. Little involvement of pupils in lessons thus making teacher-centred. Little

motivation of pupils in the classroom hinders their participations in the lessons in the

classroom.

Upon the findings made by the researcher, the pupils were taken through some strategies

which were the alphabetic, word formation and sentence formation approach.

CONCLUSION

The recent performance of pupils in Twi reading was taken into consideration after these

instruments were administered on the pupils. It was revealed the researcher’s work was
useful and that the goals set had been achieved. It was cleared that when pupils are taught

well, their level of understanding and interest will be higher.

Another achievable goal was that, the teachers are now making conscious effort to use

pre reading activities and teaching-learning materials to teach Twi reading.

To crown it all, the pupils concerned in this study(Odumase Anglican Primary

three(3) can now identify words and read to some extent.

The researcher embarked on the use of teaching and learning materials, with the

use of appropriate methods and techniques of teaching. Based upon that, pupils’ level of

performance in reading Ghanaian language (Twi) will improved.

RECOMMENDATION

Reading as an aspect of Ghanaian language (Twi) needs a lot of time to teach. In

this regard, an appreciable result cannot be achieved within a short period of time. Baser

on this, researcher wishes to recommend that anyone who will like to undertake a similar

project must have enough time to attain desirable results.

This project is also limited to Odumase Anglican Primary three (3) where the

researcher undertook her IN-IN-OUT programme. It is therefore suggested, any research

into the topic should also be limited because there might be more pupils elsewhere who

might have similar problems but with different causes and effects which can be tackled

differently fro m this research work.

The executive of the school’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA) should have a

talk with parents to be very particular about their children’s education and should not
think education is expensive and so ignore their responsibilities. They should encourage

and motivate their children to read Twi books.

Finally, the researcher suggests that there should be frequent visits to schools by

circuit supervisors and subject experts from Ghana Education Service to ensure that

teachers are engaging in all the good practices that exist in the teaching of Twi reading.

The Ghana Education Service and other stakeholders in education must ensue that

there is enough teaching and learning materials in the teaching of Twi reading for the

classroom teacher to use.

Teachers should take pupils through pre reading activities when Twi reading

lessons, since it is very important. They must use teaching and learning materials to teach

whenever they are delivering lessons on Twi reading since TLM arouse the interest of

pupils and made participated fully in the class.

Moreover, teachers should not only use one method of teaching but there must be

a combination n of two or more methods or techniques of teaching.

Bureau of Ghanaian Language (1975) Nimdeε Kwan. Mfitiase. Accra.

Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1996).