Reading Skills

Starting with the basics

By Ollie Rachmat

Possibly the most important skill taught in primary schools is reading. However, despite reading being a prerequisite to advancing into middle school, many primary school students continue to struggle to comprehend their texts. Reading is not an automatic skill, but something which needs to be taught effectively.

Tackling the Problem

What is the most effective way to teach children to read? Many schools use a rote learning approach to teach children to read. This classical approach first introduces the alphabet, and expects children to memorize the letters from A to Z. Once the alphabet is memorized, the next step is to string letters together to make up words like car, pen and book. During this learning stage, a child is expected to be able to comprehend the alphabet symbolically.
Despite the facts that memorizing words and recognizing the symbols of all 26 letters are essential, much of conservative teaching method emphasizes their students to repeat words as a means of memorizing them. It is considered an effective way somehow, but we should not ignore the fact that memory capacity of a child is different from others. Thus, too much repetition can be very boring for children.

Furthermore, I found that many teachers inadvertently inhibit children from developing a love of reading when they pressure students to examine the text too closely. Stopping to look up the meaning of new words and analyzing each to determine what the author is trying to say will only distract students from enjoying reading.

Good teachers should not focus on memorization during the learning process. Unfortunately, many children find reading difficult because they are trying to memorize so many words. Intelligent children with good memory may have difficulty learning to read because they are relying too heavily on memorization in the process of learning to read.

Phonics

Children are expected to start to learn to read after about three years of oral language experience. This oral experience enables them to understand the nature of words made up of sounds (phonemes).

While there are only 26 letters used to write English, there are 44 sounds in English spoken. The different meanings of the identically spelled words “live” (e.g. to be switched on) and “live” (e.g. to go through life) are distinguished by different sounds. Meanwhile, some words start with the same sound despite using different letters, such as the words “five” and “phone”.

In terms of learning English, some experts believe that phonics is an efficient way in teaching children to read. When a child understands that spoken English consists of words that can be broken down into sounds, he or she has achieved phonemic awareness. However, like building a house, phonics is only the foundation. Just as a house needs walls, doors, windows and eventually a roof, so a child learning to be an independent reader will need to learn other elements of language such as counting words, syllables, diphthongs and grammar.

Even though grammar and spelling play a significant role in reading, many teachers hinder children’s reading by over-emphasizing spelling and grammar.
Moreover, many primary students fail to comprehend grammar and spelling if they are taught using a memorizing approach. Instead, teachers should apply grammar and spelling that can be implemented directly in the text being read. Comprehension should be emphasized before grammar.

Parental Guidance

Giving books as presents to your child will encourage him/her to love reading. Many children will not be as happy when receiving books as presents compared to toys or candy. Nevertheless, children will gradually feel a positive influence when surrounded by books.

Parents can start by reading stories to their children. Story telling is a psychologically effective tool for children to instill a love of reading. During class, teachers need to be aware that creating stories as well as reading them to their students will enhance children’s interest in reading.