1. 1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research background and context
There are four English language skills taught and tested in the education system
in Malaysia and one of them is the reading skill. Reading skill is the fundamental to
understanding a language. It is the ability of an individual to read, comprehend and
interpret written words on a page of an article or any other reading material. The
possession of a good reading skill will enable the individual to be able to assimilate a
written work within a short period while reading. Pupils often encounter difficulty in
reading especially when they are faced with difficult and ambiguous words. Sometimes
it makes them lose interest in reading thereby making them unable to interpret the
content of the text due to high level of vocabulary associated with the test (Azikiwe,
2007).
According to Rasinki (2017), making the text simple and easy to understand will
go a long way to improve pupils' ability to read and comprehend. The text meant for
pupils should not be voluminous. Pupils need to have a short and precise text which can
contain pictures that will give them a vivid or mental expression since words
accompanied with pictures aid for better understanding especially in young learners
(Azikiwe, 2007). According to Tadesse (2017), when pupils comprehend or understand
written text, and combine their understanding with prior knowledge, they are able to
perform the following three reading-comprehension skills which are identifying simple
facts presented in written text (literal comprehension), making judgments about the
written text’s content (evaluative comprehension) and connecting the text to other
written passages and situations (inferential comprehension).
I am a trainee Teacher in Institute of Teacher Education Kota Bharu Campus. I
am majoring in Teaching English as Second Language (TESL), undergraduate
Programme. Learning English is important and people all over the world decide to study
it as a second language. Many countries include English as a second language in their
school syllabus and children start learning English at a young age (British Study
Centres, n.d.). In the Malaysian context, English is the second language and is taught to
2. all pupils starting from pre-school until the fifth form of the secondary school. Research
shows that learning a new language changes our brain. It impacts the parts of our brain
that are responsible for memory, conscious thought and more. Research also shows
that bilingualism can keep the brain strong and healthy into old age, and helps with
memory, concentration and other skills (Kelly, 2019).
The aims and objectives of the English Language syllabus in primary school are
to equip pupils with skills and provide a basic understanding of English language so that
they are able to communicate, both orally and in writing, in and out of school. According
to Curriculum Specification document for year 4 KSSR, by the end of primary schools,
learners should be able to read and understand different kind of texts (from print and
electronic sources) for enjoyment and information. At this stage, the pupils are now
moving towards reading for comprehension.
1.2 Reflection on teaching and learning experience
I am a trainee teacher from Teacher Training Institute Campus of Kota Bharu.
This is my Fifth Year in Teaching English as Second Language course and I have been
through several phases of School Based Experience and Practicum in Kelantan. I was
placed in SK Sri Bemban for my first phase of practicum, SK Tengku Indera Petra
during my second phase and SK Demit 2 for my internship. I have reviewed the places
and somehow I found similar pattern of behavior existing among these pupils from all
those different schools. One of the issues was the pupils had difficulty to understand the
text or passage.
During my practicum phase, I realized that only some pupils were good in
English and the rest of them had difficulty in learning English. The several pupils who
were proficient in English could understand the passage that I have asked them to read
but the others did not understand the passage and they had difficulty in answering the
comprehension questions based on the reading text. Over the period of time, I managed
to identify some problems that they often faced in comprehending the reading text. For
instance, the main problem with reading comprehension was that pupils lack the
3. strategies to actively engage with the text so that they could understand it. Some of
these strategies that may prove to be challenging for them include decoding the words
and making inferences. As a result, pupils found it difficult to understand what they were
reading.
I started my teaching and learning session in the second week of my practicum
as the first week was importantly dedicated to introduction to school’s environment,
which was not only about the physical layouts of the school, the teachers and the pupils,
but also the school system and how the administratives run the school. During my first
day entering the class of Year 4 in the second week of practicum, I started off my lesson
with the topic of ‘Our Solar System’ under unit 9. The task in this lesson was to read the
passage about the solar system in the textbook and answer the comprehension
questions based on the text. The pupils were able to read the text correctly without any
problem. But they were having problem to answer the comprehension questions in the
textbook. They said that they could read the text but they did not understand the
material that they read.
According to Logsdon (2019), some pupils with a problem in reading
comprehension can read aloud with little or no difficulty pronouncing words, but they do
not understand or remember what they've read. When reading aloud, their words and
phrases are often read with no feeling, no change in tone, no logical phrasing, and no
rhythm or pace. Their reading abilities may seem fine, but they may understand very
little of what they just read. Based on this statement by Logsdon, I have now understood
that there are pupils who can read fluently but they have no understanding about the
reading text at all.
This issue and problem regarding the reading comprehension among pupils can
be addressed by providing extra guidance, practice and provide a strategy for them to
better understand the text. That is why I am interested to find out in this research
whether the new strategy of understanding the text such as using “TELLS” strategy can
improve their comprehension in reading.
