Effectiveness of a proposed reading method in teaching reading skills to grade three learning disabilities students with reading difficulty in Jordan
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Date
2009
Authors
Al-Elaimat, Ahmad Khlayef Khalel
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Abstract
The increasing concern on the phenomenon of high failure rates in elementary schools is sourced to learning disabilities (LD), of which reading difficulty emerged as a major problem. Previous studies showed that the traditional method in teaching reading skills has been ineffective. Thus, there need to be concerted efforts among educationalists in finding new strategies, methods and techniques to improve reading. This study aims to develop a method in teaching reading to LD students based on a combination of Gillingham’s method and Vygotsky’s social development theory and to test the effectiveness of the proposed method. The study sample comprised sixty Third Grade Elementary students with reading difficulty, randomly selected and matched by the resource room teachers. The sample was then divided into two groups. The experimental group received the proposed reading method and the control group the presently used method for seven weeks, after which a post-test was administered.
The findings showed there were statistical significant differences between the post-test means of the experimental group against the control group, in favor of the former in all the five units that made up the proposed reading manual and in the overall method. These results are corroborated by the acceptable response rates observed from students during the teaching sessions of the proposed reading method. It is likely that improvement in students’ reading is achieved from the teaching of the proposed method which has successfully embodied sound training of letters, syllables, words, sentences and paragraph in an organized and sequential way, from bottom-up, from easy to difficult, from its repetitive exercises; through the ‘teacher-student’ and ‘student-student’ collaboration.
Description
PhD
Keywords
Education , Reading skills , disabilities students