TYPES AND CAUSE OF READING DIFFICULTIES AFFECTING THE READING

OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE: A CASE OF GRADE 4 LEARNERS IN SELECTED

SCHOOLS IN OGONG CIRCUIT OF NAMIBIA

Research Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment

Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of

Education of the University of Namibia

By

Kleopas Mule

Main Supervisor: Prof. C. Kasanda

Co-Supervisor: Dr. M. Hamunyela

i
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Approval page (viii)

Declaration (ix)

Dedications (x)

Acknowledgement (xi)

Abstract (xii)

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Orientation of the study 1

1.2 Theoretical framework 3

1.3 Statement of the problem 4

1.4 Research questions 4

1.5 Significance of the study 4

1.6 Limitations of the study 5

1.7 Delimitation of the study 5

1.8 Definition of terms 6

1.9 Summary 7

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 8

2.1 Introduction 8

2.2 English in the Namibian school curriculum 8

2.3 Causes of reading difficulties 9

2.3.1 Stages of reading development 9

2.3.2 English language problems and reading difficulties 12

2.3.3 Language policy for Primary Schools in Namibia 14

2.3.4 The learners role in communication in the second language 16

2.3.5 Reading slowly in the mother tongue 17

2.3.6 Ineffective decoding of the written word 17

2.4 Good readers of English 18

2.5 Causes of learning difficulties 19

2.6 Practicing reading fast with comprehension 20

2.7 Classroom environment that supports literacy development 21

2.8 The role of teaching and instruction with regard to learners reading

difficulties 22

2.9 Different teaching methods 23

2.9.1 The phonic method 23

2.9.2 The look and say or whole word method 24

2.9.3 The whole language approach to reading 24

2.9.4 Combining phonic and whole-language method in teaching reading 25

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2.9.5 Choosing appropriate method of teaching reading in English 25

2.10 Theories of reading 26

2.10.1 The traditional bottom-up view of reading 26

2.10.2 The cognitive theory or top-down view of reading 28

2.10.3 The balanced or interactive model of reading 29

2.11 Implication of the theories for instructions 30

2.11.1 The traditional bottom-up view of reading 30

2.11.2 The cognitive theory or top-down view of reading 31

2.11.3 The balanced view or the interactive model of reading 31

2.12 Summary 32

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 33

3.1 Introduction 33

3.2 Research design 33

3.3 Population 34

3.4 Research site 34

3.5 Sample and sampling procedures 35

3.6 Data collection instruments 36

3.6.1 Observation 36

3.6.2 Reading achievement test 37

3.7 Pilot study 38

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3.8 Data collection procedure 38

3.9 Data analysis 39

3.9.1 Observation 39

3.8.2 An achievement test 39

3.10 Ethic consideration 40

3.11 Summary 40

CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION AND DISCUSION OF THE RESULTS 41

4.1 Introduction 41

4.2 Findings from observations 42

4.2.1 Classroom physical environment 43

4.2.1.1 Classroom composition 43

4.2.1.2 The reading corner 43

4.2.1.3 Teacher-learners ratio 45

4.2.2 Classroom psychosocial-environment 45

4.2.2.1 Approaches of teaching reading English in a Grade 4 classroom 46

4.2.2.2 Teacher-learners interactions 48

4.2.2.3 Classroom interactions and learners’ gender 49

4.3 The reading tests 50

4.4 Discussion of findings 56

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4.4.1 Factors affecting reading proficiency among Grade 4 learners in the

Ogongo circuit 57

4.4.1.1 Decoding and word recognition abilities 57

4.4.1.2 Reading miscues analysis 60

4.4.1.3 Reading fluency 62

4.4.1.4 Reading comprehension 63

4.4.1.5 English oral language 65

4.4.1.6 Teacher factors 66

4.4.2 Possible intervention strategy 67

4.4.2.1 Word decoding skill and word recognition strategy 68

4.4.2.2 Teachers approaches to teaching reading 69

4.4.2.3 Language development 70

CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 72

5.1 Introduction 72

5.2 Summary 72

5.3 Conclusion 73

5.4 Recommendations 73

References 74

Appendices 80

Appendix 1: Letter of consent to the director 80

Appendix 2: Letter of permission to carry out the study in the region 82

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Appendix 3: Observation guide 83

Appendix 4: Single word or non-word scoring key 84

Appendix 5: Reading assessment one: Task 1 85

Appendix 6: Reading assessment one: Task 86

Appendix 7: Reading scoring key for assessment two 87

Appendix 8: Reading assessment two: passage 1 88

Appendix 9: Reading assessment two: passage 2 89

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List of Tables

Table 1: Levels of reading 50

vii
APPROVAL PAGE

This research has been examined and is approved as meeting the required
standards for partial fulfilment of the requirement of the degree of Master of
Education.

.................................................. .............................................

Internal Examination Date

..................................................... ................................................

External Examiner Date

.................................................... .............................................

Dean of Education Faculty Date

viii
DECRALATION

I, Kleopas Mule, hereby declare that this study is a true reflection of my own
research, and this work, or part thereof not been submitted for a degree in any
other institution of higher learning.

No part of this thesis may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or

transmitted in any form or means (example; electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise) without prior permission of the author, or the university of
Namibia in that behalf.

I, Kleopas Mule, hereby grant the University of Namibia the right to reproduce this
thesis in whole or in part.

......................................... .......................................

Kleopas Mule Date

ix
DEDICATIONS

This paper is dedicated to my daughter, Kerlo Mekeliwa, who was born while I was
studying. She did not receive the love she deserved as a baby.

x
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to express my appreciation to various people who directly or indirectly

contributed to this thesis. Firstly, I would like to profoundly thank my family,
particularly, my wife, Secilia Silvanus-Mule, for support and encouragement, and
for she bore the responsibilities of taking care of the family. You tolerated and
patiently endure my absence and stress for the sake of this study. Secondly, I am
wholeheartedly grateful to my colleagues, at the school where I was appointed as
a teacher, who sacrificed much to bear the burden of teaching my classes when I
was on study leave.

I am also indebted to my supervisors, Prof. Kasanda, C. and Dr Hamunyela, M. for

their valuable guidance and support they gave me despite their busy schedules,
without whom this work would not have been accomplished. My sincere thanks go
to the schools and learners for their cooperation and making this study possible.

xi
 ABSTRACT

This study sought to identify the causes of reading difficulties affecting reading

English among Grade four (4) learners in the Ogongo circuit in Namibia. It

followed a mixed research design approach. To obtain a representative sample of

the population of primary schools, purposeful sampling was used, selecting three

teachers and 92 learners from three schools of the 14 schools in the circuit. Both

qualitative and quantitative data was obtained from lesson observations and from

reading tests, and findings revealed that, inadequate English reading materials,

improper teaching methodology and insufficient English language development

were causes of reading difficulties in the circuit. Lack of English language

development was a result of insufficient teacher-learner interactions during the

English lessons. The results from the tests indicated that decoding, phonemic

awareness, word recognition skill and comprehension might hamper reading

proficiency in Grade 4 and although a section of learners proved the abilities to

read fluently they could not satisfactorily answer the questions based on the text

read. The results revealed that 69.6% were unable to read the texts beyond the

frustration level, and only 30.4% at the instruction level. The research

recommends that schools should make resources available to buy supplementary

reading materials for use by learners, and that teachers encourage learners to

borrow books from libraries to practice reading independently. Teachers should

study English through the English Language Proficiency Programme run jointly by

the Ministry of Education and the University of Namibia.

xii
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 ORIENTATION OF THE STUDY

At the dawn of Namibia’ independence in 1990, English was chosen as the official
language, as well as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) in schools. As
a requisite skill for all academic achievement, learners should be grounded in
reading in their early years of schooling. According to the language policy outlined
by the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture (MBESC, 2005a), learners in
the Lower Primary Phase (Grades 1 to 3) are to be taught through the mother
tongue or a predominant local language, after which Grade 4 is a transitional
stage from the lower to Upper Primary Phase, and from learning to read to reading
to learn (MBESC, 2003). Despite, or in spite of English having been made the
medium of instruction and assessment from Grades 5 to 12 in all public schools,
most children in Northern Namibia start school having only one primary language,
their mother tongue, alongside which they are then progressively introduced to
reading, writing and speaking English, for skills transfer.

The Omusati education region was ranked low in the Junior Secondary Certificate
examination results for 2008/2009, by the Ministry of Education (MoE, 2009b), so
to ensure change in learners’ level of performance, the region adopted a Regional
Performance Improvement Strategy (RPIS) (MoE, 2009a), aimed at improving the
perceived critical subjects such as English and Mathematics. Thus, with the
support of the Basic Education Support Project Phase 3, a Learners’ Performance
Assessment Instrument (LPAI) was developed in English and Mathematics and
piloted in various circuits in the region (MoE, 2009a). In English, the focus was on
establishing the level of reading among Grade 4 learners, however, among the
pilot tested circuits Ogongo was identified as a low performer, with 64% of the
learners unable to read at the expected level, followed by Otamazi (35%) and
Anamulenge (30%) (MoE, 2009a). In 2012 a report based on an English
diagnostic test conducted for all Grade 4 learners in the region revealed that the
1
Ogongo circuit was among the poorest performers. However, the report concluded
that overall there was poor performance in English as a second language across
the region (Omusati region, Directorate of Education, 2012).

A learner who misses a chance of learning to read in the first three years of
schooling is likely to be poor in reading throughout school (Lerner, 2000). Hartney
(2011) found difficulties in reading English among Grade 3 learners for whom it
was not the first language in the Khomas education region, while Junias (2009)
reported a similar problem in the Oshana education region. Similarly, Hengari
(2007) noted reading difficulties among the Grade 4 learners in the Erongo
education region. Nyathi (1999) observed that many learners at the secondary
school level of education in Namibia lacked adequate reading skills because of an
improper foundation in learning and reading. From these findings the question
arises as to whether the education system was failing to teach learners relevant
reading skills at lower grades of education in Namibia. The Lower Primary
curriculum (Grades 1 to 4) stipulates that by Grade 4, the end of the phase,
learners must be able to:

 read fluently prepared and unprepared factual and fictional texts of

about 150 words;

 correctly answer comprehension questions on the text, and talk freely

about them;

 find basic information from factual texts;

 demonstrate good reading habits through eagerness to read;

 discuss the use of the Internet (MBESC, 2005b, p.7).

However, as Makuwa (2004) acknowledges, many primary school children in

Namibia do not reach the expected mastery of reading skills in English, with only
4.4% of the learners in the Omusati region reaching the minimum level of English
reading proficiency, and 0.2% the desirable level of reading mastery. By
comparison, in the Kavango region, 7.5% of the learners reach the minimum level
of English reading proficiency and 0.5%, the desirable level of reading mastery. In
the Khomas region 63% of learners reach the minimum reading level and 35% the
2
desirable reading level (MBESC, 2004). These findings illustrate relatively slow
progress in English reading mastery at the primary level of education in the
Omusati education region. Although these studies identified learners' lack of
reading skills in the education system in Namibia, they do not explicitly explore the
causes. Thus, the researcher found it necessarily to explore how learners read,
and identify causes of reading difficulties, focusing on Grade 4 learners in the
Ogongo circuit, Omusati education region.

1.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The extent to which individuals learn to read is primarily demonstrated by cognitive

theories, one of which, relevant to this study, is the constructivist theory of
Vygotsky (1978), which posits that learners enter school with a sense of self-
efficacy for learning based on previous experience and personal qualities (Schunk
& Dale 2006, p.236). This implies that the meaning individuals give to the text
depends on their language(s), culture, personal experience, and the particular
social context in which the reading occurs. If materials intended for learners’
reading are not based on their culture and environment they may contribute to
reading difficulties.

Furthermore, constructivist theory shares with social cognitive theory (Bandura,

1986) an assumption that a person’s behaviour and environment interact in a
reciprocal fashion. The view underpinning social cognitive theory is that learning to
read is linked to one’s social environment. For instance, some learners learn well
when they are in groups, which is in line with the Namibian education system’s
adoption of a learner-centred approach through interaction (MBESC, 2003).
Cummins (1976, in Baker, 2006) found that learning to read in a second language
(L2) requires certain competencies already achieved in the first language (L1).
Reading development in L1 helps the transfer of reading skills to L2, but this is
attained over a time as a result of maturation (Baker, 2006).

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1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Despite expectations of the MBESC (2005b) that by Grade 4 the learners will have
acquired basic skills in reading, very few have (Leech, 2010). Hartney (2011)
reported a lack of reading proficiency among the Grade 3 learners in the Khomas
region, while Junias (2009) also found difficulties in reading English among the
Grade 3 learners in the Oshana region. Without adequate reading skills in English,
the LOLT in all public schools, learners will encounter difficulties with other
subjects in the curriculum. To ensure improvement in reading performance the
causes of the problem should be identified and addressed.

The researcher, therefore, sought to find out the types and causes of reading
difficulties experienced by Grade 4 learners in the reading of English language in
the Ogongo circuit, in Omusati education region. This study forms a basis for
proposing a framework for interventions to address the identified causes.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In order to understand the causes of reading difficulties experienced by the Grade

4 learners in the Ogongo circuit, this study addressed the following questions.

(1) What reading difficulties in English are experienced by Grade 4 learners

in Ogongo circuit?

(2) What are possible causes of these reading difficulties?

(3) What intervention framework would help learners acquire relevant

English reading skills?

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The results of this study are intended to serve as a guide for teachers and parents
wishing to see the introduction of more appropriate teaching strategies to help
learners and their children, respectively, become proficient in reading English. The

4
result might also serve as a tool for teachers to locate children with reading
difficulties in the English language, and the type of support that might be required.
Knowledge of the causes of reading difficulties among the Grade 4 learners
should also help the teachers, parents and community, at large, in the Omusati
Education Region, to provide necessary support for the improvement of learners’
reading skills.

1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

According to the MBESC (2005a), the teacher-learner ratio for the Primary Phase
is 1:35. The research expected a sample of 105 Grade 4 learners, or more, but
only 92 from three primary schools in the Ogongo circuit participated in this study.
This sample was relatively small and thus not representative of the entire Grade 4
population in the circuit.

The presence of the researcher in the classroom during the lesson observations
could have affected the performance of learners and teachers. For instance,
during tests the learners might have been uneasy with the presence of a stranger,
and this could have affected the study results. However, both teachers and
learners were assured of confidentiality and anonymity in the conduct of this study.

1.7 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This study was confined to three selected Grade 4 primary classes, one from each
of three primary schools in one circuit. In total, three teachers, one from each of
the schools, and 92 learners participated. The scope was limited to reading skills
in English. Selecting only three schools made it easier and quicker for the
researcher to collect the data, because the sample was small and manageable.
Furthermore, during the reading tests learners showed willingness to participate.

5
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

This section gives the meanings of the terms used in this study.

Reading is defined as the gaining of meaning from and bringing it to the written
page (Wong, 1998). Grade 4 learners need to process information from the
reading text and the knowledge they possess acts to produce meaning.

Medium of instruction refers to the language teachers use to teach learners. It is

a mean of conveying information to learners, such as the official language of the
country or the native mother tongue of the learners (MBESC, 2003).

Literacy refers to the ability to read and write (Baker, 2006).

Diagnostic reading is the act of identifying reading difficulties and strengths by

looking at signs identifiable as a learner reads. This involves the analysis of the
causes or nature of the difficulties (Rubin, 1991).

English as a Second Language refers to the use of English by speakers of

different native languages. It is a language other than ones’ mother tongue, used
for the purpose of communication in public institutions, for example, education or
government (MBESC, 2003).

Reading proficiency has been achieved when a reader is skilful, expert and
competent in reading (Cambridge Learners’ Dictionary, 2010).

Lower Primary Education in the Namibian context refers to Grades 1 to 4

(MBESC, 2005).

In this study the terms cause and factor are used interchangeably. The Oxford
advance Learner’s Dictionary (2007) defines cause as “the thing that makes
something happen” while factor is “one of the several things that cause or
influence something.”

6
1.9 SUMMARY

This chapter presented the background of the study on the causes of reading
difficulties among Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit, Omusati Education
Region, in which recent studies conducted on the level of reading proficiency have
indicated reading difficulties. As a result the region attempted to ensure the
development of reading proficiency among Primary Phase learners. This study,
however, focused on identifying the causes of reading difficulties in order to
suggest an intervention strategy. The chapter also highlighted the significance of
this study to teachers, learners, parents and other stakeholders in education. In
the next chapter the researcher presents a review of literature relevant to this
study.

7
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher reviews relevant literature on literacy learning and
the difficulties that might affect reading in English. The review emphasises the
cognitive literacy that requires an individual to use specific skills and knowledge
about how the written language operates in processing the texts. Cognitive literacy
is essential in examining factors, such as the position of English as an L2 in the
national curriculum in Namibia and possible causes of reading difficulties affecting
learners whose L1 is not English.

2.2 ENGLISH IN THE NAMIBIAN SCHOOL CURRICULUM

In 1990, Namibia decided to have a new language policy for schools, the goal of
which was a seven-year primary education phase that would enable learners to
acquire reasonable competencies in English and be prepared for English as a
medium of instruction throughout the Secondary Phase and beyond (MBESC,
2003). Thus, the MBESC (2003) adopted a language policy that would guide how
the language issues would be handled in education in Namibia. The benchmarks
set by the language policy are that:

 “Grade 1-3 will be taught in the mother tongue or the predominant

language. If parents or the school wish to use English as the medium of
instruction in the Lower Primary Phase, permission must be obtained from
the Ministry.

 Grade 4 will be the transitional year when the change to English as a

medium of instruction must take place.

8
  Grade 5-7 English will be the medium of instruction. In the Upper Primary
Phase the mother tongue may only be used in a supportive role and
continues to be taught as a subject.

 Grade 8-12 will be taught through the medium of English, and the mother
tongue will continue to be taught as a subject.

 Examinations: grade 7, 10 and 12 national examinations will be taken

through the medium of English, except the mother tongue will continue to
be taught as a subject.

 English is a compulsory subject starting from grade 1 and continuing

throughout the school system.

 All learners must study two languages as subjects at grade 1 onward, and
one must be English (p.5)”.

From the rationale of the language policy the researcher assumed that by Grade 4
the learners would have acquired a good command of English use and be able to
read and retell what they have read. According to the MBESC (2003, p.4), the
national Language Policy for Schools is specifically concerned with language
transition throughout the Lower Primary grades. The policy recommends the use
of mother tongue from grades 1-3 in order to lay a strong foundation for skills
transfer.

While learners in Grade 3 are entitled to be taught in the mother tongue, when
English is offered as a subject, in Grade 4 the transition has to be completed for
them to face activities through the medium of English throughout the Upper
Primary Phase

2.3 CAUSES OF READING DIFFICULTIES

Lerner (2000, p.389) reports that “children who get off to a poor start in reading
rarely catch up; poor first grade readers are likely to continue to be poor readers.”
This research’s concern was that most, if not all, learners in the Ogongo circuit
9
might have gone through various sequential reading stages which have the
potential to develop inaccuracy in reading habits among learners.

2.3.1 Stages of reading development

A number of studies in the area of reading, for example, those conducted by Chall
(1987), Dickinson and Neuman (2006), and Lerner (2000) point out difficulties
learning to read in English when not a first language. Although these were
conducted outside Namibia they have a direct bearing on the teaching and
learning to read English. Chall (1987) identified six stages of reading development,
from pre-reading, an early stage known as ‘logographic reading’, which is the
earliest stage in which young children begin to recognise limited vocabulary of
whole words, using incidental cues such as a logo, a picture, a colour or a shape,
through early literacy to mature fluent reading. The instructional method the
teachers use should be compatible with the emerging competence of the reader.
The Institute of Reading Development (2011) presents the following four stages.

Stage 1: Learning to read

This stage begins when children are four to five years old and beginning to learn
letters. The central focus is on decoding meaning, learning the alphabet and the
sounds that letters make, learning to distinguish sounds in speech, and learning to
sound out words. At this stage children establish a foundation for a lifelong
relationship with books, however, researchers such as Lerner (2000), and
Dickinson and Neuman (2006), maintain that children who are exposed to books
in their early years learn to read more easily. This exposure may be lacking to the
majority of Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit, due to different economic
backgrounds and this consequently results in poor reading habits.

Stage 2: Developing independent reading

This stage begins when children achieve fluency in beginners’ reader books,
usually during Grade 2. The focus during this stage is on a large amount of
reading in books at the appropriate level of difficulty. Moat (1994) argued that
10
children need knowledge of sound-symbol associations and abundant practice to
contribute to fluency in word recognition. At this stage, reading practice and skill
development are both primarily focused on fluency development as learners start
to decode words of three or more syllables.

Stage 3: Reading with absorption

This stage begins when children achieve fluency in children’s novels, usually in
Grades 3 or 4 (Chall, 1987). The focus is on reading development about reading
of children’s novels at gradually increasing levels of difficulty. This process
enables them to develop a certain level of fluency and comprehension, and
automaticity in reading as a basis for more than just the habit of reading for
pleasure. When children gain fluency, it lays the basis for all subsequent reading
development.

Stage 4: Critical reading

At this stage, children undergo transformation, physical, emotional, and cognitive

changes starting in middle school and continuing throughout high school and into
adulthood. These changes bring, in their wake, a new cognitive capability that first
appears in the middle school and continues to grow throughout the secondary and
post-secondary years. According to Wixon and Lipson (1997), when a child who
has achieved the goal of Stage 3 of reading development enters Stage 4, the
opportunity exists for a much more effective reading process to develop. A child
with a strong reading background who reads with a solid level of fluency and
comprehension will experience relatively automatic and accurate fluency of
understanding while reading. However, training is required for critical reading to
become most useful: “Students become cognised of what they read and have
developed: the ability to recognise how material is organised, the ability to monitor
comprehension and adjust reading rate or reread when necessary” (Moat, 1994,
p.56).

11
2.3.2 English Language problems and reading difficulties

Pang, Muaka, Benhard and Michael (2003, p.273) observe that real progress in
reading depends on oral language development, an observation that suggests that
children learn to read by associating the written form with speech. For children to
know how to read they must learn the vocabulary, grammar and sound system of
the oral language in which the reading takes place. Dickinson and Neuman (2006,
p.75) see a connection between oral language and early reading, therefore, prior
oral knowledge of English language might be one factor contributing to the reading
difficulties experienced by learners in the Ogongo circuit.

Reading, as a language-based activity (Lyon, 2000), does not develop naturally,

and for many children, decoding, word recognition, and reading comprehension
skills must be taught directly and systematically. If a child’s knowledge of English
is poor the reading skill as well as reading comprehension will also be poor
(Baker, 2006). Having raised the question of whether the problem with reading “is
a reading problem or language problem,” Carter and Nunan (2002, p.22)
concluded that it involved both.

Cummins (2000) postulated the “developmental interdependence hypothesis

(p.135)”, suggesting that a child’s L2 competencies are partly dependent on the
level of competence already achieved in the L1. This is because bilingual students
draw some knowledge when performing reading (Baker, 2006, p.174). Cummins
further asserts that once the reading ability has been acquired in the L1, it is
available for use in the L2. If the L1 is poor, it will prove difficult for skills to be
transferred to L2. Similarly, Ellis’s (2000) Nativist theory confirms that learners’
inputs conform to their own internalised view of what constitutes the L2 system.
They simplify the learning task by forming a hypothesis based on the knowledge
process of their L1.

The majority of the children in the Ogonngo circuit speak Oshimbalanu,

Oshikwaaludhi or Oshingandjera as their primary languages. However, when they
start school they are taught Oshindonga as the L1 and subsequently English as a
second language. Although these languages share similar lexical features with
Oshindonga, they are quite different in numerous linguistic terms, and this would
12
suggest poor transfer of reading skills. In view of this, Cummins (2000) posits “the
thresholds theory”, which suggests a linguistic level for a child to reach in the
prime language and so avoid the negative consequences of the L2. The question
is whether at the Grade 4 level, learners in Ogongo circuit have acquired relevant
skills in reading Oshindonga, which is not their L1, to scaffold reading in English.

In the same vein, Lerner (2000) argues that when a person attempts to speak a
language in which s/he has not yet become automated, s/he will necessarily have
to divide attention between the content of the message and the language itself.
This also applies to reading and if the skill in reading is automated it will not be
disrupted by concurrent processing of the language because this does not take up
the attention resources. She stresses that a person in whom the language is not
automated will read with great difficulty, being forced to pay all the attention to
word recognition and none to decoding the written word, thus impeding
comprehension.

Rumelhalt’s (1980) schema theory highlights the limited amount of cognitive

energy available for use in processing information. If a reader’s cognitive energy is
focused on decoding and combining the meaning of the word, then
comprehension will suffer. For Scott (2001), schema theory is vital in helping
learners use their mental store during learning, whilst Brewer’s (2000) schemata
theory helps learners to determine how to interpret the task to be learned, how to
understand the information and what knowledge the learner acquires.

In contrast to language, Snow, Burns and Griffin (1998) introduced types of risk
factors that contribute to low levels of academic achievement among L2 learners.
In their study conducted among Hispanics in the USA, they identified factors of
risk to language development, including socio-economic status (poverty
conditions), cultural differences between school and home (regarding education
values and expectations), socio-political factors (including past and continuing
discrimination, and low perceived opportunity for schooling) and school quality.
The factors identified could be the source for poor reading habits displayed by
Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit, since English to them is also an L2.

13
It is therefore imperative that teachers detect the learners’ reading problem, earlier
in order to avoid other problems in future, or before it becomes a central concern
to reading development. Snow et al. (1998) concluded that low English proficiency
among the learners for whom it is not an L1 is a strong indication that the child is
at risk of reading difficulty. Carter and Nunan (2003) point out that reading
achievement is a widespread problem when learners are instructed or tested in
their home languages. However, they further indicate that linguistic differences are
not solely responsible for the high degree of reading difficulties faced by children,
but that there are a host of other factors.

2.3.3 Language policy for primary schools in Namibia

The threshold hypothesis suggests that a child’s L2 competence is partly

dependent on the competence already achieved in the L1 (Baker, 2006). With
regard to academic language requirements, Baker (2006) notes the distinction
between the Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS), a face-to-face
context embedded situation that provides non-verbal support to secure
understanding, and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), which
appears in context-reduced academic situations. This helps explain the relative
failure in the education system of many L2 children (Baker, 2006, p.176). Baker
stresses that if the transition from the home language to the L2 is not well
monitored it may result in many learners being in classrooms in which the
cognitively demanding language is beyond their grasp.

In the Namibian context, BICS may be applicable to Grades 1-3, when instruction
take place in the mother tongue and English is taught as a subject. This means
that in these grades, simple English language that provides non-verbal support is
used to facilitate understanding. On the other hand, CALP would be associated
with Grade 4 and upward, where English is used as the medium of instruction.
This implies that in line with the requirement of the Grade 4 syllabus, learners are
expected to be sufficiently proficient in English as a medium of instruction to face
the academic demands in the Upper Primary and beyond. However, according to
Lerner (2000), the maturation view of development applied to reading suggests a
14
stage of development before the child acquires reading skills. Thus, proponents of
the maturation view stress that forcing younger children to perform academic tasks
for which they are not ready, such as reading, should constitute a form of child
abuse (Lerner, 2000). The researcher does not know whether or not this could be
the case with learners in Ogongo circuit, but finding is out is one goal of this study.

For Gonzarez, Minaya-Rowe and Yawkey (2006), pre-literacy and literacy skills
emerge when ESL students achieve oral language maturity. They emphasise that
ESL learners need to achieve maturation in oral language proficiency as a pre-
requisite for developing literacy skills, such as: knowledge of print; ability to
discriminate letters; phonemic awareness; acquisition of phoneme-grapheme
knowledge; and reading comprehension (2006, p.142).

Gass and Selinker (2001) report on the monitor model posited by Krashen (1982),
which highlights an acquisition-learning hypothesis, according to which L2 learners
have two dependent means of developing knowledge of the L2, either through
acquisition or through learning. Acquisition equates to the way children develop
the ability to acquire their L1, subconsciously. On the other hand, learning refers to
the conscious knowledge of L2, knowing the rules, being aware of them, and
being able to talk about them.

Murray and Johnson (1996) argue that age is a great determinant of language
development, and that the younger a person the easier it is to learn or acquire the
language. Hakuta et al. (2000, in Baker, 2006) conceded that age is significant
with regard to language acquisition. The younger an individual the faster s/he
acquires the language. Gass and Selinker (2001) agree that children under ten
acquire an L2 easily, with the turning point in language acquisition ability seeming
to occur at or about puberty. Gonzarez et al. (2006) agree with Gass and Selinker
(2001) that age is a powerful determinant of success in language acquisition, and
that puberty is the turning point when individuals begin to acquire the language
more slowly. These research findings regarding the effect of age on language
learning are especially important when education policy decisions are made
concerning the grade level at which learners are offered L2 instruction. The age

15
factor could be a determinant for learners’ language acquisition in Ogongo circuit,
but finding out is another aim of the study.

2.3.4 The learner’s role in communication in the second language

Studies conducted by Gass and Selinker (2001), and Dulay and Hewings (1982)
have identified three types of communication in which learners participate:

 One-way communication. According to Gass and Selinker (2001), a

learner listens to or reads the target language but does not respond. The
communication is one-way towards a learner, but not from the learner. This
type of communication is a typical example of most primary school learners
in rural areas when first introduced to English as a subject. At this stage,
(Grades 1-2), the teaching provides simple, basic communication to
facilitate understanding. Learners do understand the simplified instructions
but cannot respond.

 Restricted two-way communication. Here the learner responds orally to

someone, but does not use the target language. The response might be in
the learner’s L1 or even non-verbal (Gass & Selinker, 2001, p.143).

 Full two-way Communication. For Dulay and Hewings (1982), the

transition is made and the learner may respond in the target language,
acting as both recipient and sender of the verbal messages. The studies by
Gass and Selinker (2001) and Dulay and Hewings (1982) emphasise the
benefits of allowing one-way communication and restricted two-way
communication during the early parts of the learning process, and waiting
until the learner is ready to produce the target language before engaging in
full two-way communication.

With regard to Namibia’s education system, full two-way communication is a

requirement of Grade 4 and upward, but, of significance is whether learners at
this stage have acquired adequate English language proficiency.

16
2.3.5 Reading slowly in the mother tongue

According to Murray and Johnson (1996):

…if you have done your schooling through the medium of English, you may
never have learned to read in your home language. But, if you do not read
fast in your home language you will be even worse in English where you
probably also have to struggle to understand the meaning (p.79).

Nutall (1982) noted that students from some educational traditions may not read
efficiently even in their L1, this being a hindrance for the development of reading in
the L2.

Dickinson and Neuman (2006) confirm that there is a strong transfer of reading
habits from one language to another. According to Alderson (2000), reading in L1
must be better than L2, and fluency in L1 readers should bring the speed of their
L2 up to that of their L1. Meanwhile, Cummins (2000) presents a linguistic
interdependence hypothesis, in which bilingual students draw knowledge when
performing school reading tasks, with reading ability has been acquired in L1 and
available for use in L2. Nutall (1982) concurs that if L1 is not ready, and bad habits
develop in L1, attention to L1 reading may be useful before developing better
reading in L2. According to the MBESC (2003), Grades 1 to 3 must be taught
through the medium of mother tongue to facilitate the transfer of skills in English.
However, if the reading skills are not well developed in the mother tongue, as
Nutall (1982) claims, this will be a hindrance for reading in English. Determining
whether or not this is the case in Ogongo circuit is another goal of this study.

2.3.6 Ineffective decoding of the written word

According to McGuiness (2005), decoding words is a very important aspect of the

reading act, without which reading comprehension is impossible. This explains
why some children in Namibian schools can read but not understand what they

17
are reading (Nyathi, 1999). Decoding is a pre-requisite skill to reading, and the
lack of it presents L2 learners with difficulties when reading in English. Murray and
Johnson (1996) caution teachers against using long sentences with beginners,
asserting that when reading letter-by-letter and word-by-word s/he might not be
able to hold all the information in short memory long enough to understand the
sentence as a whole (p.337). This would imply that if one decodes letter-by-letter
one would not find out what the word is.

People can read a text aloud without actually understanding what it means, as
Leech (2010) observed in Namibian schools. Thus, the researcher sought to find
out the causes of reading difficulties in Ogongo circuit. Dickinson and Neuman
(2006) attribute ineffective decoding to weak visual processing, faulty recognition
and naming, poor phonological awareness, memory dysfunction as well as limited
access to word meaning. Dickinson and Neuman (2006) maintain that decoding
problems are often aggravated by lack of practice, however, they caution teachers
against trying to detect exactly where and how the breakdown in decoding occurs
and act appropriately. On the other hand, Buzan (2010) noted that ineffective
decoding is a result of poor phoneme-grapheme awareness, and that some
children lack sufficient awareness of sound units in words. He emphasises that
this makes it hard to learn to read (p.165).

If learners are struggling to understand what they read because of difficult words,
concepts, or sentence structure, they will not be able to read quickly. Many
learners and students studying through the medium of a second language spend
much of their time struggling to read books which are above their level of language
proficiency (Lerner, 2000, p.399).

2.4 GOOD READERS OF ENGLISH

According to Lyon (2000), good readers are phonemically aware, understand the
alphabetic principle, apply these skills in a rapid and fluent manner, possess
strong vocabularies and syntactical and grammatical skills, and relate reading to
their own experiences. Meanwhile, Murray and Johnson (1996) argue that a good

18
reader is one who concentrates not on individual letters, sounds or words but on
meaning. They also assert that a good reader is constantly trying to extract
meaning from words on a page. In substantiating their claims, they qualify a good
reader as one who:

 is able to decode the symbol;

 is able to understand the language in which it is written;

 is familiar with the form of certain types of writing;

 is familiar with certain conventions of writing; and

 has certain kinds of knowledge about the world (p.173).

Goodman (1990) believes that a good reader does not read every word in a text,
but rather uses his/her knowledge to guess or predict, then reads just enough to
find out whether s/he has guessed correctly. Goodman described reading as a
“psycholinguistic guessing game” (p.215).

Buzan (2010) maintains that:

...a good reader is one who is able to read fast. A good reader does not
read aloud to himself or make movements with lips when reading. A good
reader does not have to look back often or follow a print with a finger. The
speed at which s/he reads does not impair his/her comprehension, in fact,
she/he understands better because s/he is able to take longer stretches of
meaning a time (p.127).

2.5 CAUSES OF LEARNING DIFFICULTIES

According to Lerner (2000), children who have a good start in reading read more
and become better readers, in contrast to those who have a poor start in reading
and so do not engage in wide reading but fall further behind. Similarly, Lyon
(2000) notes that learning to read begins long before children enter formal

19
schooling, and that those who have stimulating literacy experiences from birth
have an edge in vocabulary development, understanding the goal of reading, and
developing an awareness of print and literacy concepts. Lyon (2000) concludes
that “the children who are most at risk for reading failure enter kindergarten and
the elementary grades without these early experiences” (p.14).

In agreement with Lyon, Lerner (2000) argues that children come to school without
the literacy experiences (reading, writing and numeracy skills), and some struggle
because they have received poor or inadequate reading instruction. Dickinson and
Neuman (2006) point out that the socio-economic and the domestic environment
of a child have an impact on learning to read. Dickinson and Neuman (2006)
stress that children raised in poverty, those with limited proficiency in English,
those from homes in which the parents’ reading levels and practices are low, and
those with speech, language and hearing difficulties, are at increased risk of
reading failure because often they are not exposed to literacy practice.
Determining whether or not this is the case in Ogongo circuit formed part of this
research.

2.6 PRACTISING READING FAST WITH COMPREHENSION

According to McGuiness (2005):

…when young children read, they move their index finger along the line of
words, pointing to each word, and saying the words by themselves quietly.
When they are older they make no sound, but their lips form the sound.
Later, the learner may not move his lips at all, but he is still saying the word
himself. These habits are called ‘vocalisation or sub-vocalisation (p. 124).

To McGuiness that habit slows down the act of reading, which means a learner
who does this cannot read faster while silently as s/he reads aloud. It may also
mean that a learner reads one word a time, which is not good in English. Learners
with this habit should return to sub-vocalisation to help them link words with
sound, and sound with meaning. In contrast, Murray and Johnson (1996) assert

20
that finger pointing does not slow down reading, but that learners can be trained to
move their fingers at a faster rate to improve their reading speed. McGuiness
(2005) concurs with Murray and Johnson (1996) that learners should be given
training to put the finger across the page ahead of their eyes, to follow it as they
move their finger so that the eyes will keep pace.

It is important that learners work towards a stage at which they are responding
directly to the visual image of the word, understanding and giving it meaning
without needing to sound it out. To Lerner (2000), learners need to read easy
interesting books to build their reading speed and proficiency. This has motivated
the researcher to explore ways to intervene the reading difficulties experienced by
Grade 4 learners in Ogongo circuit.

2.7 CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT THAT SUPPORTS LITERACY

DEVELOPMENT

In this section the researcher explores the views of Hall, Burns, and Edward
(2011) on learners’ pace of learning to read, and their focus on learners with
persistent difficulties comprehending the text and learning academic subject
matter, referred to as ‘struggling’ or ‘marginalised’. The classroom environment
can either reinforce or change learners’ positions as struggling, but properly
designed it will enable them to take on a leadership role with their peers. Hall et al.
(2011) argue that it is particularly important when working with marginalised
readers and helping them gain full access to classroom reading practice. Learners
perceived as struggling readers are often treated as if they have little or nothing to
offer in school. The learners are then likely to believe that their participation will
not be valued and as a result minimise their involvement in reading. Similarly,
Moats and Foorman (2003) write that if the struggling readers believe their ideas
about text are heard and respected, they are more likely to participate. On the
basis of these findings it is required that teachers treat all learners similarly in
order to boost their interest and participation in class activities.

21
In order to avoid such a situation in classes, Murray and Johnson (1996) advise
teachers to study their classroom ‘climate’, and their assumption about both
struggling and good readers: “the language we use with our students, the book we
select, and how we invite participation all send a message about who should
participate, how often, and what the result should look like” (p 324). Therefore, the
classroom environment has the potential to build up struggling learners or to
reinforce their status.

Creating a positive classroom environment for struggling readers means

appreciating their diverse social and cultural backgrounds and how these might
usefully contribute to their self-identification as readers (Hall et al., 2011, p.31).
Thus, it is the duty of the teachers to help struggling readers feel more secure in
participating in the classroom practice. Hall et al. (2011) add that students who
engage or attempt to engage with the texts in the same ways valued in a
classroom often receive a positive response, while those who do not are
marginalised. Teachers should be cautioned that the language used in the
classroom communicates to students not only what one believes they need to do
in order to succeed but also what they need to do in order to achieve high social
status in the class. An aim of this study is to establish if these aspects are being
followed in Ogongo circuit.

2.8 THE ROLE OF TEACHING AND INSTRUCTION WITH REGARD TO

LEARNERS READING DIFFICULTIES

Good reading instruction is required for beginners to learn to read, however, it is

not easy to accomplish this task. Lyon (2000) stresses that many children in
Grades 1 and 2 or beyond will require explicit instruction to develop the necessary
phoneme awareness, phonics, spelling and reading comprehension. Lyon further
suggests that young children with difficulties in learning to read should be taught
the foundational skills to ensure a sufficient level of fluency, automaticity, and
understanding.

22
Teaching of reading and language has been compared to ‘rocket science’ (Moat,
1994), with reading seen as a process which requires various inputs. Drummond
and Marshall (2005) point out that although there are different reading
components it can be difficult for teachers to diagnose learners’ reading difficulties
and find appropriate techniques to remediate them, a dilemma that has a diverse
effect on learners’ future reading. To be successful, the teachers require a strong
and deep understanding of reading theories and practice. An understanding of
theories shall then be used as the basis for improving the techniques of teaching
reading. However, children are individuals, learn differently, and have their own
learning style and pace. This suggests that teaching to read is not a uniform
process but rather a matter of trying different approaches. This study was
undertaken as a way of establishing, inter alia, the existence or non-existence of
such a dilemma in Ogongo circuit.

2.9 DIFFERENT TEACHING METHODS

There are a number of different teaching methods from which teachers can
choose. However, the question of which is the most effective continues to concern
teachers. According to Gonzarez et al. (2006), all methods have shown some
success, a number of which are summarised below.

2.9.1 Phonics

Phonics is a method whereby “the speech is broken into individual sounds and
represented letters” (Alderson, 2000, p.132). It teaches the correspondence
between letters and the sounds they represent. Children are taught to look at
individual letters or groups of letters, recognise the sounds and blend letters to
form a fluent sound. For example, in the word /cat/, children are taught that the
sound represented by the word “cat” are k which is a glottal sound, then a /ei/ and
t which constitutes k-a-t.

23
According to Lerner (2000), there are two approaches to teaching phonics. In the
first, analytical phonics, learners are taught to look initially at the whole word and
then break it down to compare parts for the letter-sound relationships they came
across previously. In synthetic phonics they are taught to link an individual letter or
letter combination with its appropriate sound then blend the sound to form words.
They are systematically taught letters of the alphabet and the combination of
letters used to represent each sound, for example the combination of letters f-a-t-
h-e-r gives the word “father.”

2.9.2 The look and say or whole-word method of reading

According to Levine (1994), ‘look and say’ or whole-word method of reading

method teaches children to read through pattern recognition rather than decoding
the word into letters. Flashcards with words and an accompanying picture are
often used with this method, until they memorise the pattern of letters, words or
sentences as help in building up high-frequency sight vocabulary. For example, a
picture of a ball is given to learners without the accompanying letter representing
it. Learners are asked to say what they see, and name it, after which the teacher
places the letters string (b-a-l-l) beneath the picture. The activities can be
extended to other objects begin with the same letter sound, and even to
sentences.

2.9.3 The whole language method of reading

According to Lerner (2000), underlying whole-language are the unity and

interrelationship of oral language, reading and writing. Unlike the phonic method,
which puts the focus on letter-sound relationships, it emphasises that active
expression in writing and oral language improves reading skills. Lerner (2000)
adds that the whole language method is based on the belief that all children will
learn to read naturally, as they learn to talk and walk. Goodman (1990) initiated
the whole language method based on a belief that an emerging reader needs little

24
direction to decode the letters, creating sentences representing pictures and
sounds of language.

The whole language approach to reading focuses on meanings, not on

correspondence between sound and symbols, so that children start reading stories
immediately without resorting to phonics. The whole language method posits that
children be immersed in good books for them to become fluent readers, with
interesting and fun books to excite them so that and through play they memorise
the many words they see in them.

2.9.4 Combining phonics and whole-language in teaching reading

Proponents of combining the phonics and whole-language approaches, Reutzel

and Cooter (2010); Stanovich (1980); Rumelhart (1977), suggest that phonics be
taught separately, directly, and systematically to learners, and not in the context of
reading literature. Reutzel and Cooter (2010) believe that learning to read is
accomplished by placing the emphasis on mastering the three skill areas of
decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension, assumed to lead to competent
understanding, and consequently enable skilled and independent reading.
Rumerhalt (1977) claims that while processing features of letters, and spelling
patterns, at the same time a reader is also attending to general context, syntax,
and the semantic and syntactic environment in which the words occur. However,
Stanovich posits that for learners to master reading skills they need daily exposure
to good literature through reading aloud, discussing stories, and being introduced
to new knowledge and vocabulary. Phonics should be taught first, followed by
regular reading practice so that learners become skilled readers.

2.9.5 Choosing appropriate methods of teaching reading in English

Experts in reading agree that there is no best method to teaching reading (Lerner,
2000; Snow et al., 1998, Goodman, (1990). Goodman (1990) opposes the phonics
method, believing it to be less engaging, with endless sounds to learn and simple
25
books to read using regular words. They state that children like to read books by
themselves. In line with the assertion above, it is vital that beginner learners
should be exposed to variety of reading materials to practise reading on their own.
Goodman (1990) supports the whole language method to reading, believing it can
produce learners who understand the meaning of the words they are reading and
so tackle more interesting books early on. However, Lerner (2000) and Snow et al.
(1998) criticise it for leaving learners guessing when faced with an unfamiliar word,
and for the limited number of words they can memorise.

While it is evident that teacher training institutions prepare student teachers in all
these approaches, methods and techniques outlined in this chapter, it has been
observed in some studies (Hartney, 2011; Junias, 2009;) that once these student
teachers graduate and are in the field they hardly follow them and in the case of
reading teaching reading skills, particular attention is needed in preparing learners
to acquire them so that numerous reading difficulties are avoided. It is not known
whether teachers in the Ogongo circuit apply all these approaches, methods and
techniques in their reading lesson delivery to establish possible causes of reading
difficulties which learners face. This study has identified this as one aspect which
needs investigation, so as to identify the causes of reading difficulties learners
face and which could be sources for poor reading habits experienced by many
learners.

2.10 THEORIES OF READING

Understanding theories which explain the nature of learning to read could be used
as the basis for improving the techniques of teaching reading to learners for whom
English is not their L1.

2.10.1 Traditional bottom-up view of reading

According to Nunan (2005), the traditional bottom-up theory is skill-driven in that it

stresses the code used in a written language to represent the spoken words. The
emphasis is on letter and word recognition as a key to reading. Mercer, Swann

26
and Major (2007) regarded this as developing the reading process from perception
of letters, spelling patterns, and words, to sentence and paragraph meaning.
Gough (1981) stresses that letter recognition skill must be accomplished by
means of alphabetic books before teaching fluency. However, the challenge arises
when the decoding and converting of letter characters into phonemes are not
explicitly presented to learners. Gough also argues that the phonic method
teaches not grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules, but rather heuristics for
locating words through auditory means.

To Lerner (2000), the phonic method requires the learner to match letter with
sound in a defined sequence. In the traditional bottom-up of reading, Nunan
(2005) argues that readers decode texts word-by-word, linking words into phrases
and then sentences. Purcell-Gates (2005) calls the bottom-up method of reading
‘linear’, in that letters must be recognised firstly feature-by-feature by a visual
system then transferred to a sound until the next letter is processed.

Purcell-Gates (2005) further states that words are recognised and then held in
working memory until they are processed for meaning and finally understood as
sentence or even as a text. She refers to this reading process as ‘letter-by-letter in
additive fashion (p.40).’ Mercer et al. (2007) stress automaticity in word
recognition as a requirement for reading. They state that word recognition is a
basis for later works of comprehension and that the essence of this theory is that
comprehension is only possible when the reading became automatic, because
readers no longer have to expend much of their cognitive attention on the
recognition of letters and words. Purcell-Gates (2005) also stresses that decoding
takes selective attention when it is not familiar, and comprehension requires
attention. The essence of this theory, and which this study suggests to Grade 4
teachers in Ogongo circuit, is that teachers should teach reading in English using
the phonic method so that learners could gain automaticity in decoding that
ultimately enhances comprehension.

27
2.10.2 The cognitive theory or top-down view of reading

The cognitive or top-down view of reading is a comprehension-driven theory which

opposes the view that decoding is a basis to comprehension. According to Nunan
(2005), reading represents an innate capacity for learning which explains how
humans acquire their first language. Goodman (1990) argues that reading under
this theory is a “psycholinguistic guessing game” (p.240), and that reading is a
process whereby a reader samples the text, makes the hypothesis, then confirms
or rejects it. This theory puts the reader at the centre of the reading process, a
premise of which is that s/he brings all her or his experiences and background
knowledge to the reading task.

Perded (n.d.) establishes that readers begin the act of reading by recognising that
they are reading, sampling and selecting from the visual array based on their
prediction of what they expect to find. Predictions come from inferences about the
meaning supported by syntax and the letter-sound units. As readers read they
confirm and disconfirm their predictions by using their knowledge of the language
cue system to find out when comprehension breaks down. When the breakdown
occurs they return to correct, again using the different language cue system.

According to Goodman (1990), reading is cyclical as it puts in play the visual

perceptual, syntactic and semantic cycles depending on and enabling one
another. As opposed to the traditional theory of reading the cognitive theory
stresses that reading is goal-oriented, with the goal being the meaning. However,
for the meaning to be accomplished readers should use their predictions and
inferences based on knowledge of the language. Comprehension depends not on
linear, accurate, automatic decoding and letter recognition but on what readers
bring to the text.

The schemata theory (Rumelhart, 1980) asserts that meaning does not lie solely
in the print itself but in the cognitive schema already present in the reader’s mind.
When reading, schemata can be generalised to allow the reader to learn and
make sense of a wide array of information. Schema can be equated to Piagetician
concepts of assimilation and accommodation, (Schunk & Dale, 2006), by which
new knowledge is integrated into pre-existing knowledge base. If teachers in
28
Ogongo circuit are to guide and direct learners to know how to read they must
know the reading needs of learners, and which approach is likely to be the most
appropriate.

2.10.3 The balanced theory or interactive model of reading

According to Mercer et al. (2007), one of the influential publications in support of

an interactive model of reading was written by Stanovich (1980), who argued that
fluent reading is an interactive process in which information is used from several
knowledge sources simultaneously (letter recognition, letter-sound relationship,
vocabulary, knowledge of syntax and meaning) (Mercer et al., 2007, p.112).
Purcell-Gates (2005) argues that various component sub-skills of reading
compensate for deficiency in lower level process: the reader with poor word
recognition skills may rely on contextual cues. In contrast to the top-down, Purcell-
Gates shows that good readers do not use context cues more often than do poor
readers. Under this theory, learners need both to focus on meaning with real,
authentic texts and to work on skills. It places stress on the reciprocal influences of
that knowledge of the reader that differs from that of both features of letters to
semantic knowledge. The knowledge of both features interacts during the process
of reading.

The balanced theory posits that readers read by focusing on comprehension and
on letter features at the same time (Stanovich, 1980). To Mercer et al. (2007),
Stanovich’s interactive theory differs from the bottom-up and cognitive theories in
that it sees the reader as processing all the different letters and words, but
acknowledges that the meaning and syntax of the context influence the perception
and recognition of them. This study suggests teachers in Ogongo circuit to use
this model as it trains learners to read with comprehension.

29
2.11 IMPLICATIONS OF THE THEORIES FOR INSTRUCTION

This section examines implications of the above theories for teaching reading.

2.11.1 The traditional view or bottom-up model of reading

To Carter and Nunan (2003), the bottom-up approach views the reading process
as developing from the perception of letters, spelling patterns and words, to
sentence and paragraph meaning. This model opposes the views held by the
proponents of the top-down model (Goodman, 1990), in which language and
meaning are central to word recognition. To Mercer et al. (2007), teachers who
espouse the skill-driven theory wish to focus their teaching on skills and abilities
that are required to accurately and automatically recognise letters and words.
Lerner (2000) writes that teachers who believe in the traditional view of reading
often teach their children the sub-skills first. They begin instruction by introducing
letter names and letter sounds, progress to pronouncing the whole word, then
show learners ways of connecting word meanings to comprehension texts. This
theory sees phonetic as primary and to be mastered before comprehension takes
place. Learners are taught how to discriminate and recognise individual letters
first, then to discriminate and assign individual letter or letter combination to
individual sound. However, the researcher argues that teaching to discriminate
only the individual letter or sound has the potential to create a habit of word-by-
word reading in learners.

Mercer et al. (2007) argue that learners taught under this theory are likely to
experience comprehension difficulties in reading English. Under this model,
learners who cannot read or cannot read well are viewed as having decoding
problems. Purcell-Gates (2005) writes that the importance of this bottom-up
process is on teaching drill and practise in decoding skills, as well as phonic
awareness and not on meaning. To Perded (n.d.), the theory often requires
learners to read aloud so that teachers detect accuracy of word reading.

30
2.11.2 The cognitive view

Under cognitive theory the focus is on comprehension rather on accuracy, hence

the language cue system is the basis for comprehension. Teachers using it
engage learners with whole texts which are read for authentic purposes.
According to Gough (1981), the challenge is that learners are not required to
break down the reading process into isolated pieces for the purpose of practice.
Gough also criticises the perception of guessing and predicting, claiming that
readers do not know when or how to assess the accuracy of their guesses.

The logic underlying cognitive theory is that learners are trained to read texts that
they want to read for self-chosen purposes. To Mercer et al. (2007), the top-down
model stresses the importance of language and meaning for reading
comprehension as well as for word recognition. It advocates translating the text to
the degree that it makes personal sense to the reader. For Mercer et al. (2007),
with this model the focus of reading is not to check accuracy but rather for
comprehension. The teaching of letter recognition is also ignored.

Unlike the tenets of bottom-up theory, reading aloud is advised as a strategy to

develop reading accuracy. This may be practised only to gain insight into the way
learners coordinate appropriate strategies to get to the meaning. Comprehension
is the focus, with the teacher engaging learners with questions for different
activities, a response journal, book sharing, or book discussion. The emphasis is
placed on leading beginners to engage with whole texts that are created for the
purpose of teaching reading. On of the study’s aims is to find out whether or not
Grade 4 teachers in the Ogongo circuit use this theory to teach their learners
reading in English.

2.11.3 The balanced view or the interactive model of reading

Drawing from Stanovich’s (1980) interactive model reported by Mercer et al.

(2007), fluent reading is an interactive process in which information is used from
several knowledge sources simultaneously, for instance letter recognition, letter-
sound relationships, vocabulary, knowledge of syntax and meaning. To Nunan
(2005), the teaching of various sub-skills of reading can be compensatory,

31
integrating the traditional and cognitive theories. Teaching reading begins with the
sub-skills requisite for reading for comprehension. This theory emphasises
comprehension as the ultimate purpose for reading.

Purcell-Gates (2005) refers to this process of the reading act as whole-part-whole

instruction in which teachers involve learners in purposeful reading first, then pull
out some skills ranging from decoding to text structure and comprehension.
Teaching requires the social context of the language use. Exposure to language in
which teaching reading takes place is of vital importance. The essence
underpinned by these theorists is to use the most suitable reading method that
enables learners to become good readers. Teachers in Ogongo circuit must use
the knowledge obtained from their teacher training to apply the appropriate theory
when teaching reading in their classes.

2.12 SUMMARY

With the basic understanding of the theoretical basis of the traditional, cognitive
and the balanced theories, it is imperative that teachers apply these theories
regarding teaching reading in English. However, it is a daunting task for teachers
to decide on the most suitable approach that benefits all learners in the class,
because relying on one theory might cause problems.

32
 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses the research design, population, and the sample of this
study. It also describes the data collection and data analysis methods, as well as
ethical considerations before and during the data collection process.

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

As propounded by Schinder (2003, p. 354):

…a research design is a plan and structure for investigations to obtain

answers to research questions and may be compared to a blueprint for
collection, measurement and analysis of data. In addition, the research
design includes all the procedures selected to answer a particular question.

Schinder (2003, p.355) views the research design as “a mental plan of the
research that highlights basic strategies applied to obtain relevant data to the
research”. To Gay, Mills and Airasian (2009) a research design is a detailed
description of a study proposed to investigate a given problem.

This study adopted both the quantitative and qualitative research approaches.
According to Christenson and Johnson (2008), the qualitative research approach
relies on the collection of non-numerical data, while for Gay et al. (2009) it is the
collection, analysis, and interpretation of comprehensive narrative and visual data
to gain insight into a particular phenomenon of interest. Best and Khan (2006)
describe the quantitative approach as the collection and analysis of numerical data
to describe, explain, predict, or control phenomena of interest.

33
The interpretive qualitative research approach was regarded as most suitable to
realise the aim of this study, that is, to investigate the causes of reading difficulties
among the Grade 4 learners. It seeks to produce descriptive analysis that
emphasises deep understanding of social phenomena (Crewell & Plan-Clark
2007). The qualitative method of observation was used to gain insight into the
English teaching and general environment of Grade 4 classrooms at selected
primary schools, while a positivist quantitative approach (Christenson & Johnson,
2008) was used for gathering quantitative data. The combination of research
designs for collecting and analysing data allowed the researcher to gain a more
comprehensive insight into the problem under study.

3.3 POPULATION

A target population is a group of people in whom the researcher has an interest.

Such a group should share a given set of characteristics about which the
researcher wishes to draw conclusions (Cardwell, Clark, & Meldrum, 2004, p.642).
In this study, the population comprised all the Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo
circuit, in the Omusati Region, with 14 schools accommodating Grade 4 learners.

3.4 THE RESEARCH SITES

Three schools participated in this study, two of which were combined schools
(Grades 1-10), and one was a primary school only (Grades 1-4). All three schools
were located in remote rural villages of northern Namibia. There was only one
Grade 4 class at all three participating schools. The teacher-learner ratio at the
Primary phase in Namibia was 1:35, whereas at the Junior Secondary phase it
was 1:30 (MBESC, 2005-2006). The medium of instruction at the lower primary
level (Grade 1-3) is the L1 or common language of the majority of the learners
attending the school. According to the MBESC (2003), Grade 4 is the transitional
grade in which a switch to English medium of instruction is made. In this case, the
medium of instruction of all learners in this study was English. Oshindonga is

34
offered as a subject; however, the prime languages of the learners are the various
Oshiwambo dialects, other than Oshindonga, which was their first language taught
at school. In line with the Grade 4 syllabus, the allocation for teaching English was
nine periods a week, 40 minutes each. According to the MoE’s (2007) regional
annual pass rate statistics, these three schools’ performances varied from ‘poor’ to
‘average’.

3.5 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING PROCEDURE

Sampling is the process of selecting units from a population of interest so that by

studying them one may fairly generalise the results back to the population from
which they were chosen (Williams, 2006, p.11). Usually, the population will be too
large for the researcher to attempt to study all its members, so a small but
carefully chosen sample can be used to represent it and reflect the characteristics
of those from which it is drawn (StatPac, 2009, p.11).

The purposeful sampling technique was employed to select the three Grade 4
classes, based on a revelation by the Omusati education region’s report on
reading difficulties (MoE, 2009a). The identification of lack of English reading skills
was based on the findings of the RPIS conducted by the region to identify the level
of English reading proficiency among the Grade 4 learners. Therefore, the
participants were the Grade 4 learners from the three schools that participated in
the LPAI. Six schools in the Ogongo circuit participated in the RPIS (MoE, 2009a).

The researcher selected particular schools from the population that would be
informative about the topic of this study (Macmillan & Schumacher, 2001), namely
the last three poor performing schools out of six, based on the RPIS’s circuit
ranking, with a view to locating the problems in reading among the Grade 4
learners. The selection was made in order for the researcher to obtain a more
accurate picture of reading difficulties experienced by the Grade 4 learners in the
Ogongo circuit. In total, 92 Grade 4 learners from the selected three schools
participated in this study. According to Gay et al. (2009), a large number of

35
elements are required to be included in the sample for the findings of the study to
maintain reliability.

3.6 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS

This section presents the way in which data was collected. For the purpose of
finding out the causes of reading difficulties among the Grade 4 learners in the
Ogongo circuit, the researcher used the observation and reading tests as data
collection instruments. According to Williams (2004, p.270) data collection is a
“process of capturing facts, information and figures based on the characteristic
and the nature of the research problem.” In this study, data was collected using
both the observation and achievement test methods.

3.6.1 Observation

Kumar (2005, p.118, cited in Junias, 2009) viewed observation as one way to
collect primary data, and as “…purposeful, systematic and a selective way of
watching and listening to interactions of a phenomenon as it takes place”.
Observation is the most appropriate way of collecting data, for example, to learn
about interaction or for verification purposes in order to obtain accurate
information.

Creswell (2008) identified two types of observation, namely, participant and non-
participant. Creswell and Plan-Clark (2007, p.45) refer to non-participant
observation as “observation from the distance”, while for Best and Khan (2006) it
is the researcher’s long distance observation of activities related to the topic of
interest and spectator-based. For the purpose of this study, it was used in that the
researcher did not become involved in the activities of the group, but as a passive
observer who watched and listened to the group activities in order to collect data
from the observations.

36
During observations the researcher observed both the physical and psychosocial
environments, while observing the availability of resources as well as the manner
in which the teaching-learning process took place (Williams, 2006). During
observations the researcher focused more on the type of classroom reading
activity, the teaching methods, the classroom organisation and proficiency in the
medium of instruction by both the teachers and learners. Observations were vital
for the researcher to answer question 1 of this study.

3.6.2 Reading achievement test

An achievement test measures an individual’s current proficiency in a given area,

such as knowledge or skill (Gay et al., 2009). For MacMillan and Schumacher
(2001, p.24), “an achievement test is designed to assess how much knowledge a
person has in a certain area or set of areas.” In schools, achievement tests are
used to place students into appropriate grade levels and skill groupings and to
assess the teachers’ efficiency (Gay et al., 2009, p.149). The main goal of any
achievement test is to ascertain what sort of information the test taker knows,
making it different from aptitude or abilities tests, both of which are designed to
gauge how much potential a person has for learning. Goulandris and Snowling
(1995) note that looking only at the achievement test can give the administrator a
good idea of where the test-taker is at the present, in terms of knowledge of a
specific topic or subject area. For the purpose of this study, the achievement tests
(Appendix 2) were conducted in order to identify the types and causes of reading
difficulties among the Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit. The tests were
conducted in a pre-arranged venue in which learners were called in one-by-one to
read.

The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests comprised three tests: irregular words,

pseudo-words and reading passages (Rubin, 1991), administered to all
participating learners. A scoring key for different reading behaviour was
developed. While a child was reading a passage the researcher observed the
signs and symptoms of reading difficulties, such as inability to decode, read
fluently, or to answer comprehension questions. The researcher carefully
observed the strategies and techniques a child used to read, for instance word

37
attack skills, and the types of errors made. Together with related behaviour the
researcher determined the types and cause of reading difficulties a child
experienced.

3.7 PILOT STUDY

A pilot study is a small-scale trial-run of all the aspects planned for use in the main
research (McMillan & Schumacher, 2008), the objective of which in this study was
to determine whether the research instruments were clear and could not lead to
misunderstanding. It was executed in the same way as expected for the main
study, so that problems found during it would help the researcher to rectify them
(Mitchell & Jolley, 2001, in Williams, 2006). The pilot study was conducted at a
primary school in the Ogongo circuit in which the main study was also conducted.

3.8 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE

Permission to carry out the study was obtained from the Director of the Omusati
Education Region (Appendix 3), and made known to the Ogongo circuit inspector
who informed all the participating school principals. The data were collected during
the observation of the learning activities, and the physical environment in which
the teaching-learning took place (Gay et al., 2009, p.409). The researcher used
the observation guide to observe aspects of the classroom environment, the
participants and other behaviours.

The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, administered to measure an individual’s

current proficiency in given areas of knowledge or skill (Gay et al., 2006, p.149),
was considered suitable in that it could be used to focus on achievement in a
single subject, for instance, reading. Thus, this achievement reading assessment
was used primarily to identify the types and causes of reading difficulties in the
Grade 4 learners’ reading.

38
The test also enabled the researcher to detect and record data about the learners’
general reading behaviour, that is, word recognition abilities, types of errors,
techniques of attacking unknown words and overall understanding of the materials
read. The researcher observed signs, such as facial expressions, finger pointing
while reading, omissions of letters, hesitation, and/or reversal of words. Learners
were required to read at least sight words, and pseudo-words to tap on their
decoding skills. Comprehension texts of varying degrees of difficulty were used to
ascertain learners’ comprehension skills (Appendix 3).

The researcher prepared a Grade 4 level reading text prepared in collaboration

with the Omusati regional Lower Primary Advisory Service. A score card
(Appendix 4) was kept for the individual learner during achievement reading
assessment tests. Observations were conducted during the English lesson,
whereas the reading tests were conducted in a separate pre-arranged room.
Learners were called in one-by-one in alphabetical order and encouraged to feel
at ease during the reading tests. Before the reading act began they were informed
that they would be asked questions based on the reading texts.

3.9 DATA ANALYSIS

The following methods of data analysis were employed.

3.9.1 Observations

Qualitative data obtained from observations were subjected to content analysis, a

method which involves comparing, contrasting and categorising data in order to
draw meaning from it (Gall et al., 2007). The researcher grouped data according to
the predetermined themes and looked for consistencies and differences to make
comparisons and contrasts. This was to organise ideas that emerged from the
data to make a well-informed assessment of the causes of reading difficulties
observable in Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit.

39
3.9.2 Achievement tests

The quantitative data obtained from the achievement tests were analysed using
the descriptive statistics, and included mathematical or graphical techniques, to
organise or summarise numerical data (Gay et al., 2009). The researcher
arranged the quantitative data into tables, and percentages to indicate key findings
of this study. An achievement reading test was divided into three different levels of
reading; independent reading, instructional reading, and frustration reading
(Rubin, 1991).

3.10 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Educational researchers respect the right, privacy, dignity and sensitivity of their
populations, and also the integrity of the institutions within which the research
occurs. Gay et al. (2009, p.23) point out that researchers require the necessary
permission from relevant authorities before a study begins. In this study, the
researcher wrote a letter to the Omusati education director seeking permission to
conduct the research, stating its purpose and significance. Another letter was sent
to the inspector of the selected schools to ask him to inform the principals of the
selected schools about the study. The researcher made a follow-up with the
principals of the participating schools to ascertain whether or not they had
received the information about the study. During the visit the researcher talked to
the Grade 4 teachers and learners about the study, informing both the teachers
and learners that the purpose of the study was entirely for educational purposes
and that information obtained would not be used to tarnish their reputation.

The researcher followed up to ascertain whether the letter had reached the
intended principals. The researcher delivered the letter of permission to the
principals of the three selected schools, taking this opportunity to establish rapport
with the Grade 4 teachers and explain to them the purpose and significance of the
study. The teachers were also assured that their identities would be protected.

40
To Gay et al. (2009, p.23), ethical considerations include the coding of the data to
protect the participants’ identity, their privacy and confidentiality. This study
guaranteed anonymity of all participating schools by coding them as ‘X’, ‘Y’, and
‘Z’.

3.11 SUMMARY

In this study only schools that participated in the RPIS were included, and tests
were administered to determine learners’ reading abilities. Observations were
conducted on the physical and psychosocial environment in which the teaching-
learning process took place. An achievement reading test comprising three tests
was given to determine the learners’ reading abilities. The tests were administered
in a separate venue whereby learners were called in one-by-one in alphabetical
order. Reading tests began with sight words and ended with reading passage two.
Data were analysed using the descriptive statistics, coded, and placed in themes.
Tables and graphs were used to present the different levels of reading.

41
 CHAPTER 4

PRESENTATION AND DISCUSION OF THE RESULTS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

The preceding chapter discussed the methodology and research techniques used
in collecting and analysing the data in order to realise the purpose of this study.
This chapter presents the results, analysis and their interpretation in accordance
with the research questions. The information collected from the observations is
presented first, followed by the information from the reading tests. Thereafter,
possible interventions emanating from this study are suggested to remedy reading
difficulties among the Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit.

4.2 FINDINGS FROM OBSERVATIONS

Observation was used in this study in order to obtain data by observing the
participants and understanding their natural environment without altering or
manipulating it (Gay et al., 2009). In order to gather more information about the
causes of reading difficulties, the researcher focused on the following classroom
factors: classroom physical-environment; classroom psychosocial-environment;
approaches and techniques of teaching reading in English; and the teacher-
learners’ oral interactions during the lesson. Teachers’ preparation to make use of
reading materials, reading modelling and the general classroom environment were
also observed. No classroom overcrowding was noted in any of the three
participating schools, however, the researcher observed that there were
insufficient English reading materials in all of the schools in this study.

42
4.2.1 Classroom physical environment

The following aspects characterised the physical environment of the classrooms.

4.2.1.1 Classroom Composition

The classes in this study consisted of mixed ability learners of both genders. The
classroom arrangements were in line with a learner-centred paradigm (Ministry of
Basic Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, 2003). At School Z, learners were
seated in pairs, while at schools X and Y they were seated in small groups of three
or four. School Z had 28 Grade 4 learners (17 girls and 11 boys); School Y had 33
(20 girls and 13 boys); while School X had 31 Grade 4 learners (17 girls and 14
boys). In total, 92 Grade 4 learners participated in this study. There were enough
chairs and tables for learners at all the three schools. The general classroom
environments at Schools Y and Z were not appealing. At School X there were
teacher-made posters of sight-words on display to encourage English reading, but
not at Schools Y and Z.

According to Cameron (2002), the classroom media play a crucial role in

promoting learning, and colourful posters that contain text can be of continual
interest to beginners and help them recognise words. At School Z, the classroom
environment was empty, with only a list of names and a few pictures on display.
According to the Grade 4 syllabus a Lower Primary classroom should be a print-
rich environment that appeals and captures the interest of learners and encourage
them to learn more (MBESC, 2005b).

4.2.1.2 The reading corner

In all three schools (X, Y, Z) no reading corners were found. According to

Cameron (2002), every reading-ready classroom should provide a quiet and
comfortable place for students to read independently or with a partner or group.
This reading area should include comfortable seats. Lerner (2000) advises
teachers to provide students with reading opportunities and make them aware of
the variety of books available, while relating their independent reading to their real
43
life. A classroom without a reading corner does not encourage learners to read
more or acquire reading skills in English as expected. The absence of reading
corners in the three schools seems to have deprived learners of an opportunity to
practise independent reading. According to de Debat (2008), reading corners are
of utmost importance in developing English reading skills in learners, as they tell
them the school values and encourages independent reading. Reading corners
are established with the prime purpose of boosting learners’ interest in reading (de
Debat, 2008, p.78), and without them it was observed in the Ogongo circuit that
learners only had reading chances offered by the teachers during the lesson.

Schools X and Z also lacked reading materials, notably readers. English readers
were shared between two or three learners when reading. In School Y all Grade 4
learners had English reading books, but they were kept by the teacher. In none of
the three schools were the learners allowed to take books home, which denied
them an opportunity to practise reading after school hours.

Depriving learners access to books and/or sharing them in groups of two or three
was observed as a possible cause of reading difficulties in Grade 4 in the Ogongo
circuit. The researcher also observed that the Grade 4 “English for all for Namibia”
was the only textbook used by all schools in this study. Lack of reading skills in
English observed might be caused by the schools not having ordered a variety of
textbooks to be used by learners, or the budget allocation for schools being
insufficient to buy an additional set of books. To Lerner (2000), reading is a
continuous skill, and one that constantly improves with practice, so without
practice reading skill in the Ogongo circuit would not improve, i.e., not enough
reading material and then only used in the class. Learners require exposure to a
variety of English reading materials in order to avoid rote reading and boredom
with the one English reading title in use.

44
4.2.1.3 Teacher-learner ratio

The official teacher-learner ratio of the MoE for the Lower Primary level is 1:35
learners per class. The enrolment numbers of Grade 4 classrooms in this study
were lower, at 31 learners at School X, 33 learners at School Y, and 28 learners at
School Z. The researcher also observed lack of learner participation in the three
classrooms. For example, at Schools X and Y only a few learners were engaged
with the teacher, and their attention to the lesson was minimal.

The learners in School Z were on-task most of the time during the observations,
and the teacher at School Z engaged the learners during the English lesson,
which might have helped in the development of their abilities to read English. It
was observed in Schools X and Y that the teachers tended to spend more
teaching time on class control, thus reducing the time available for instruction. The
researcher also observed that in these classes learners’ individual reading needs
were not often addressed, resulting in poor development of reading in English.

4.2.2 Classroom psychosocial-environment

Patrick, Ryan and Kaplan (2007) define psychosocial environment as the

relationship among learners with each other, the teacher and how this translates
into learning. Classroom rules that learners were expected to follow were found in
Grade 4 class in School Z. To Patrick et al. (2007), classroom rules and
procedures should be introduced early in the school year and the consequences
should be enforced consistently. Throughout the lesson in School Z, the teacher
reminded learners to stick to the set rules. For example, during the lesson learners
had to answer questions in an orderly manner, not shouting. The teacher
exercised her power to ensure discipline and orderly behaviour in the class. After
learners read a text the teacher asked: “Who was given a wedding present?”, to
which a section of learners shouted the answer. The teacher insisted: “Is that the
way we answer the questions?” Learners realised that they were expected to be
given chances to respond to questions: “Yes Tuli! Would you give us the correct
answer?” A second learner was given a chance and gave a correct answer.

45
“Thank you! That is good”, the teacher commended. The response of the teacher
created a strong positive relationship with learners, and they were socially
supported. According to Schunk and Dale (2006), positive remarks were important
in promoting confidence and self-esteem in learners during reading.

In School Y, learners sat in rows one in front of the other. In this school talking
amongst them was typically less in the Grade 4 classroom and the seating
arrangement discouraged them from working together during the lesson. However,
in Schools X and Z, learners were in small groups of three to four. In these two
classrooms, interactions and teamwork were much easier during the lessons.
Teachers in these two schools were not stationed in one place, but moved around
attending to individual learners’ reading needs. At School Y the teacher sat in
front of the class as learners read the text aloud. However, all the learners were
treated similarly, irrespective of their abilities.

4.2.2.1 Approaches to teaching reading English in a Grade 4 classroom

The three Grade 4 teachers observed were all Basic Education Teachers Diploma
(BETD) graduates, specialised in the lower primary school phase. In all three
classrooms the prescribed book, English for all for Namibia was used. The main
methods used to teach reading English were phonics and sentence and word
method. Less attention was placed on the use of the whole-language approach.
All three teachers used the same strategy of teaching reading English, based on
decoding and comprehension questions. According to Moats and Foorman (2003),
teaching strategies have great significance on learning to read, thus, teachers in
the Ogongo circuit should be encouraged to use a teaching approach that is best
for their learners to develop reading skills. In this case, learners with reading
difficulties should be taught using a systematic teaching of phonics. This is an
approach by which a teacher directs his/her teaching from synthetic to analytical
phonics. With synthetic phonic (part-to-whole), learners are taught to sound and
blend the sequential letter sounds. The sounds are learned in isolation and
blended together. In analytic (whole-to-part), a phonic element is identified from a
set of words in which each word contains the particular sound to be studied.
46
According to the Grade 4 syllabus, learners must be able to read fluently prepared
and unprepared factual and fiction texts (MBESC, 2005b). Reading fluency can be
developed if learners are explicitly taught the decoding skills. Levine (1994)
argues that learners should be helped to map the letter-sound code from the
onset, but in Schools X and Y the phonic method was used to teach English
reading, with decoding as the main emphasis. In School Z the teacher made an
extra effort by integrating the phonic and sentence and word method. This teacher
used words from the text read to form jumbled sentences as a means of
developing vocabulary. On language development, the teacher in School Z
emphasised grammar use, using multiple tasks to teach English reading skills and
helping learners to develop appropriate grammar. During the question and answer
session, the teacher at School Z asked learners questions based on the text read
and insisted that they reply in full sentences.

Teacher: What did Mrs Block and Renate wanted to buy for David?

1st Learner: A present.

Teacher: Answer in full. What did Mrs Block and Renate wanted to buy for David?

2nd Learner: A wedding present.

Teacher: A wedding present, thank you my girl. But put it in a full sentence.

3rd Learner: They wanted to buy a wedding present for him.

Teacher: Very good! They wanted to buy a wedding present for him.

According to Stanovich (1980), the whole-language approach encourages learners

to use language frequently, by retelling or dramatizing what they have read.
Teaching through the whole-language approach helps learners develop both
English language and reading skills. Lerner (2000) noted that a more natural way
to learn sight words is through language experience stories. In Schools X and Y,
the lessons observed were based on the phonic method rather than the whole-
language method in which learners would be exposed to use sight words orally.
For example, teachers in the two schools gave the texts for learners to read aloud.

47
When learners were reading the texts the teachers focused on decoding and
pronunciation, rather than on vocabulary and language use. However, it was
observed that learners in all three schools were able to read the texts at different
levels (independent, instruction and frustration), but could not answer the
comprehension questions well. Placed learners’ reading was accomplished by
identifying a number of reading miscues a child uttered in a given reading test
(Appendix 6). According to the Grade 4 syllabus, reading in such a way is not
appropriate (MBESC, 2005b). Learners at this stage should focus on meaning and
not on sound symbols correspondence.

Another significant observation was the teachers’ language use and overall
pronunciation of English words. Pronunciation was affected by mother tongue
interference, with problems occurring mainly in sounding letters such as /d/,which
some pronounced as /nd/ and /b/ as /mb/. Learners at Grade 4 stage were still
depending upon good reading models to emulate. A teacher at School Y asked
learners who were making noise at the back of the class what the problem was:
“Hey! You mboys at the mback. What is the promblem there?”

4.2.2.2 Teacher-learners interactions

Classroom interactions are important in that they enhance the development of the
language skill of speaking and listening among the learners (Hall et al., 2011).
Classroom interactions help the learners to become competent in thinking critically
and share views with peers. The teacher should know how to stimulate learners’
involvement in the classroom, by motivating them to see relevance in learning to
read, thus increasing classroom participation.

It was observed that in all schools the teachers failed to explore the prior
knowledge of learners at the beginning of their lessons. They all employed the
reading aloud strategy to teach reading English. Noticeably, in Schools X and Y,
while learners were reading the focus of the teacher was on diagnosing their
reading difficulties in word identification and word recognition. The teacher at
School Z exemplified this by giving jumbled words from which learners could form

48
sentences, but this was not followed by teachers at Schools X and Y. In all
classrooms, English was used as the main language of instruction, however
teachers code-switched frequently. In School Y a teacher code-switched more
often for control purposes, for example, /ayii/, /O anditii/ translated as “Let me
say.” These occurred if the teacher was not satisfied with the learners’ behaviour
in class.

The researcher also noted that in all three schools the classroom environment was
conducive for learning, with learners not shouting but rather waiting for their
chance to contribute to the lessons. It was observed that the teachers referred to
learners by their names, which Winkler (2009) maintains gives them a sense of
being recognised and so motivates them to do better, in this case to read better.

4.2.2.3 Classroom interaction and learners’ gender

Classroom interactions were derived by observing learners’ engagement and the

participation levels. The researcher noted that the participation level of girls and
boys differed. At all three schools the researcher noted that girls participated more
than boys and girls were more willing to raise their hands and contribute to the
lesson than were the boys.

In Schools X and Y more girls than boys participated in reading, but not in
answering comprehension questions. The teacher in School Z tried to point to
learners at random, whether raising their hand or not but the participation level
between girls and boys was not the same. In School X, boys responded more
often if the teacher’s attention was directed at them, and less often if there was no
effective management in the classroom. The boys’ attention in the lessons in
Schools X and Y were characterised by an on- and off-task behaviour, wasting
more valuable time expected of learners to engage the reading materials. Such a
situation, in which learners are not fully engaged in the classroom activities, might
exacerbate the difficulties of reading in English.

49
In School X the girls more frequently participated in the lesson by responding to
the teachers’ questions, while the boys were more likely to participate as a means
of obtaining attention or being noticed by the teacher.

4.3 THE READING TESTS

The achievement test, consisting of three tests, was administered to assess the
reading difficulties in English among the Grade 4 learners in the three schools in
the Ogongo circuit. The purpose was mainly to find out learners’ reading mastery,
and establish their reading abilities, find out the type of reading difficulties in
English and the causes thereof. Three reading tests, of sight word, pseudo-words
and reading passages, were administered. The findings are presented in Table
4.1.

Table 4.1: Reading tests results

Reading Level Sight words Pseudo Reading Reading

words passage1 passage 2
Good (Independent) 54 (58.7%) 20 (22%) 6 (6.5%) 6 (6.5%)
Average(Instructional) 30 (33%) 33 (35.9%) 26 (28.3%) 22 (26.6%)
Poor (Frustration) 8 (8.7%) 39 (42%) 70 (76.1%) 46 (59.7%)
Not read 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 3 (3.9%)
Total 92 (100%) 92 (100%) 92 (100%) 77 (100%)

Table 4.1 shows the levels of reading of the Grade 4 learners who participated in
this study. During the reading test, different levels of reading in English were
identified, namely, independent, instruction and frustration reading.

According to Rubin (1991):

...at the independent level, a child can read successfully on his/her own
without any assistance. At this level a child is able to achieve a minimum

50
 comprehension score on literal and interpretive questions of at least 90%. A
child should be free from observable evidence as tension such as frowning,
movement of feet and hands, finger pointing. A child can pay attention to
the punctuations, and has accurate pronunciation up to 99%.

At the instructional level, Rubin states that a child should not find the reading
materials too easy or too boring. There should be a minimum comprehension
score of at least 75% of oral reading in literal and interpretive questions, whilst in
oral reading there should be accurate pronunciation of at least 95%. At the
frustration level, Rubin notes that a child has difficulties attaining meanings and is
unfamiliar with the points presented in the text. Frustration is shown when a child
is frowning, blinking, or displaying faulty breathing. The child may be unwilling to
read and he/she may cry. The child’s reading is characterised of substitution,
insertion, repetition, reversal, and omission of words. The possible cause of these
reading miscues is lack of decoding and word attack skill, resulting in reading the
text at the frustration level.

In this study learners placed in the above mentioned levels of reading used the
reading scoring-keys (Appendices 4, 5 & 6). The reading assessment was
conducted in order, as follows:

First, sight words: These are words that are recognised instantly without
hesitation or further analysis. Appendix 5 shows 50 sight words that
learners were asked to read as fast as they could. Sight words were used
to find out the Grade 4 learners’ word recognition abilities.

Second, pseudo or non-word reading test (Appendix 4): These were

meaningless words conforming to English orthography or letter strings
which resemble English words. These words were administered to find out
Grade 4 learners’ decoding skills.

Third, two reading passages were administered, varying in the degree of

difficulty. Passage 1 was considered easier while passage 2 was
challenging. The passages were used to find the level at which the Grade 4
learners could read independently with comprehension.

51
With sight words and pseudo-words a tick was used to indicate learners’ correct
pronunciation. If a learner mispronounced a word a miscue version of what s/he
said was written on top of that word. With the reading passages an asterisk (*)
was written on top of the word a learner was unable to read and a version of the
mispronunciation was put on top of the specific word. The letter (c) was used to
indicate self-correction when a learner read a word incorrectly and realised it and
corrected him/herself (Appendix 6).

From Table 4.1 (above), it was evident that 84 learners (91.7%) read the sight
words well. They displayed the ability to recognise individual words, and were
observed to have possessed good word-attack skills. They read the sight words
with fluency. In particular, the 54 learners (58.7%) at the independent reading level
read at least 47 of 50 words with fluency and with little or no excessive effort to
decode individual words during reading. Thirty learners (33%) at the instructional
reading level were able to read 25 to 47 sight words at average pace (scoring a
number of words correctly per minute). These learners were unable to read all the
words without help from the teacher. It was also observed that most hesitated to
read the sight words at good speed, and often sounded out words into letters
audibly before blending them. This was an indication of poor word attack skill, as
learners tried hard to put letters together to form a meaningful sound. For
example, a few learners at instructional reading level committed errors such as
reversed words, /tow/ for /two/, /how/ for /who/; and substituted words /these/ for
/those/, /way/ for /why/.

To the researcher, the reading miscues observed during sight words reading were
regarded as minor incidents as they did not hinder the reading progress. Lerner
(2000) points out that this problem is often aggravated by lack of practice;
however, the researcher noted that the learners had acquired decoding skills but
had not been sufficiently automated. A total of 8 learners (8.7%) read the sight
words poorly, and could read only fewer than 25 at the frustration reading level. It
was observed that some at the frustration reading level had problems matching
the letters with their sounds. Their reading was characterised by long pauses
before deconstructing the word into its sound units, with finger pointing and some
lip movement that affected fluent reading being observed. They read the words
52
slowly and laboriously, which reflected lack of automaticity in decoding. It was
observed that the learners experienced difficulties in understanding and using the
alphabetic principles effectively. They experience difficulties on how to combine
letters of the alphabet to constitute meaningful sounds of words.

Also observed were faulty word recognition and naming, poor phonological
awareness, word recognition and naming, such as /two/ as /too/; /they/ for /their/.
Words ending with the /d/ sound, such as /had/, /word/, /made/, were sounded
with /nd/ at the end, for example, /hand/ for /had/, /wornd/ for /word/, /mand/ for
/made/. Noticeably, the /nd/ sounds at the end of English words reflected the
transfer of literacy from the mother tongue. Another problem was the vowel
sounds that were often caused by an unpredictable written form of English, such
as the use of letter [i] in words such as /I/, /will/; [a] in words like /take/, /was/ and
[o] in words like /out/ and /other/. A total of 20 (18%) learners overgeneralised
these sounds, as in the word [took] pronunciation /tuk/ read /tok/.

Pseudo-words were meant to assess how learners deconstruct the meaningless,

non-words that resembled English words. A total of 53 learners (57.6%) read
these words above the frustration level, and were able to read from seven to nine
out of 10 words correctly. Of the 92 learners, 59% could deconstruct the words
into letters and sounds, and vice versa to pronounce them. Many (57.6%) had
developed a sufficiently strong awareness of how words were composed in
constituent sound units. For example, they broke down words into their individual
sound components, such as in /me-lo-n/, /p-loo-d/, /hau-sag-e/.

Of the 92 learners, 37 (40.2%) were at the frustration level as they were unable to
read more than five out of 10 words well. They had difficulties segmenting and re-
blending the component sounds in the words correctly. Lerner (2000) maintains
that English is an alphabetic language, and the code in it involves a system of
mapping the letters-sound correspondence which can be generalised when
reading. The possible cause of such reading displayed by these learners can be
attributed to lack of phonic training, which in turn gave rise to poor decoding and
word recognition strategy.

53
The purpose of the reading texts was to assess the reading skills and
comprehension abilities among Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit. According
to the MBESC (2005b), learners at Grade 4 level should be able to read the grade
level texts fluently and with understanding.

The researcher administered the reading test from the easy to the challenging.
Passage 1 comprised 70 words and Passage 2 comprised 150 words. Five
comprehension questions were set, based on each of these texts. Reading was
discontinued if a learner committed more than 10 errors in each of the passages.
Learners were told to discontinue the reading because too many errors impede
fluency (Lerner, 2000) and ultimately compromise comprehension.

Passage 1 was expected to be easier for Grade 4 learners, however, only six
(6.5%) of the learners read the passage well. A total of 26 (28.3%) read the text
satisfactorily, while 60 (65%) did not. In total, 15 (16.3%) out of 60 learners
stumbled and lost place when reading aloud. These learners read the passage at
a slow pace (word-by-word), moved their lips (sub-vocalisation) and without
expression. To Cameron (2002), sub-vocalisation is often caused by the way
learners have been taught to read, usually by a phonic or look-and-say method.
However, 32 learners read the reading passage at speed and were able to change
the reading tone when appropriate. This was an indication that good word attack
skill and word recognition strategy had been developed. It was also observed that
these 32 learners used word-recognition clues such as phonics, sight word and
structural analysis when an unknown word stopped the reading process. These
learners portrayed self-correction when they made an error, noticed it, and
returned to correct the error themselves. This indicated that learners were
monitoring their reading process.

Passage 2 was challenging. Only 77 (83.7%) of the learners were able to proceed
reading passage 2. These 77 learners read passage 1 below the frustration level
and were immediately dropped. However, in reading passage 2 only six learners
(6.5%) out of 77 read fluently. They were able to do so with accuracy, monitor their
understanding, and adjust their reading rates. It was observed that 22 learners
(28.6%) managed to read the passage at the instructional level.

54
A total of 46 (59.7%) learners struggled to read the passage at expected Grade 4
level, with poor decoding skills and slow and imprecise word recognition. Three
learners (3.9%) were unable to finish reading the passage as it became more
challenging. In addition, 36.4% of the learners managed to read the two passages
fluently, though they were unable to answer the comprehension questions
correctly based on the two passages. Learners answered the comprehension
questions by reading any line from the texts or giving irrelevant answers. These
learners had insufficient vocabulary and structural knowledge, thus inhibiting
understanding of the text. Levine (1994) noted that failure to answer the questions
after the reading process is an indication that the reading act has not been
successfully achieved. Lack of comprehension came into effect as a result of
improper teaching methods.

Passage fluency

It was found that although learners lacked the comprehension abilities to answer
the questions based on the passage read, 6.5% of them read them fluently. It was
also noted that 32 (34.8%) out of 92 learners demonstrated a good ability to read
passage 1, and 28 (36.4%) out of 77 learners read passage 2 beyond the
frustration level. Fluency was determined by scoring a number of words per
passage correctly. The six (6.5%) learners on the independent level read the two
passages, and only self-corrected not less than two words. According to Lerner
(2000), fluency is the ability to read the text accurately, quickly and with
expression. Fluent readers usually do this because they do not have problems
with word recognition. A possible cause of poor word recognition by Grade 4
learners in Ogongo circuit is lack of reading practice. In the absence of a reading
corner in the Grade 4 classrooms, compounded by general lack of English reading
materials in the schools in this study phase, it was impossible for learners to
practise reading frequently.

55
4.4 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

This study was prompted by the many learners in the Omusati region, Ogongo
circuit in particular, who have experienced difficulties in reading English (MoE,
2009a). Baker (2006) acknowledges that the reading process is a function of the
individual’s ecological system, including cognitive, linguistic and cultural
background. In line with this, teachers should appreciate the child’s linguistic and
cultural background in order to make potential contributions aimed at improving
learners’ reading. According to Dickinson and Neuman (2006), reading difficulties
are major problems that may have a negative bearing on learners throughout
school. Lerner (2000) cautions that the causes of reading difficulties are stemmed
from a variety of issues, of which some are not easily diagnosed or understood by
teachers. However, she suggests that effective instructions to remediate reading
difficulties where they persisted should be given (p.354). Reading difficulties, such
as lack of comprehension, can be easily identified in learners, but often teachers
ignore its development. Instead, teachers will pay more attention to fluency.

As expounded by Almasi (2003), adequate initial instructions require that children

use reading to obtain meaning from print; have frequent opportunity to read and
exposure to frequent, regular spelling-sound relationships; learn about the nature
of the alphabetic writing system; and understand the structure of the spoken
words. Almasi (2003) concludes that disruption of these developments increases
the opportunity that reading will be delayed. This was the case for the 15 (16.3%)
learners who stumbled to read the texts. In the Ogongo circuit learners are not
exposed to a variety of English reading books as schools do not have libraries.
English for All for Namibia was the only book available for reading by Grade 4
learners in all schools in this study, which made reading practice very difficult.

In spite of the above findings the researcher also identified persistent obstacles to
reading among the Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit. First, learners
experienced difficulties in understanding and using the alphabetical principle that
affected decoding. This stemmed from unsound teaching methods applied by
teachers. The researcher suggests that a systematic teaching of phonics would
have the most impact on learners in this study. Second, an overriding obstacle

56
was the lack of knowledge that English writing represents spoken words, that is,
learners’ inability to transfer the comprehension skill of reading to spoken
language.

These above findings are supported by those of Dickinson and Neuman (2006),
who suggest many factors that may contribute to reading difficulties among L2
learners, including understanding how sounds are represented alphabetically,
sufficient practice in reading to achieve fluency, and background knowledge and
vocabulary needed to render written texts comprehensible.

The reading difficulties identified during the observation sessions and the reading
tests in this study were decoding and lack of word recognition abilities, reversal of
words, substitution, insertion, omission, English language problems, teacher
factors, school environment, and lack of comprehension of materials read by the
learners. The research observed that one of the causes of reading difficulties can
be attributed to lack of reading practice among learners, due to shortage of
reading materials in schools.

The findings of this study are in stark contrast with the basic competencies
contained in the Grade 4 syllabus, meaning that many learners are fallen behind in
the Grade 4 basic competencies (MBESC, 2005b).

4.4.1. Factors affecting reading proficiency of Grade 4 learners in the

Ogongo circuit

Factors affecting reading proficiency of Grade 4 learners of the Ogongo circuit

which were observed during the reading test including the following.

4.4.1.1 Decoding and word recognition abilities

It was observed that 79.9%, made up of 15 (16.3%) learners had reached the
frustration level in reading passage 1 and were dropped, whilst 49 (63.6%) had
reached the frustration level in reading passage 2, and those who could not read
57
had decoding problems. During the reading process it was noted that these
learners failed to blend letters to sound out words or to recognise words in the
sentences, and confused letters and the sound they represented. For example,
instead of reading feet they read foot, and read word-by-word, ignoring the
punctuation. For example, “He could hear his sister in the kitchen making supper”.
Learners tended to read this sentence as /He co,uld hee his-his sistaa, in, thee,
chiken, marking supa/(commas indicate learners’ pauses).

By analysing the English reading skill of most learners in this study it was found
that lack of word decoding ability stemmed from faulty recognition and naming of
letters of the alphabet. It was also observed that the phonic method was not
explicitly presented to these learners as they failed to decode letters to sound the
words out. Evident in the example above is that, reading in such a way, learners
could not deconstruct words in their sound units. These learners were reading
letters in words, rather than the sounds representing the letters. Decoding
problems are at the root of most reading difficulties. According to Lerner (2000),
decoding creates the foundation on which all other reading skills are built, so the
absence of decoding skills in learners, as in this study, impedes word recognition
and word attack skills. Levine (1994) writes that the ability to recognise words
easily is fundamental to reading with comprehension, and once readers develop
fluency in word recognition they can concentrate on the meaning of the text.

The researcher observed that poor decoding skills emanated from wrong teaching
methods applied to teaching reading in English. During the observations, teachers
did not demonstrate to learners how to break words into unit sounds. Teachers’
attention was on correcting the reading miscues committed by learners. To
Alderson (2000), the phonic method requires that learners first learn to recognise
the letters and the identification of sounds with which they correspond before they
can read words, phrases and sentences. Poor word decoding was aggravated by
difficulties in segmenting and re-blending component sounds in a word.

Generally, there was lack of awareness of how words were composed in sound
units, making it difficult for the Grade 4 learners to break down words in sound
component when reading. According to Lerner (2000), decoding of words requires

58
sound teaching methods that help a child to store information in the long-term
memory. If the process of teaching reading is well structured then the word
configuration can easily be stored in the child’s memory and recalled during the
reading act.

To remember previous information is largely dependent on how the information

had initially been presented (Winkler, 2009, p.84). Children should be given the
opportunity to familiarise themselves with letter shapes from the early grades. It
was evident from the reading tests that phonic instructions, sight words and
context clues had not been explicitly demonstrated to learners in the early grades.
That 79% of learners read the texts at the frustration level and below seems to
suggest that reading skills in English were not inculcate in learners well enough in
the early years of schooling. This poor practice of decoding skills over the years
might have caused delay in the Grade 4 learners reading of English. The
researcher observed during the test that the majority of learners hesitated to read
fluently the reading passages, although most words in the selection were sight
words.

All the three teachers observed used the phonic approach to teach reading.
During reading, they aimed at involving recognition of words, and much
questioning, however, it was observed that the phonic method was partially
practiced by learners as the teacher would concentrated on correcting
pronunciation when they were reading aloud.

In this study, it was found that only 33% of the Grade 4 learners read the texts at
their level. A total of 79.9% learners did not read the passages well during the
reading test, an indication that basic competencies pertaining to the Grade 4
syllabus were not achieved (MBESC, 2009b). The root cause of poor reading
habits was decoding, which stemmed from lack of reading practice. It was
observed that most learners did not have an opportunity to read aloud during
reading lessons.

59
4.4.1.2 Reading miscues analysis

Alderson (2000) defines reading miscues as the violation of speech

communication by means of texts. During the reading process the researcher
used the following marks to record the reading miscues: [-] for substitution, [^] for
insertion and having recorded the word, circling for the omitted words, and
underlining for repeated words. The pattern of responses noted during the reading
process included the following; reversal, omission, insertion, self-correction, and
refusal. These are explained further below.

Reversal is the tendency to reverse letters or words that are different only in
direction, such as /b/ for /d/, /no/ for /on/; or words such as: /how/ for /who/, /was/
for /saw/. This is similar to substitution. During the reading passage one reversal
occurred, for example, in the following sentence: “Jimmy got under the table in the
kitchen.” Some 15% of learners read the same sentence as: “Jimmy got under the
table in the chicken.” In that sentence kitchen was substituted to chicken,
completely altering the meaning of the sentence. Substitution also occurred in a
way similar to reversal, with 10% of learners substituting words, as in the use of
“locked up” instead of “looked up.” Another example was “Mother who gets a
surprise” being read as “Mother how gets a surprise.” It happened that in cases
such as these sentences, reversal and substitution altered the meaning of the
sentence and made the reading act difficult to follow. To Freck and Meier (2005),
many reversals occur with young readers with high-frequency words, for example,
of for for. However, reversal errors in this study might have occurred due to a lack
of reading practice. This was evident during observations that learners only
practise reading during the lessons, and nothing from school encouraged
independent reading.

Omission: A total of 12 (13%) learners in this study omitted words. It was noted
that during the reading test some were trying to read fast, but they actually could
not, thus resulting in omission of words. The researcher also noted that the
learners’ sight vocabulary was weaker. For example, a sentence in reading
passage 1, reads: All the children took the balloons and run into the room.
Learners omitted the word “the” in the sentence, and it was read as “All children

60
took balloons and run into room.” Although the meaning of the sentence was not
greatly affected, it was altered, and this reading practice is not commendable at
the Grade 4 stage. According to Lerner (2000), omission is regarded as a normal
practice as the reader focuses on the key words in the text for meaning, but for
beginners omission is an error.

It was observed, in this study, that many learners have no word-attack skill as a
result of poor word recognition. Poor word recognition is caused by lack of reading
practice since learners are not able to access a store of words or visual patterns
when reading, hence, they opted to omit words they had not encountered before.
Automatic recognition of words in the text helps learners to improve fluency.

Insertion: Insertions noted during the reading test were, for example, in “Samson
kicked the sand under his bare feet”, which eight (8.9%) of the learners changed
to read “Samson was kicked the sand under his bare feet.” This type of miscue
affected the meaning of the sentence. According to Almasi (2003), this occurs
when a learner inserts a word or two in the text which was, or were not, there. If
the insertion does not distract from the meaning it may only mean the reader is
making sense but also inserts it. Almasi concludes that if insertion is one such as
using finished for finish this should be addressed

A common insertion occurred with the indefinite and definite articles, /a/ or /the/.
Learners invariably inserted these articles, replacing “the” with “a”, or adding an
article where there was none. For example, in “Samson come for supper!” 5
(5.4%) learners inserted “the”, so the sentence would read “Samson come for the
supper.” The insertion violated the context of the sentence. Snow et al. (2010)
observe that insertion occurs when a reader reads too fast or when sight
vocabulary is poorly developed.

Self-correction is an act of reading in which a learner realises s/he has made an

error and re-reads the word without prompting. In this study, self-correction was
observed with 6 (6.5%) learners who read the passages at the independent level.
These learners read the word wrongly, realised the error and self-corrected it.
About 7 (7.6%) self-corrected on many occasions and this affected
comprehension. Self-correction came in force as a result of poor word attacking
61
skill and word recognition strategy. It was observed that too many self-corrections
affected the act of reading. Another observation was that too much repetition of
words resulted in inaccuracy correction.

Refusal also occurred during the reading test, when learners were unable to
respond to the reading process. In this study, three learners (3.9%) completely
failed to read the passage. According to Almasi (2003), refusals are often
produced by learners who have no phonic skills at their disposal to help them
recode an unfamiliar word. The researcher noted that learners who refused to
read lacked decoding skills. Reading at the Grade 4 level requires more decoding
skills, unlike in the early grades when beginners rely primarily on visual word
recognition supported by pictorial and semantic cues.

Carter and Nunan (2003) regard reading miscues, such as reversal, omission and
insertion, as signs of dyslexia. However, Levine (1994) refutes this, maintaining
that reversal, omission and mispronunciation cannot be associated with dyslexia,
but rather occur commonly in children when they begin to read. In concurrence,
Lerner (2000) acknowledges that reversals are a common tendency with beginner
readers, which usually indicates lack of experience with letters and words.
Although reversal is common, teachers must establish whether reversal is
developmental or indicates disabilities interfering with reading progress. Levine
(1994) found that these reading problems could be prevented, provided proper
intervention strategies were put in place before it became a problem.

4.4.1.3 Reading fluency

According to Alderson (2000), fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed,
accuracy, and proper expression, and children who do not read with fluency read
awkwardly. Murray and Johnson (1996) observe that learners who do not read
with expression have difficulty with decoding skills. As the Grade 4 learners in this
study head into the upper primary grades, fluency becomes increasingly
important. The demands of reading required in the upper primary increase
dramatically. Thus, learners whose reading in Grade 4 is slow or laboured face

62
trouble meeting the reading demand of the upper grades. In total, 79 (77%) out of
92 learners in this study read the reading passage badly.

A total of 70 of the learners lacked reading fluency as a result of poor decoding

skill. Fluency was aggravated by their lack of distinguishing the characteristics of
the individual letter or whole word (word attacking skill), and sounding them well. It
was noted that most learners did not form the congruency between particular
letters and the English sound language, for example, the letter /o/ in the following
words [mother], [home]. Learners became confused when reading [mother]
/mather/, as the sound /o/ is not the same as in [home] /houm/. English language
has unpredictable sounds that are not similar to what learners, in this study, had
initially been introduced to in their mother tongue.

Lacking in the Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit was Phonological

awareness, which refers to the ability to detect or manipulate the sound structure
of oral language (Dickinson & Neuman, 2006, p.56). Regular and irregular sounds
in English do not always sound similar to those of Oshiwambo, for example the
letter /a/, which has different sounds in different words of English, such as /mat/,
/cake/, /lack/; but in Oshiwambo the sound is consistent, for example, a similar
sound appears in words like /kala/,/pata/, kakele. Phonological awareness affected
decoding of English words, as learners transfer reading skills from Oshiwambo.

4.4.1.4 Reading comprehension

Gall, Gall and Borg (2001) suggest that comprehension of the texts requires
readers to actively engage the text to construct meanings. To develop this in
children, all reading instructions should provide for the development of reading
comprehension abilities. The lack of comprehension skills among the Grade 4
learners resulted in poor decoding skills, word identification, lack of vocabulary in
English and recognition abilities in this. According to Pang et al. (2003),
comprehension is the process of deriving meaning from connected text. The chief
objective of reading is to understand, which ultimately depends upon one’s ability

63
to decode and master sight words. When word recognition is automatic readers
are able to concentrate on the meaning of whole sentences and paragraphs

A total of 70 (76.1%) of the 92 learners read passage 1 at the instructional level,

but could not answer correctly any of the five questions based on the text. It was
noted during the reading tests that learners with insufficient skills in word
recognition were unable to concentrate on the meaning of the text.

From the reading tests it was observed that learners had insufficient background
knowledge or vocabulary to support the written texts. It was found in this study that
learners did not answer the questions correctly because they could not
differentiate the “WH” questions; that is the Why, Who, Which, Where, What. For
example, Why did aunt Hilma tell the children to hide? To this question, a total of
17(18.5%) learners responded merely by reading the sentence in which the word
hide appeared. Their answer was: “Hurry up and hide”. Their responses to the
questions posed after reading passages were not appropriate. They gave
irrelevant answers or simply quoted any line from the text read as the answer. The
way learners responded to the questions indicated a lack of exposure to both
language and reading.

Automatisation, the ability to recall words from memory, was also observed during
the tests. A total of 25 (27.2%) of the learners expended much effort decoding
words in the text read. Most of the words used in the reading texts given to the
learners during the test were sight words, these being words that can be
recognised by sight. Learners who struggled to read the passage fluently seemed
to show a lack of automated reading. Grade 4 learners expended too much effort
on decoding words and as a result less effort was left for comprehension.

None of the three schools had reading corners in their Grade 4 classrooms, or
sufficient reading materials. In the absence of these there was minimal motivation
for them to read for a variety of purposes. This study was conducted in remote
schools and, as Lerner (2000) observed, many learners in remote rural areas lack
exposure to literacy in the form of print. These learners had no resources to
transfer the comprehension skills of the English spoken language to reading, and
this compromised textual understanding.
64
4.4.1.5 English oral Language

Learning to read differs from oral skill in that it involves a symbolic system that
represents speech. Pang et al. (2003) argue that before children begin to learn to
associate the written form with speech they need to learn the vocabulary,
grammar and sound system of the oral language. Dickinson and Neuman (2006)
also emphasise the link between oral vocabulary and the development of reading
skills.

Language is a component of reading with understanding. All learners in this study

were from the Oshiwambo-speaking families, and English to them was not a first
language. Although the home languages were Oshingandjera, Oshimbalanu or
Oshikwaluudhi, at school they were taught Oshindonga as L1 and English as L2.
According to Barker (2006), the threshold hypothesis posits a level to reach in a
language before introduction of the skills of another language. The threshold
hypothesis might have affected memorising the English words, had they not been
part of the language normally used at home.

According to Levine (1994), reading difficulties may be the result of cultural, peer,
and family factors. Levine further suggests that if there is no identifiable reader
role model in a child’s life the act of reading may fail to offer any potential
attraction. As a teacher teaching in the environment in which this study was
conducted, the researcher concurs with the above assertions by Levine (1994).

Learners in the Ogongo circuit struggle with English, and most of them experience
one or more of the following multiple risk factors that inhibit reading mastery,
namely poorly educated parents, low-income family and community background,
and attendance at low-achieving schools. With these multiple risk factors affecting
these learners without explicit English reading instruction, a large number will
continue to experience reading difficulties. It should be pointed out that learners in
the Ogongo circuit come to school with no proficiency in English from home but
speak local languages, therefore it is vital that they be taught the basics of reading

65
in their first language while acquiring oral proficiency in English. Then, the reading
skills acquired in the first language might facilitate transfer to English reading.

Contrary to the arrangement at the lower primary phase, which aims at scaffolding
learners’ English language proficiency at Grades 1-3, insufficient instruction is
likely given in this phase. In the Ogongo circuit, print materials were lacking and
are needed to support the development of English language skills. Further, oral
language proficiency in English should be encouraged in order to attain an
acceptable level before learners are introduced to formal reading instruction. Once
oral proficiency has been achieved, learners will be aware of the sound of words,
in the form of phonemic awareness. This awareness will eventually raise the
appreciation of how words are spelled.

The transition from oral to formal reading instruction requires models worth
emulating by the learners. The mother tongue interference in many Oshiwambo
dialects, for example, is a concern. An Oshiwambo teacher who points to the “d”
sound in the word /dog/ as /ndog/ is not an appropriate model for learners to
emulate. The researcher is not claiming that teachers at this level in the Ogongo
circuit must sound like native English speakers, but they should model sounding
relatively close to Standard English.

4.4.1.6 Teacher factors

It was observed that teachers often began the reading instruction without tapping
on the learners’ prior knowledge to connect previous learning to the new skills.
Teachers in this study should have introduced the topic to learners first, before the
actual reading commenced. Instead, these teachers introduced the pages where
the reading texts were, read the topic sentence and let learners read. An
introduction to reading materials at the Grade 4 level requires teachers to
discussion vocabulary words so that learners hear how these are read and their
meanings.

66
Preparation of the reading materials is of utmost importance, and as Lerner (2000)
writes, learners should be prepared to read with understanding by identifying the
main ideas, details, and sequence, and be able to organise patterns. During
observations in all three schools, teachers concentrated much on decoding and
correct pronunciations, but no attention was given to identifying main ideas or
details, or to developing comprehension skills. The researcher expected the
teachers to pre-read the stories and discuss the purpose of the lesson and the
topic of the story that was to be read, so that they would model reading the story
to the learners and thereafter discuss the story information using organised
questions as a guide. To develop language use, the teacher should prompt
learners to identify the theme for the story, so that they would practise applying the
generalisation of the theme to their real life experiences. Reading is an extension
of oral communication and builds upon listening and speaking skills, hence it
requires ample time, a good model (Lerner, 2000) and input from teachers for the
learners. If a wrong teaching approach is used with the beginners it discourages
their willingness to learn to read in future. Although the responsibility for imparting
effective teaching to read lies with the teachers, Moats and Foorman (2003)
believe that some teachers lack the capacity to handle all the required reading
skills and have not been taught them during their training.

4.4.2 Possible intervention strategy

Early identification of reading difficulties is of utmost importance so that the

intervention can take place as early as possible. The intervention strategy
suggested in this study is directed at teachers and parents who work with learners
with reading difficulties on a daily basis. It includes tips for intervention and
remediation. The focus of this intervention strategy is to enhance reading skills
and language instructions for Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit, who have
been identified as having difficulties in reading English. The areas identified as the
causes of reading difficulties in the Ogongo circuit, and that are considered for this
intervention are word recognition skills, decoding, comprehension, English
language development and teaching methods.

67
Learners with reading difficulties in the Ogongo circuit need to be empowered by
their teachers, and this intervention strategy should be a joint responsibility of
school and parents. The role of parents is to monitor reading progress at home
and pass on their recommendations to teachers for implementation. For a
successful implementation all teachers at the school should be involved in the
intervention for the school to produce learners who can excel academically.

4.4.2.1 Words decoding skill and word recognition strategy

Before beginning the intervention, teachers must assess learners’ reading skill,
strengths and weaknesses then develop a plan for remediation with the following
steps:

 Organise the class in such a way that all learners have access to the books
and writing materials so that they can read on their own;

 focus on phonemic awareness and phonics methods in explicit ways, using

effective approaches to build decoding fluency;

 engage learners in reading and writing activities that apply phonics to

information taught;

 let learners learn the letters and sounds of the alphabet; and

 emphasise the irregular words that learners often see when reading, as
these words do not follow the usual letter-sound rules, for example the /a/ in
said, are and was.

At home, parents should create an atmosphere that encourages reading, so that

children from a young age can appreciate it. Children need to see family members
reading and enjoying it. Therefore, they should:

 discuss what was read with the child during spare times;

 provide magazines to facilitate reading;

68
  let children read the story they know and have enjoyed in the past;

 let young children read with a parent;

 label objects around the home;

 encourage children to read newspapers and magazines, and let them share
stories with the rest of the family.

Learning to read is a continuous process, one that develops in the home

environment. Therefore, parents should inculcate a love of reading in their
children. Teachers should identify the reading needs of their learners as earlier as
possible in order to prevent future reading problems.

4.4.2.2 Teachers’ approaches to teaching reading

For effective reading intervention in the Ogongo circuit, the Grade 4 teachers
should provide more reading practice with speed and smoothness to learners, so
that they meet the reading demands of their Grade. Teachers therefore should do
the following:

 First, assess learners to determine the cause(s) of their reading

difficulties; if word recognition or word decoding is the source of the
problem this should be addressed in addition to reading speed and
phrasing.

 Let identified learners with reading difficulties practice reading the same
list of words, phrase, or short sentences several times.

 Provide another English reading book rather than English for All for
Namibia, and give the learner that independent level text to practice
reading. Time the learner and calculate words-correct-per minute
frequently. Encourage learners to improve their word-per-minute in
regular intervals.

69
  Grade 4 teachers should also practice joint reading so that the learner
matches his/her sound to that of the teacher. Slow down to check
his/her reading fluency or speed up to scaffold his/her reading speed.

 Share reading of short texts. First read it to the learner and later let the
learner read it back.

 Have the learner practice reading with emotion, such as sadness or

excitement, to emphasise expression and intonation.

 To emphasis the use of punctuation, Grade 4 teachers should remind

the learner to pause between sentences or phrases.

The ineffective reading strategies surfaced in this study as contributory factors to

reading difficulties among the Grade 4 learners. They can only be prevented if
teachers use appropriate teaching approaches that respond to learners’ reading
needs.

4.4.2.3 Language development

In the absence of English language exposure outside school, such as in the

Ogongo circuit, teachers should be encouraged to make use of the classroom
opportunity to develop English oral language in their learners by implementing the
following strategies:

 Expose learners to the language-experience method of teaching

reading in English. Grade 4 teachers should discuss text characters
with their learners, but not simply focus on fluency.

 Let learners write and illustrate language-experience stories that access

prior knowledge. Grade 4 learners should write and read their stories
aloud in front of the class.

 Let Grade 4 learners visit the library and read their favourite stories to
reinforce vocabulary and language patterns.
70
  Grade 4 teachers in the Ogongo circuit should develop learners’
language through asking questions to promote interactions during story
reading.

In conclusion, for any goal to be attained in teaching reading English, learners

should be exposed to English language use while at school, as such is often not
available at home and in their communities. To develop such exposure, teachers
should encourage learners to read stories and discuss them in front of peers in the
class.

71
 CHAPTER 5

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 INTRODUCTION

The preceding chapter presented and discussed the results of this study. In this
chapter the summary, conclusion and recommendations are provided.

5.2 SUMMARY

This study was conducted in order to investigate the causes of reading difficulties
among the Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit, in the Omusati region. The
study sought to answer the following questions:

1. What reading difficulties are experienced by Grade 4 learners in Ogongo

circuit?

2. What are the possible causes of these reading difficulties?

3. What intervention framework would help learners acquire relevant

English reading skills?

This study employed a mixed research approach. A sample of 92 learners and

three teachers from three schools participated in this study. The sample of three
schools was purposefully selected. Triangulation was achieved by lesson
observations and administered tests to collect the data. The data were analysed
using descriptive statistics, and graphs.

The findings from the observations were that learners’ reading difficulties in
English could be attributed to lack of reading materials in schools. Other possible
causes of reading difficulties in the Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit were
lack of language development, and inappropriate teaching methods used by the
teachers. The findings from the test revealed that decoding skills and word
72
recognition abilities, phonemic awareness and lack of comprehension skills were
some of the types of the reading difficulties among the Grade 4 learners in the
Ogongo circuit. In total, 69.6% of the learners were identified as unable to read at
the Grade 4 level. These learners expended too much effort in decoding words,
and read word-by-word.

5.3 CONCLUSION

The aim of this study was to identify the types and causes of reading difficulties
displayed by the Grade 4 learners in the Ogongo circuit. The researcher found that
the causes of reading difficulties were lack of English language development in
learners, lack of English reading materials, insufficient word recognition strategy
and lack of comprehension skills. The reason that learners failed to acquire
decoding skills was that the teachers lacked the competencies in teaching reading
English explicitly. The teachers must possess the requisite specialisation required
to teach English as a subject, and reading in particular. It was noted that in all
three schools the theoretical approach in teaching reading in English was used.
There should be a wider exposure of learners to a variety of reading materials for
them to acquire fluency.

5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS

Arising from the findings of the research, the following recommendations are
made:

1. All schools should have sufficient English reading materials to cater for the
reading needs of the learners. The school should continuously provide the
necessary teaching materials, such as newly updated books and
supplementary reading books.

2. Continuous training for teachers should be encouraged to enhance their

knowledge and skills in both oral and reading to make them effective teachers
on whom learners can model.

3. Teachers should be motivated to improve their English through the English

Language Proficiency Program by the MoE and UNAM.
73
 4. Teachers should encourage independent reading by learners.

5. Teachers should set up a library in an area of the classroom to which

learners frequently have access during the class time. They should display as
many books as possible with visible illustrations that attract learners’ attention.

6. In order to develop vocabulary among the Grade 4 learners, reference

books such as dictionaries should be included in their selections. It is also
advisable for schools to involve parents in their endeavour to teach learners to
read in English.

7. Classroom interactions are a vital tool that triggers language development,

and ultimately reading skills, therefore teachers should know how to stimulate
their learners’ involvement in the classrooms. This includes ideas on how to
fuel learners’ motivation, how to help learners see the relevance of the topic,
and how the techniques used to develop reading skills can increase classroom
participation.

8. The government should consider reducing the teacher-learner ratio to 1:30

or less, since two schools observed with the teacher-learners ratio beyond
1:30 experienced discipline problems.

In terms of the findings and discussion on the types and causes of reading
difficulties identified in this study, the following recommendations for further
research can be made:

1. That further research be conducted to investigate the effect of poor reading

on the academic performance of learners at end of the primary phase, and

That a replication of this study be conducted to evaluate the teaching methods

applied by to teach the Grade 4 learners reading in English.

74
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 APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1: LETTER OF CONSENT TO THE DIRECTOR

P O Box 2036

0shakati

18 October 2012

The Director
Omusati Education Region
Private Bag 529
Outapi
Dear Sir/Madam
Reguest to carry a research in the region
I am Kleopas Mule, a master student at the University of Namibia (Med. Literacy
and Learning), herby request your office to grant me the permission to carry out a
study in the Ogongo circuit. The envisage study will be carried out at Eendombe
combined school, Eyakulo Primary school and Ongolo combined school. The
study is under the topic: TYPES AND CAUSES OF READING DIFFICULTIES
AFFECTING READING OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE: A CASE OF GRADE 4
LEARNERS IN SELECTED SCHOOLS IN OGONGO CIRCUIT OF NAMIBIA.
Reading is a requisite skill for all academic achievement and should have a
grounding support in the early years of schooling. It was found that many learners
in our schools reach Grade 10 unable to read well and this possesses challenges
for them to excel well, academically. The proposed study will seek to establish the
causes and type of reading difficulties experienced by Grade 4 learners in order to
suggest an intervention framework to arrest the situation. Grade 4 is a transitional
stage from the lower to the upper primary phase of education where the switch is
made from learning to read to reading to learn, hence the importance of the study
at this phase.
The outcome of this study will be made available to teachers, parents and the
community at large in the Omusati Education Region in order to provide necessary
support for the improvement of learner’s reading skills in English.
Thank you for considering my request.
Faithfully yours
Kleopas Mule

82
83
APPENDIX 2: LETTER OF PERMISSION TO CARRY OUT THE STUDY IN THE
REGION

84
APPENDIX 3: OBSERVATION-GUIDE

1. Classroom physical-environment

(i) What is the Grade 4 teacher-learners’ ratio?

(ii) Are there enough chairs and tables in the Grade 4 classroom?

(iii) Does the classroom environment promote reading? Are there reading
materials on display?

(iv) How is the classroom arranged?

(v) Are there enough English reading books?

2. Classroom psycho-social environment

(i) What is the teacher-learners’ relation? Are they communicating in a friendly

manner?

(ii) Do all learners feel at ease during the lesson?

(iii) Can learners express themselves freely during the lesson?

(vi) How do learners assist one another to learn to read English?

(v) Does the teacher motivate learners to read more?

3. Teacher lesson conduct

(i) What reading method does the teacher use?

(ii) Does the teacher model good reading skill to learners?

(iii) How is the teacher’s pronunciation?

(iv) Is the teacher suitably qualified to teach at the Lower Primary phase?

(v) What is the level of difficulty of the reading activities given to Grade 4
learners?

85
APPENDIX 4: SINGLE WORD OR NON-WORD SCORING KEY

If 2 words wrong 1 (independent level)

If 3 or 4 words wrong 2 (instructional level)
If more than 4 words wrong 3 (frustration level)

86
APPENDIX 5: READING ASSESSMENT ONE

Task 1

Name .....................................

Sex.........................................

Reading assessment task one: Single word reading.

Non-word (one and two syllable words)

The primary aim of this activity was to assess the Grade 4 learners’ decoding and
word-recognition abilities.

plood

fign

paunt

tlos

milf

patch

argon

andlis

gsin

hausage

If 2 words wrong 1 independent level

If 3 or 4 words wrong 2 instructional level
If more than 4 words wrong 3 frustration level

87
APPENDIX 6: READING ASSESSMENT ONE

Task 2

Regular words or sight words (one or two syllable words

Name..............................................................

Sex..................................................................

Sight words

the have how look down

from how low they and

their more did awake had

write get fight had will

come in build speed see

words other number may you

about no part that not

way send what many could

teach all then people person

them write for speak these

think when first make your

water dream can her been

said would called they ground

Scoring key:

At least 35 of these words correct 1 independent level

Between 25 and 34 words correct 2 instruction level

Fewer than 25 words correct 3 frustration level

Comment...................................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................................
88
APPENDIX 7: READING PASSAGE SCORING KEY FOR ASSESSMENT TWO

The following details were captured during the reading process and learners were
supposed to answer 5 questions based on the passages. Passages were
arranged progressively according to which would be more challenging.
 If the learner could not say a word, after several seconds it was said for
him/her, and marked with (*) every time help was provided.
 To mark the miscue or error, what the learner said was written above the
word.
 If a learner omitted a word a text word was encircled.
 If a learner added a word it was written above where she/he said it and
marked with ^.
 If the learner made a self-correction, what she/he said was written first and
a tiny “c” inserted to show that it had been self-collected.
 After a comprehension question, what a learner said was written down.
 Learners were asked to read both passages, unless there were too many
errors. If a learner made too many errors the second reading passage was
discontinued.

89
APPENDIX 8: READING ASSESSMENT TWO

Task: 1

Name.......................................................

Sex .........................................................

Level 1 Say: This short story is about a mother who got a surprise. Read it aloud
as you can. I will ask you some questions about it at the end.

Mother got a surprise

Aunt Hilma said, “Shush, she’s coming. Hurry up and hide.”

All the children took the balloons and ran into the rooms.

Fabian hides in the closet. Ruana hides under the bed.

Jimmy got under the table in the kitchen.

They held on to the balloons. Mom walked into the house.

Everyone ran to her and let the balloons fly.

“Surprise”, they cried.

Questions:

Why did aunt Hilma tell the children to hide?

Where did Rauna hide?

What did they have with them in their hiding places?

Who got the surprise?

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APPENDIX 9: READING ASSESSMENT TWO

Task: 2

Name............................................................

Sex...............................................................

Level 2 say: the following text is about the boy who is bored. Read it aloud and
then I will ask you questions about it.

Samson kicked the sand under his bare feet. He could hear his sisters in the
kitchen making supper. He has nothing to do until supper, and he felt so bored.

Just then Samson looked up at the tree in the yard. One of the old weaver nests
on the tree was moving! That was odd because the weaver bird had not been
there for a long time. It couldn’t be a snake that high up the tree. Just then
Samson the yellow weaver sticks his beak out. He had a grass in his beak, and he
flew with it to another nest and put it in. The weaver was singing a happy song as
he went for another piece of grass. Then another bird, one that wasn’t quite so
yellow, looked out. The weaver had a mate!

The birds didn’t mind Samson. He watched them for a long time. He wasn’t bored
any more. Suddenly, he was surprised to hear, “Samson, come for supper.”

Questions

How was Samson feeling at the beginning of the story?

What did he see in the tree?

Why was he surprised to see the birds?

Why was he no longer bored?

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