CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter reviews relevant literature on the study. It examines authors' views that are

relevant to the subject of study from theoretical and empirical perspectives. Relevant literatures

were reviewed under the following sub-headings:

1. The history of the English language in Ghana

2. The Concept of Reading

3. The Factors Which Contribute to Poor Reading

4. The Significance of Using the Phonics Approach in Teaching Reading

5. Effective Teaching and Learning Resources in Reading Comprehension

The History of the English Language in Ghana

The Europeans who colonized Ghana came as conquerors and invaders. Their journey's

purpose was very specific; they would employ almost any means to make their excursion

more expedient, no matter the cost to the indigenous people.

Training in literacy of the English language in Ghana was historically been targeted to

selected groups of Ghanaians. The earliest recorded teaching of the English language to

Ghanaians was to train them as interpreters to assist the British colonists in trade. It is also

documented that the colonists went so far as to send a small number of Ghanaians to Britain

to receive this training. (Johnson Sackey 2019)

The second major purpose of educating Ghanaians was to make them literate so that they

could read the bible. European missionaries came to Ghana to impart religion and morality

to the ‘pagan’ Africans. According to the writer Kathleen Sey, “English in (Ghana) has

from the very beginning been associated with Christianity…all schools were run by
Christian missionaries.” (Kathleen Sey, 2020). However, other schools opened to train

people for jobs. Also, “…the main objective of promoting the European languages was to

train cheap manpower for the administration of the colonies.” Kathleen Sey, (2019). Based

on this policy, it can be inferred that the goal of the colonial administration was not to

provide nationwide

literacy to give people the tools they need to participate in development but to train as many

people as were needed to satisfy their personal needs.

Concept of Reading

Reading is interpreting written or printed materials. In other words, the ability of a person

to decipher or decode codes before him/herself is defined as reading. Reading may also be

defined as giving meaning to what is before you. Marie Clay’s definition of reading

provides a framework for discussing our goals for reading instruction. She writes, “I define

reading as a message-getting, problem-solving activity which increases in power and

flexibility the more it is practiced” Kathleen Sey, (2019). Reading is not only a cognitive,

psycholinguistic activity but also a social activity. Reading is a complex cognitive process

requiring visual, auditory, and motor skills to enable a child to recognize words and

symbols, associate them with the appropriate sounds, and invest them with meaning derived

from previous experience.

According to Hengari (2018), reading is the ability to make sense of written or printed

symbols. It includes word recognition, comprehension and interpretation, appreciation, and

application of what is read. It is an interaction with language that has been coded into print.

Reading performance, good or poor, reflects the knowledge and competencies available to

the learner and how these are activated and coordinated during the reading process. Reading
is a prominent element of the entire education curriculum across all subject areas beginning

in the earliest grade. Children with delays in reading will experience feelings of deep

inadequacy. Reading is a language process. The child being taught to read must understand

the relationship between reading and his/her language.

The Factors Which Contribute to Poor Reading

Factors that contribute to difficulty in English reading as the problem is found among every

age group and in every level of education, although some children are at greater risk of

reading difficulties than others. How and why precisely this happens has not been fully

understood (Snow, Burns, and Griffin, 2018). According to Snow, Burns, and Griffin

(2018), the factors that contribute to these reading difficulties include biological deficits

that make the processing of sound-symbol relationships difficult, factors within the

individual, factors in the home, social and cultural environments, and factors in the school

environments.

Biological Deficits

Grigorenko (2019, in Snow, Burns, and Griffin, 2018, p. 24) asserts that all reading

difficulties, whatever their primary etiology, must express themselves through alterations

of the brain systems responsible for word identification and comprehension. He further

states that even in disadvantaged or other high-risk populations, many children do learn to

read, some easily and others with great difficulty.

Genetic factors have also been implicated in some reading disabilities, as revealed in the

studies both of family occurrence by Pennington (2021) and of twins by Olson (2017) in

Snow, Burns, and Griffin (2018, p. 24). Pennington (2011) and Olson (2017) in Snow,

Burns, and Griffin (2018) further assert that differences in brain function and behavior

associated with reading difficulty may arise from environmental and or genetic factors.
Home, Social, And Cultural Environments

Richek, Kail, and Hall et al. (2021) indicate that children who are particularly likely to have

difficulties with learning to read in the primary and higher grades are those who begin

school with less prior knowledge and skills in relevant domains. This includes a lack of

general verbal ability, a lack of ability to attend to the sounds of language as distinct from

its meaning, and a lack of familiarity with the basic purposes and mechanisms of reading

and letter knowledge. Richek (2019) further states that some children have difficulties

learning to read because they have not had early experiences that lead to an understanding

of what reading is all about (a way of deriving meaning from a text).

Homes that are plagued with poverty and family instability and neighborhoods where

violence is common produce children who are “at risk” of school failure. The combinations

of individual and environmental causes produce an increased risk for reading difficulties.

Children who are hungry or homeless have little energy to focus on school. Their

overburdened, often undereducated parents and guardians may lack the time and skills to

nurture literacy by sharing books with them, encouraging them to do homework, or

communicating with their teachers.

School Environment

Allington and Stanovich (2019) indicate that some school practices can contribute to

reading problems. It is possible that teachers, whose job is to help the children, can be doing

some harmful things. They give an example of a teacher who had entirely given up teaching

a child to read. They explain that the teacher simply read everything to the child. When

other children had reading time, that child was expected to sit quietly and do nothing.

Although such a dramatic lack of reading instruction is rare, school instruction often does

little to help children with reading problems.

Juel (2020) further states that unskilled readers spend less time reading than average

learners and that low-achieving learners read only a third as many words as average

learners. In short, learners with reading difficulties are not practicing enough to improve

their reading abilities. With little reading, they make little progress.

The Significance of Using the Phonics Approach in Teaching Reading

Adams (2018) states that “Faced with an alphabetic script, children’s level of phonemic

awareness on entering school may be the single most powerful determinant of the success

he or she will experience in learning to read.” To benefit from reading instruction,

developing readers need to understand the internal structure of words; that words are made

up of discrete sounds.

Phonics is a branch of linguistics where the sounds and physical properties of human speech

sounds are studied. Phonics reading is highly essential in every child’s education. It is not

uncommon to find parents who question the importance of phonics reading in the education

of their children. Such parents believe that children will naturally master the different

sounds of human speech since the ability to use language is innate in every human being.

The report of the National Reading Panel indicates that teaching children phonics will help

them in many ways in life. In the first instance, phonics reading is very important in helping

children to learn how to spell words. It will be impossible for a person to spell any word

correctly if the person is not able to recognize the sounds of the letters used in forming the

words. When a child is taught phonics, the child will be able to recognize sounds in words

and will be able to spell them correctly. Children have problems in reading because they

are not able to recognize the sounds of the letters of the alphabet in the words they read.

Phonics reading will help children to recognize and associate sounds of the letters of the

alphabet in the words they read. This will help them to improve their reading skills and
efficiency. In other words, it will be difficult for a child to improve his reading skills if the

teaching of phonics is removed from their curriculum. Phonics reading helps also to

increase a child's fluency in reading. Fluency in this context is not limited to reading fast.

It also means reading text accurately. When a child is taught phonics properly, the child will

find reading easy. The child will not only read accurately but also quickly. Reading quickly

and correctly is another benefit of phonics reading. Phonics reading is also necessary for

the improvement of a child's reading comprehension. Somebody cannot understand a word

that is not properly pronounced. When a child learns how to pronounce a word very well,

the child will be able to comprehend what he or she reads. Reading comprehension is

another benefit that can be derived from phonics reading. Phonics reading will also help a

child acquire more vocabulary daily. When a child can pronounce a word correctly, the

child will be able to understand the word. Children normally use the words that they

understand in their daily speech. Children have to develop more confidence in themselves

before they begin to vocalize more. This begins the moment they realize that they can

pronounce words correctly like older people. It is only through phonics reading that children

will develop the ability to pronounce words very well. Therefore, if you want your child to

develop confidence and become more vocal in the future, you need to teach him or her

phonics. In conclusion, low phonemic awareness, low scores on standardized tests (Lyon,

2018; Vellutino & Denckla, 2019; Goswami& Bryant, 2020; Elbro, 2019; Boder, 2018).

The above information emphasizes the use of the phonics method of teaching reading. It

goes a long way to explain the significance and benefits that other researchers will get when

they hand in this research work.

 Effective Teaching and Learning Resources in Reading Comprehension

Improving reading comprehension is a pressing concern for educators, researchers, and

policymakers. Despite advancements in educational research, many students continue to struggle

with reading comprehension. This synthesis of research investigates the effectiveness of various

teaching and learning resources in enhancing reading comprehension.

Digital resources such as ReadWorks and Reading A-Z have been shown to improve reading

comprehension. A 2017 study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology found that Read

Works improved reading comprehension for struggling readers by 15% (Dragon, 2017). Similarly,

a 2019 study published in the Journal of Literacy Research found that Reading A-Z increased

reading comprehension scores by 22% for struggling students (Kim, 2019).

Print resources such as the Orton-Gillingham Approach and the Wilson Reading System have been

effective in improving reading comprehension. A 2018 study published in the Journal of Special

Education found that the Orton-Gillingham Approach improved reading comprehension by 30%

for struggling readers (Henry, 2017). A 2019 study published in the Journal of Literacy Research

found that the Wilson Reading System increased reading comprehension scores by 20% for

struggling students (Wilson, 2019).

Multisensory resources like Visualizing and Verbalizing and Touch Phonics have also shown

promise. A 2017 study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology found that Visualizing

and Verbalizing improved reading comprehension by 22% for struggling readers (Culatta, 2017).

A 2019 study published in the Journal of Special Education found that Touch Phonics increased

reading comprehension scores by 25% for struggling students (Blevins, 2019).

Strategies and techniques such as Close Reading and Graphic Organizers have been effective in

improving reading comprehension. A 2018 study published in the Journal of Educational

Psychology found that Close Reading improved reading comprehension by 18% for struggling
readers (Brown, 2018). A 2020 study published in the Journal of Literacy Research found that

Graphic Organizers increased reading comprehension scores by 15% for struggling students

(Wolfe, 2020).

Professional development opportunities such as literacy coaching and reading specialist courses

have also improved reading comprehension instruction. A 2019 study published in the Journal of

Educational Psychology found that literacy coaching improved reading comprehension instruction

for teachers (Knight, 2019). A 2020 study published in the Journal of Special Education found that

reading specialist courses improved reading comprehension instruction for teachers (Mraz, 2020).