EFFECTS OF PHONICS AND SYLLABIC STRATEGIES ON PRIMARY II PUPILS'ACHIEVEMENT IN READING COMPRHENSION IN AKOKO SOUTH WEST,ONDO STATE

ABSTRACT This study examined the Effect of Phonics and Syllabic Strategies on Primary II Pupils in Reading Comprehension in Akoko South West Local Government Area of Ondo State. Three research questions were posed and three null hypotheses were tested. The study engaged quasi-experimental research design involving two intact classes from each of the randomly selected schools. Purposive random sampling was used to select three schools for the study. The three intact classes selected were assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental groups were taught reading comprehension using Phonic and syllabic strategies while the control group was taught using Grammar- Translation method. The instrument which was validated by experts' and used for data collection was a seIf-structured Instrument titled: Reading comprehension Academic Performance (RCAP). Treatment was administered to 20 students before the treatment for the purpose of estimating the reliability of the instrument. The internal consistency of the instrument was determined using Kuder-Richardson's formula (K - 20)and it yielded a reliability index of 0.75. Data collected were calculated using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The major findings of the study were:Phonic and Syllabic Strategies had a significant effect on pupils' achievement in Reading Comprehension. Also, gender had significant effect on students' achievement in Reading Comprehension as the result was in favour of male pupils. Based on these findings,it was concluded that the study provided empirical evidence of the efficiency of phonics and syllabic strategies in enhancing students' achievement in Reading comprehension among pupils. It was recommended that the serving teachers should be encouraged to adopt this method in teaching reading comprehension among primary school pupils.