Effective Teaching Of Kiswahili Reading In Standard One In Government Primary Schools: Design And Testing Of An Interactive Approach

ABSTRACT

This study describes the process of Design and Testing of An Interactive Approach based on improving the Effective Teaching of Kiswahili Reading Skills for Standard One in Government Primary Schools. Specific objectives of the study were to; investigate students‟ ability in reading Kiswahili language letters, words and sentences; design and develop exemplary Kiswahili teachers guide and materials for improving reading skills to pupils; evaluate the pedagogical skills used by teachers in teaching reading skills and assess the reading ability of the pupils who have learned through the designed lessons and materials compared to other pupils. The study aimed at seeking a possible solution to the reading problem where a large number of children are not able to read it fluently even though the language is widely spoken across the country. The study adopted a developmental research approach in which a quasi experimental design was adopted, where pre-/post-intervention test were used in two schools. The intervention school contained 52 pupils and 48 pupils in the control school. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected during study. The new approach to teach reading focuses on getting learners learning to read. Findings from the study indicated that there was alarming problem of children who cannot read and write, teachers used the traditional approach in teaching reading in lower grades which could not help them to assist their students to have skills in reading and writing so as to improve their reading abilities. Also teachers and students were found to be more interested in learning by the new tested approach than the traditional approach. Therefore, the materials seemed to be useful in schools.