Reading Readiness Skills Research Articles

Examining the Factors Affecting Reading Readiness of Kindergarten Students

Reading is one of the core literacy skills of every individual and early reading for children has a great impact on future learning pathways and the success of school life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reading readiness of kindergarten students in Myanmar and examine factors affecting reading readiness. A quantitative survey method was used in this study with a total of 222 kindergarten students from seven schools in Yangon and Rakhine selected using the multistage cluster sampling method. The Myanmar Reading Assessment Test (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.925) for kindergarten was used to administer the reading readiness skills of the students. In addition, demographic factors related to students and parents’ involvement in their children’s learning were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. The statistical analysis methods used were descriptive statistics, percentiles, t test, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). According to the results, there were five reader groups: below basic (25.7%), basic (6.8%), satisfactory (11.3%), proficient (16.7%), and advanced (39.6%) levels. The results of the statistical analysis concluded that no preschool experiences, lower socioeconomic status, the region in which they live, and unsupportive parents were the main factors affecting reading readiness. Among these factors, preschool experience is the only solution that can be tackled to improve reading readiness than other factors. However, most children in Myanmar cannot yet access preschool programmes adequately. Therefore, the government, NGOs, INGOs, CSOs, CBOs, and other organisations should ensure that every child has the opportunity to attend preschool regardless of geographical barriers.

Values-Based Exercises for the Development of Reading Readiness Skills for Preschool Children

This research paper is being prepared to develop and evaluate materials for the development of reading readiness skills of preschool children with emphasis on values necessary for their wholesome development, to provide readily made reading readiness materials which are beneficial to both the preschool teachers and the learners which they can use anytime in teaching and learning, and to address the dearth of instructional materials that focus on values formation among children as they acquire reading readiness skills. Five (5) peer evaluators and five (5) reading experts were selected to evaluate the values-based exercises for the development of reading readiness skills for preschool children. The responses of the study revealed the acceptability of the selections as to their content, presentation style, interest of pupils, as to whether the exercises are clear, and the development of basic reading skills for pre-school children are appropriate to their ages. The results of the analysis and interpretation of the responses revealed that the materials were found to be suited to the exercises provided for in the different levels.

Basic Education and Reading Readiness Skills: An Appraisal of Early Childhood Kindergarten in Imo State, South-East of Nigeria

Reading is a basic tool of education and also a crucial aspect in the Nigerian language curriculum. As a receptive skill, it involves the ability to meaningfully interpret or decode written or graphic symbols of a language. It is not merely about how to pronounce words; it is significant that the children understand the meaning of the words they read in order to unfold the hidden treasure of knowledge and also participate in the words’ universal culture and civilization. It becomes imperative to kindle reading culture among the children who are faced with several competing leisure time activities. The early childhood or the kindergarten, being the best time to imbibe reading culture and early literacy skills in children, is also the time to get them reading ready. This research, therefore, was mainly initiated to investigate how reading readiness could enhance children’s early literacy and factors that affect reading readiness among the kindergarten in Imo State. The sample of the study was drawn from the population of nursery/ primary school teachers in the three educational zones using stratified sampling technique. The main objective of the study being to ascertain the essence of reading readiness in building early childhood literacy skill; thus, a qualitative research method was employed. The findings indicated that the majority of the kindergarten teachers are unqualified and inexperienced to impart reading culture into the children. Other factors are overcrowded classrooms and poor environment that prohibit one-to-one teacher/pupil relationship in the reading class. It was suggested that the government should always organize all-inclusive workshops to train the teachers on the steps in teaching reading. Also, parents should always be provided with regular information on the reading progress of their children for them to make their own input in the reading skill of their children. All the above will help to build a solid reading skill which will promote basic functional education in Imo State.

BRAILLE READING PROFICIENCY AMONG LEARNERS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS: TEACHERS’ STRATEGIES AND LEARNERS’ READINESS IN AKROPONG SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND, GHANA

Globally, braille remains the main medium of reading and writing for individuals with visual impairment, specifically for the literate blind. The study sought to disclose the factors that have affected and continue to affect braille reading proficiency among beginners in Ghana. The study was carried out at Akropong School for the blind which is one of Ghana’s oldest and largest school for learners with visual impairment. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. A random sample of twenty girls and twenty boys were selected for the study. Five teachers who teach reading and writing of braille participated in the study. Three lessons in English language were observed in progress in three separate classrooms in the school. The study revealed that there were no arrangements put in place to train beginners in reading readiness skills before introducing them to braille reading. The study indicated that there were no clear ways of demonstrating how teachers approached the teaching of braille. Article visualizations:

Emergent Literacy Instruction in Acquisition of Reading Readiness Skills Among Primary School Pupils in Ikom Education Zone, Cross River State, Nigeria

This study investigated emergent literacy instruction in acquisition of reading readiness skills among primary school pupils’ in Ikom Education Zone, Cross River State, Nigeria. Five research questions and five corresponding null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Ex-post facto research design was used for the study. The population of the study was twenty one thousand, eight hundred and one (21,801) pupils. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select three hundred and sixty (360) pupils as sample for the study. A structured and validated 30-item questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was analyzed using population t-test and Independent t-test to test the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The result of the analysis showed that Primary school pupils’ acquisition of reading readiness skills in Ikom Education Zone, with respect to, phonological awareness, knowledge of alphabets activities, oral language activities, and story book reading, is significantly high; there is a significant mean difference in phonological awareness, alphabet recognition skills, oral skills, and print awareness skills mean achievement scores of private and public school children exposed to emergent literacy instruction. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made among others, teachers in public primary schools should cultivate preschool children’s willingness to listen to stories, desire to be read to, curiosity about words and letters, exploration of print forms, playfulness with words, enjoyment of songs, poems, rhymes, jingles, books, and dramatic play.

Reading Readiness Skills in Preschool Children

This research aims to identify the following : • The reading willingness skill to kindergarten children. • There is no statistical significance difference between average scores of reading willingness skill of the sample individuals as a whole, and the hypothetical average of the scale. • The difference in reading willingness skill to kindergarten children according to gender variable (male & female). • There is no statistical significance difference between average scores of reading willingness skill for kindergarten children according to gender variable (male & female). To achieve the research goals, the researcher adopted the test of (Alkhafa-2014) for reading willingness skill, as it's consisted of seven skills: Visual recognition, Audio recognition, Audiovisual recognition, Optical recognition, Audio memory, Visual tracking, pronunciation and speaking skill.

Effectiveness of Preschool-Wide Teacher-Implemented Phoneme Awareness and Letter-Sound Knowledge Instruction on Code-Based School-Entry Reading Readiness

This study investigated the effect of preschool-wide, teacher-implemented, phoneme-focused phonological awareness (PA) and letter-sound knowledge (LSK) instruction, on raising code-based school-entry reading readiness for children with Spoken Language Difficulties (SLD) and Typical Development (TD), when supported by weekly coaching by trainee speech-language pathologists. A total of 90 4-year-old children participated, whereby 50 children, inclusive of 13 children with SLD, received 10 weeks of preschool-wide, teacher-delivered, phoneme-focused PA and LSK instruction. In all, 40 children, inclusive of 10 children with SLD, continued with the usual preschool program. Post-instruction, children in the experimental condition performed significantly higher in phoneme awareness, LSK, and early decoding compared with control children. Children with SLD in the experimental condition performed significantly higher in phoneme awareness and LSK, but not in early decoding, compared with control children with SLD. Overall, preschool-wide, teacher-implemented, phoneme-focused PA and LSK instruction can support code-based reading readiness skills for children with SLD and TD.

استخدام الخرائط المعرفية المصورة لتنمية مهارات الاستعداد للقراءة لدى طفل الروضة Using Visual Cognitive Maps to Teach kindergarten Pupils To develop Reading Readiness Skills

) ان التعلم للطفل بطرق متعددة يصبح التعلم وظيفيا وفعالا وعلى المعلمة معاونة الأطفال على تطبيق التعلم .

Building Bridges Between Home and School for Latinx Families of Preschool Children

All children, regardless of their backgrounds, enter the classroom environment with a set of cultural and communal resources known as funds of knowledge (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005; Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992). Educators can support children’s learning and achievement by incorporating these funds of knowledge – which include, for example, cultural and familial values and traditions, family activities, and home language – into classroom learning experiences. All too often, however, educators fail to take advantage of these resources, and instead draw on mainstream values, traditions, and practices that have historically been embedded into classroom culture and protocol. Even the most well-intentioned intervention programs seeking to support children from ethnoculturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds typically do so by offering parents training to help adapt their home activities and practices to align with those expected by and supported in U.S. schools. We strongly believe that for intervention efforts to be effective, they must rely on an approach that acknowledges and integrates the cultural knowledge and resources of children and their families. Building solid home-school connections requires adopting a bidirectional approach – that is, initiatives should also target the school by bringing salient home and community practices into the classroom setting. In this essay, we share findings of an intervention program we developed and implemented to help teachers incorporate Latinx children’s funds of knowledge into their everyday classroom routines. Our program trained preschool teachers to use cultural forms of oral language in the classroom as a way to support children’s reading readiness skills.

Faculty Perspectives and Needs in Supporting Adult English Learners: Linking Measurement to Practice

Results from a survey of 227 adult English learner (EL) faculty in community and technical colleges in the United States reveal a clear desire to better serve adult ELs, but a lack of resources specifically designed to do so. Faculty want and need more resources to support the teaching and learning process, in the form of thoughtful assessments, materials, and an underlying evidence base that can guide and improve educational opportunities for adults learning English. Findings also reveal that information about student background knowledge and skills, which research deems essential to effective instruction, is not always accessible to faculty. Even with measurement tools that do exist, faculty express low to moderate satisfaction, leading to limited insight into students' reading, writing, speaking, listening, and college and career readiness skills on a granular, teachable level. Implications that inform practice with adult ELs and further research, development, and policy are discussed.

The Effects of Music Instruction on Cognitive Development and Reading Skills—An Overview

Abstract Research suggests that music study may have an impact on cognitive development and reading readiness skills (Barwick, Valentine, West, and Wilding, 1989; Douglas and Willatts, 1994; Saffran, Johnson, Aslin, and Newport, 1999; Butzlaff, 2000). There are a number of similarities between learning to read language and music. Music and written text both require the reading of notation from left to right, and conversion of notation into a specific sound (Butzlaff, 2000). More important, the auditory analysis skills used in language processing (phonological distinctions, blending and segmentation of sounds) are similar to the skills necessary for music perception of rhythmic (Lamb and Gregory, 1993; Lipscomb, Lundell, Sevett, and Scripp, 2008), harmonic, and melodic discrimination (Anvari, Trainor, Woodside, and Levy, 2002; Barwick et al., 1989; Lamb and Gregory, 1993). This review of literature will focus on music instruction's effect on cognitive performance, spatial-temporal development, and the development of reading skills and phonemic awareness. While describing five successful arts-enhanced curricula in practice, this review of literature will also briefly discuss the problems of instruction for the sake of research as well as the difficulties of research studies within the context of long-term curricular programs.

Reading readiness amongst preschool children in Pekanbaru Riau

Reading readiness is an important component of formal schooling. Preschool graduates need to compete with other children in Year One of elementary school. The aim of this study was to examine the reading readiness skills among kindergarten children in Pekan Baru, Riau. Aspects of reading readiness examined were (a) vocabulary, (b) auditory, (c) visual discrimination, and (d) mechanical reading. Reading readiness achievement was examined according to the gender, type of kindergarten and parents’ educational background. The sample included 450 preschoolers obtained through stratified random sampling. The instrument used to collect data was Reading Readiness Test (RRT). The data was analyzed using ANOVA and T-test. The findings revealed that there was no significant difference in reading readiness according to gender but there were significant differences according to type of kindergarten and parents’ educational background. The reading readiness tests results showed children's high abilities on most of test components. The major implication of the study is to implement effective strategies to enhance reading through parent education and teachers’ professional development.

Pre-School literacy in the light of european tradition

Abstract : In the field of kindergarten education there are two predominant, seemingly conflicting views of preschool literacy : reading readiness skills and emergent literacy. In the last decade (...)

Evaluation of Curricular Approaches to Enhance Preschool Early Literacy Skills

Two curricula designed to enhance the early literacy skills of 4-year-old preschool children were evaluated against a third, comparison condition. Thirty-five Head Start preschool classrooms were assigned randomly to incorporate one of two early literacy curricular approaches, Let's Begin with the Letter People® or Waterford Early Reading Program® Level 1, into their current curriculum, the High/Scope® Educational Approach, or to use the High/Scope method alone. Results indicated that children in the literacy intervention classrooms demonstrated significantly stronger outcomes in the areas of emergent writing, book and print knowledge, and general reading readiness skills. Minority language status also played a significant role in outcome, regardless of intervention condition. Implications for early childhood literacy interventions, especially important for children of low-income families, are discussed.

Should We "Redshirt" in Kindergarten? A Study of the Effect of Age on Kindergarteners' Reading Readiness

This study examined the effect of chronological age on kindergarten children's reading readiness skills. Specifically, we ask whether chronological age should be considered when making decisions about academic redshirting: the practice of delaying younger children's entrance into kindergarten. We were concerned particularly with reading readiness because research has shown consistently that kindergarten children who demonstrate strong prereading skills such as phonological awareness and letter-sound understanding are more likely to become strong readers in later grades (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). The participants in this study were 625 kindergarten children who were measured for age, phonological awareness, and letter-sound understanding. Results of analysis indicate that younger children were no different from their older peers in their phonological awareness skills whereas significant between-group differences did occur for letter-sound understanding. These results give strength to the notion that younger children in kindergarten were comparable to older children in their phonological awareness skills. However, younger children were less skilled in understanding letter-sound relationships.

All children are ready to learn: an emergent versus readiness perspective in early literacy assessment.

Assessment of emergent literacy is relatively new to the field of communication disorders. Traditional approaches to reading assessment evaluated mastery of reading readiness skills. By contrast, emergent literacy assessment evaluates the increased awareness and understanding of print that begin early in development. One of the most influential figures in emergent literacy assessment has been Marie M. Clay. She has defined critical components of emergent literacy and, in so doing, has played an integral role in the paradigm shift from a reading readiness to an emergent literacy perspective. This article is intended to distinguish emergent literacy from reading readiness, explicate Marie Clay's contribution to our current understanding of effective emergent literacy assessment, and provide some guidance in using her assessment techniques with children with significant disabilities.

Relationships Between Kindergarten Teachers' Perceptions of Literacy Acquisition and Children's Literacy Involvement and Classroom Materials

Relationships between teachers' perceptions of literacy acquisition and (a) children's involvement in literacy events and (b) the quantity and quality of classroom literacy materials were examined. The participants were 12 kindergarten teachers and 16 randomly selected students from each teacher's classroom. For data analysis purposes, responses on the Literacy Acquisition Perception Profile, verified through teacher interviews, were used to label teachers' perceptions as representing either a reading readiness skills or emergent literacy perspective. Children's voluntary involvement in literacy events was observed and recorded during a 12-week period. The Inventory of Literacy Indicators was used to assess the quantity and quality of classroom literacy materials. Children in classrooms of emergent literacy teachers participated in a higher number and greater variety of literacy events than did children in reading readiness skills classrooms, and literacy materials in classrooms of emergent literacy teachers were higher in both quantity and quality than were literacy materials in reading readiness skills classrooms.

Reading and Growth in Metalinguistic Awareness: Relations to Socioeconomic Status and Reading Readiness Skills

WARREN-LEUBECKER, AMYE, and CARTER, BETH WARREN. Reading and Growth in Metalinguistic Awareness: Relations to Socioeconomic Status and Reading Readiness Skills. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1988, 59, 728-742. 3 types of metalinguistic awareness (phonemic, word boundary, and word order in sentences) and their relation to socioeconomic status, vocabulary, reading readiness skills (letter knowledge, visual discrimination, sound-letter matching, and oral language comprehension), and reading achievement were longitudinally studied in a sample of 40 kindergartners (mean age 58) and 43 first graders (mean age 6-10). First graders' and higher SES children generally improved more between times of testing in phonemic and word-order awareness. All groups improved equally in vocabulary. The 3 metalinguistic tasks were highly interrelated, but when the effects of oral language comprehension or vocabulary were removed, the relations diminished significantly. A hierarchical model was initially supported, in which metalinguistic awareness skills (specifically phonemic segmentation) were superordinate and better predictors of reading, whereas all other factors were lower order, affecting reading only through their relation with metalinguistic skills.

Reading and Growth in Metalinguistic Awareness: Relations to Socioeconomic Status and Reading Readiness Skills

Reading and Growth in Metalinguistic Awareness: Relations to Socioeconomic Status and Reading Readiness Skills

Building a Learning Readiness Program for the Mainstreamed Visually Impaired Child in Israel

The first two parts of a four-part program projected for the education of visually impaired children in a mainstreamed setting is here presented, with exposition of the overall purpose and the difficulties involved. The main object is the teaching of braille reading. Emphasis is placed on the individualized program for general reading-readiness skills, called, “I'm On My Way.”