Teaching reading comprehension: Primary school teachers’ organisational strategies and the impact on pupils’ reading comprehension ability.

Abstract

This study investigates and analyses the primary school teachers‘ organisational strategies used in teaching Reading Comprehension (R.C) and how they impact the pupils‘ R.C ability. One of the major goals of English Language (E.L) teaching in primary school is that pupils should be able to read and understand authentic documents after six years of schooling. Literature reveals that more pupils graduate from primary school without being able to read part or all of a sentence. We hypothesized that teachers‘ poor organisation strategies used in teaching R.C has an impact on the pupils‘ R.C ability. Guided by three research questions based on quality didactic transposition, quality classroom organisation and interaction, and quality evaluation, a small scale qualitative sample of 10 teachers and 50 pupils from 5 government primary schools were purposefully sampled to provide data for this study. The research arrived at the major finding that teachers‘ organisational strategies used in teaching R.C is seriously flawed due to their inability to transpose reading (E.L) content, inability to organise R.C classroom to permit interaction and engagement of pupils in the lesson, and their inability to give evaluation that will enhance pupils‘ inferential reasoning /thinking. These findings prompts a rethinking of the harmonisation of the primary school Curriculum, in-service training on E.L /reading teaching and also a call for training of qualified candidates with degree in E.L who will be specialised in teaching E.L or reading in all the primary schools in Cameroon.