Effects of Rime-Based Analogy Instruction on English Word Recognition Ability of Ethiopian Children

Abstract

—Most children in Ethiopia, especially from economically disadvantaged families, often have no exposure to English before school and learn English in government-sponsored public schools with insufficient resources, semi-qualified or unqualified non-native teachers with poor teaching methods. Assessment results have shown that Ethiopian children's reading performance is below the standards set for each grade level and that they are poorly prepared for the next level of education. The present study aimed to determine whether a systematic and explicit rime-based analogy-phonics intervention could improve English word recognition ability in Ethiopian children. The participants were 3rd grade children (N=67) at two public primary schools in Hawassa, Ethiopia. A randomized pretest-intervention-posttest-control group research design was used, with half the children (N=33) randomly assigned to the experimental group and the other half (N=34) to the control group. The intervention was conducted for 40 minutes a day, 3 days a week for 12 weeks. Pre and postt ests were used to measure the word recognition ability of the children and a t-test was employed to analyze the results. After controlling for the initial variables, posttest results showed that systematic and explicit rime-based analogy-phonics instruction led to significant improvements in children's word recognition ability. The study further indicated that such instruction could also be considered as a useful intervention tool to improve English reading performance of Ethiopian primary school children and contributed to the little-known literature on the subject.