USING JOLLY PHONICS FOR TEACHING READING AND ACHIEVEMENT OF PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS: FOCUS ON NORTHWEST REGION

This study investigated the effect of Jolly Phonics on reading achievement of primary school pupils in Northwest, Nigeria. The study was predicated on the belief that Jolly Phonics method teaches reading better than conventional method of teaching. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, 3 specific objectives with corresponding research questions and hypotheses guided the study. The study employed quasi-experimental research design and intact class of 12 schools were selected from 4 states across Northwest Nigeria. 384 respondents from intact class of the selected schools were divided into experimental and control groups using split-half method. The experimental group was treated with Jolly Phonics components of letter sound recognition, identifying sounds, and tricky works in reading English language at primary school level while control group was taught similar contents using conventional method of teaching- CMT. A researcher-designed instrument tagged “Assessment of Pupils Reading Achievement Test- APRAT”, which yielded .81 reliability coefficient using Cronbach Alpha analysis was employed for data collection. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation was used for answering research questions while inferential statistics of analysis of covariance- ANCOVA was used to test all hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings among others, revealed significant difference between the mean achievements of pupils taught with letter sound recognition, identify sound, tricky words and those taught with Conventional Teaching Method. Based on the findings, it was recommended, among others that English teachers should be properly trained on effective use of Jolly Phonics components for optimal lesson delivery; and Ministry of Education should encourage teachers to use Jolly Phonics method of instructional delivery by providing modern facilities its effective usage in public primary schools across Northwest in particular, and Nigeria as a whole. The study concluded that Jolly Phonics is an effective instructional method for improving early reading skills among primary school pupils in the study area.