Phonics Strategies in Improving Reading Skills in Language Curriculum Among Primary School Pupils in Port Harcourt Metropolis

AbstractThis study examined phonics strategies for improving reading skills in the language curriculum among primary school pupils in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. A descriptive survey design was adopted. The population was 888 primary school English Language teachers in Obio-Akpor and Port Harcourt City Local Government Areas. A sample of 384 teachers was determined using Cochran’s formula, and 371 copies of the questionnaire were retrieved and analysed. A validated four-point rating scale questionnaire was used for data collection. A test-retest procedure analysed with the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient gave a reliability coefficient of 0.84. Mean and standard deviation answered the research questions, while the t-test tested the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that systematic phonics instruction, phonics-based decoding and phoneme blending each enhance pupils’ reading skills to a very high extent. All three null hypotheses were accepted, which means teachers in the two Local Government Areas did not differ significantly in their responses. The study concluded that phonics strategies form a dependable base for early reading instruction in the metropolis. It recommended that systematic phonics instruction be treated as a core part of every reading lesson, that decoding practice be built into the language curriculum, and that phoneme blending drills be held regularly in the classroom.