DIGITAL AUDIO-VISUAL READING TOOL (DAURT) IN READING: VISUAL AND PERCEPTIVE ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY FOR READING IMPROVEMENT OF GRADE-4 PUPILS OF ROJALES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
I. Context and Rationale
In literacy, reading is one of the most important skills that must be learned by the pupils inside the classroom. Reading refers to recognition of words with correct pronunciation. This should be the first skill that must be mastered in the Basic Education of the Department of Education (DepEd) precisely in the elementary level.
This skill serves as the stepping stone towards better learning because learners can not perform better in their learning activities and performance tasks if they do not have the basic skills in reading. In performing the activities, instructions or directions must be understood first before proceeding to the activity proper and this needs the basic skill in reading. Understanding the instructions or directions would only take place if the learners have the knowledge in reading. According to the study of Goodman and Goodman (2013) cited that children need to interact linguistically and to communicate in order to participate in any learning activities and performance tasks inside the classroom. In the parlance of communication, the ability of reading is important.
However, it has been a public knowledge that the hit of the pandemic in our country for almost three years has caused so much damage precisely to the learning aspect of the learners. The learning aspect like reading is one of the factors that was being affected tremendously. This poor reading ability has now become the problem of the grade-4 pupils of Rojales Elementary School, Carmen, Agusan del Norte, because based from the initial assessment of the teachers from the parents, pupils during the Modular learning did not answer personally the learning activities. Parents accepted that they did the answering of the modules of their pupils. This scenario has now become very alarming because almost of the grade-4 pupils have difficulty in reading and this problem must be given immediate solution.
According to the study of Gidaris and Komodakis (2018), reiterated that human visual has the remarkably ability to be able to effortlessly learn reading concepts from the given texts. Pupils can learn better in reading through visuals if this will be integrated to television as tool in improving their reading abilities. This television inside the classroom can be used as tool in improving the reading ability of the pupils inside the classroom. This can be utilized in enhancing the basic skill in reading by showing the most basic sight words with an integration of correct utterance and pronunciation of words using the television. In this activity, pupils would have the opportunity to visualize the words and at the same time perceive the correct utterance and pronunciation of words.
This study wants to find out the significant effect of the television-assisted tool in reading as a coping mechanism in improving the reading ability of the pupils inside the classroom. Findings of the study will be used as basis in making reading program in addressing the issues and concerns in reading.
II. Research Questions
This action research study aims to find answers to the following research questions:
1. What is the result of the level of proficiency of the pre-reading assessment?
2. What is the result of the level of proficiency of the post-reading assessment using Digital Audio-Visual Reading Tool (DAURT) in reading with an integration of correct utterance and pronunciation of words?
3. Is there a significant mean difference between the pre-reading assessment and post reading assessment?
4. Based from the results of the study, what intervention program may be formulated?
III. Research Methodology
Research Design
This action research used descriptive-evaluative research design because it intends to describe the observable reading abilities of the pupils. It aims also to evaluate their pre-reading abilities and post reading abilities with the help of the television-assisted tool in reading. This is also to find out the disparity of the results and its effectiveness. And finally, it intends also to determine the impact of the newly designed tool for reading to the grade-4 pupils that have difficulty in reading.
Participants of the Study
The respondents of this action research were the 20 total bona fide grade-4 Pearl pupils of Rojales Elementary School, Rojales, Carmen, Agusan del Norte. This is a purposive sample wherein the grade-4 pupils represented the total population..
Research Instrument
The researcher identified at least 100 commonly used or basic sight words to be used in the pre-reading and post reading assessments. Correct utterance and pronunciation of words were observed and were rated. Same 100 commonly used or basic sight words were integrated in the Digital Audio-Visual Reading Tool (DAURT) these includes television,laptop using usb and cellphone with the an application (T2S) in reading for a week. After a week reading ability enhancement activity, post reading was done to all the pupils and the results were tallied and tabulated. The study used the level of proficiency and achievement of the Department of Education in determining their scores in the pre-reading and post reading assessments.
LEVEL OF PROFICIENCY AND ACHIEVEMENT
Data Gathering Procedure
This action research study adheres to the ethical standards in gathering the data from the respondents. A formal letter of permission will be handed in to the school principal. After its approval, letter of consent will be sent to the parents asking permission to their sons and daughters to be the respondents of the study. The parents will be oriented as to the purpose of the research study. No single detail will be disclosed and all the gathered data will be treated highly confidential.
IV. Results and Discussions
This part of the action research presents the results of the study and discusses, analyzes and interprets the numerical results of the survey conducted to the pupils.
Table I
Mean Distribution on the Level of Pre-reading Assessment to Pupils
This table presents the mean results of the pre-reading assessment to grade-4 pupils.
Based from the above table, data show that pre-reading assessment got a Mean Percentage Score (MPS) of 65.30% which means, did not meet expectations in the level of proficiency and achievement in the Department of Education. This means that the problem of basic reading has become worse because no one got a passing score in their basic reading ability. It further implies that the pandemic for almost three years has worsen the education pursuits of the learners in the world of the academe. This problem needs to addressed at the soonest possible time.
The result of the study was being negated by Smith et. al (2023) which emphasizes that basic reading skills are essential for success in school and in life. These skills include decoding words, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Pupils who lack basic reading skills are at risk for academic failure and social-emotional problems. This study discusses the importance of basic reading skills and provides strategies for helping students develop these skills. There is an immediate need to cope up this problem before it becomes too late.
Table 2
Mean Distribution on the Post Reading Assessment
This table presents data on the results of the post reading assessment using the television-audio visual tool in enhancing the basic reading skills of the pupils.
Based from the presented table above, data show that no one got an equivalent percentage of below 90% from their scores. This further explains that the basic reading skills of the pupils have greatly improved with the use of the television-audio visual tool in reading. It further implies that aside from remembering from what they have seen and heard, they were able to read with minimum mistakes due to constant practice in reading with the use of the television.
The abovementioned result of the study was being negated by Pettigrew and Lee (2022) which reiterated that the negative effects of television and digital media use were stronger for children from low-income families. Another study of Vanderwater and Bickham (2020) negated the abovementioned result emphasizing that the results of these studies are consistent with the findings of earlier studies, which have shown that television viewing can have a negative impact on reading skills.
Table 3
Significant Mean Difference between the Pre-reading assessment and Post-reading Assessment
This table presents the mean difference on pre-reading activity and post-reading activity with use of the television inside the classroom.
Data on table 3 show that there is a mean difference of 31.20 between pre-reading assessment and post reading assessment. This further explains that the reading has improved a lot when basic reading is being associated to television. This simply indicates that the audio and visual features of the television have helped the pupils remember the basic sight words.
According to the study of Lopez et. al (2020), cited that visual supports can be effective in improving basic reading skills for students with a variety of learning disabilities. Visual supports can provide students with a concrete way to represent and understand text, which can help them to decode words, understand sentences, and make inferences. Visual supports can also be helpful for students who are struggling with attention or who have difficulty staying on task. Another study of Griffiths and Rasinski (2022) stated that the use of audio can be an effective intervention for improving reading fluency and comprehension for struggling readers. The study also found that audio books can be a particularly effective intervention for students who are reluctant readers or who have difficulty staying on task.
V. Intervention Program
Digital Audio-Visual Reading Tool (DAURT) these includes television, laptop using usb, cellphone with the an application (T2S) as a Tool in Improving the Basic Reading Skills of the Pupils
Rationale: This intervention program is devised to enhance the basic reading skills of the grade-IV pupils in school.
General Objectives: This reading strategy enhances the basic reading skills of the pupils precisely to those who are struggling or considered as non-readers. The use of television as an aid in reading provides an audio and visual which help the learners remember the given basic sight words for them.
This study adapts the A.D.D.I.E (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement and Evaluate) model in crafting the reading program as an intervention to the existing problem of the pupils.
Conclusions
From the findings in the results and discussions of the study, the following are the concluding statements:
1. Prior to the use of television as an aid in reading, almost of the pupils were not able to recognize the given basic words. The problem on basic reading was due to the almost three years COVID-19 that hit around the globe. Pupils were not being facilitated in their reading activities.
2. Reading activities with the use of the Digital Audio-Visual Reading Tool (DAURT) these includes television,laptop using usb, cellphone with the an application (T2S) inside the classroom and even at home has improved the reading abilities of the pupils. This means that this reading strategy to pupils is effective in enhancing the basic reading skills of the pupils.
3. Based from the tabulated results, no one got below 90% in reading, this further explains that this reading tool would greatly help the pupils improve their reading abilities.
4. There is a huge disparity in terms of Mean Percentage Score between the pre-reading assessment and post-reading assessment to grade-IV pupils. This is a manifestation that this is considered as best practices in enhancing the basic reading skills of the learners.
Recommendations
The results of this study are highly recommended to the following:
DepEd, Caraga Region – this can be used as a tool in benchmarking precisely to schools that have cases of struggling readers and non-readers as a way of eliminating these prevalent cases to some schools in Caraga region.
Agusan del Norte Division – this is useful to the division office as one of the best practices to the prevalent problem on poor basic reading among elementary pupils who had been affected by the COVID-19 for almost three years.
School Principal – this is helpful to schools that have prevalent cases of poor basic reading abilities among pupils in school.
Teachers -this is of great contribution to adapt this new method of enhancing the basic reading skills of the elementary pupils.
Stakeholders – this could serve as basis in giving support to the school relative to solving problems on reading.
References:
Goodman, K. S., & Goodman, Y. M. (2013). Learning to read ls natural. Theory and practice of early reading, 1, 137.
Gidaris, S., & Komodakis, N. (2018). Dynamic few-shot visual learning without forgetting. In Proceedings of the IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (pp. 4367-4375).
Smith, F. (2023). Understanding reading: A psycholinguistic analysis of reading and learning to read (5th ed.). New York: Routledge.
Pettigrew, S., & Lee, S. A. (2022). The impact of television viewing on early literacy skills: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 93(1), 144-166.
Terry, S., & Jones, D. (2021). Television viewing and reading skills in early childhood: A longitudinal study. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 47, 1-11.
Vanderwater, E. A., & Bickham, D. S. (2020). Television and digital media use and children’s reading skills: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Pediatrics, 146(1), e20193259.
Lopez, M. A., Rivera, P., & Escamilla, K. A. (2020). The impact of visual supports on reading skills for English language learners. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 36(3), 251-271. doi:10.1080/10573569.2020.1747751
