Letting Children Copy Words by Hand Before Teaching Them to Read: An Effective Tool for Teaching Early Reading Literacy

Reading is an essential skill for young pupils to develop their comprehension because it is considered a positive predictor of a child's future academic and personal success. Children with strong early literacy abilities are more likely to excel academically, have better social skills, and have higher levels of self-esteem and confidence. Hence, this research aims to disclose the potential effectiveness of copying words through handwriting before teaching the children to read. The study is at one of the schools in the Philippines. There were 10 second-grade pupils as respondents via purposeful random sampling. The study utilised an experimental design to analyse a pre-test-post-test with a standardised reading comprehension test (Phil-IRI), the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory. The acquired data were analysed through experimental design, testing the hypothesis using the mean and standard deviation, inferential statistics such as a paired t-test, and a 5% margin of error for each segment. The hypothesis was tested at the 0.05 level of significance. According to the findings of a T-test of Mean Difference (t-value = -21.67, p-value = 0.000), pupils’ reading levels have greatly improved when words are copied by hand before teaching them to read. It is recommended that teachers use the strategy of allowing children to copy words by hand before teaching them to read, as this approach enhances children's reading proficiency and addresses their poor reading skills.

Copying text before reading , Descriptive and inferential statistics, , Reading Level, Phil Iri, Tagoloan Central School, questionnaires

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