Answer to Question #243725 in English for Nhlex

Question

Mrs. Funanani, a Grade 3 teacher, realised that some of her learners are experiencing reading 

difficulties. Mrs. Chabalala, her HOD, advised her to adhere to the components of reading when 

teaching reading in her class. Mrs. Funanani wants her learners to progress to Grade 4 to be able to

read. 

5.1

Advise Mrs. Funanani on how she can solve her learners` reading challenge when teaching 

the following components of reading. (When answering this question, try to be as practical

as you can and support your answer with examples)

5.1.1 Phonemic knowledge 

(5)

5.1.2 Word recognition

(5)

5.1.3. Vocabulary

(5)

5.1.4. Comprehension

(5)

Answer 1

5.1.1. On the challenge about phonemic knowledge I would advise Mrs. Funanani to solve this challenge by encouraging her learners to listen up as she reads rhymes in the words in a story. This is because rhyme words draw learners’ attention. For example the teacher can read some short words like log, frog, and hog and ask the learners to listen to ggg sound. In addition Mrs. Funanani can also ask her learners to find more words with ggg sound because in the process of finding these words they will be able to overcome their reading challenges.

5.1.2. Mrs. Funanani can solve the challenge of word recognition among her learners through providing syntactic clues or word order clues. She can achieve this by making a sentence will help a student to guess whether the word that is next is a verb, a noun or an adjective. For example, if the text is unknown, a student can check out the picture for help and guidance.

5.1.3. On the challenge of vocabulary I would advise Mrs. Funanani to ensure that she encourages play word games in her lessons. This is because classic games like Scrabble and Boggle can function as a fun way to expand learner’s English vocabulary. Crossword puzzles can also work well in improving learners’ vocabulary as well.

5.1.4. About the challenge of comprehension I would advise Mrs. Funanani to overcome it through practicing what she teaches. She can achieve this through giving her students essay texts and then requesting them to write a report of what they have learnt from the texts.