Enhancing The 21st Century Reading Comprehension Skills Through Use Of Picture Among 3rd Graders: An Experimental Research

Abstract

The importance of English language cannot be denied in 21st Century where English is used all over the world for communication and considered as an important skill of 21^st century. Nowadays the role of English language is very important as it is spoken and written all over the world for communication in the field of research, education and development. This study is intended to find out the effectiveness of uses of pictures for improving English reading comprehension skills of 3rd graders. The study used the experimental research design and design was? The participants for the experiment were taken from 3^rd grade enrolled in a public school of Quetta. For experiment, two sections were formed consisting of students who were selected randomly. Section A was treated as control section while the section B was as the treatment section. Section A was taught reading comprehension in a tradition way while the section B was taught comprehension combined with the uses of pictures. The differences between the two sections were gauged by using reading comprehension test and rubric.  

The data for the study was collected at two points that is before and after the experiment through pre-testing and post-testing results to gauge the differences between the sections A and B were considered as before and after the experiment. The data was analysed by using SPSS. The results revealed that the average score for the section A (control) the average score was 5.3 in the pre-testing and the average score for section B (treatment) was 5 in the pre-testing. But the results of the post-testing revealed the average score for the section A (control) was 6.1 in the post-testing and the average score for section B (treatment) was 13.3 in the post-testing. The results showed the effectiveness of pictures uses for enhancing comprehension skills in the section B (treatment). On the other hand no enhancement was observed in the overall average scores of section A  In the light of results, it can be concluded that the uses of pictures is good in enhancing reading comprehension skills among 3^rd graders. The results can be productive for curriculum developers and teachers.