Enhancing Reading Skills in Malay: The Impact of the Easy Reading Module on Preschool Children.
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Abstract
Reading is a foundational skill in the learning process, particularly during the early childhood education stages. Furthermore, reading plays a pivotal skill in supporting children’s acquisition of knowledge across various subjects. It is therefore essential to ensure that they develop basic reading proficiency from an early age. In Malaysia, Malay is the national language and serves as the primary medium of instruction, with most educational materials prepared in Malay. This study investigates the effectiveness of the Easy Reading Module in supporting preschool children who face difficulties in acquiring Malay reading skills. The module, which was developed in alignment with the National Preschool Standard Curriculum, comprises eight core reading components encompassing eight reading skills, namely (i) CV + CV words, (ii) CV + CV + CV words, (iii) CVC words, (iv) V + CV words, (v) V + CVC words, (vi) CV + CVC words, (vii) CVC + CV words, and (viii) CVC + CVC words, where “C” denotes consonants and “V” represents vowels. A quasi-experimental design with a quantitative approach was adopted, involving 50 preschoolers from a school in the Jelebu District, Negeri Sembilan. Participants were divided into a treatment group, taught using the Easy Reading Module, and a control group, which received the existing teaching method. Employing a 12-week intervention, the study found a significant improvement in reading scores in the treatment group compared to the control (p < 0.001, d = 0.8). These findings suggest that the Easy Reading Module is an effective instructional tool for enhancing foundational reading skills and has important implications for improving teaching practices and literacy outcomes in early years education
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