The Review of the Five Year Education Plan (1976-1980)
carried out by the Institute of Applied Social and Economic
Research (IASER,1979) presented thoroughly researched, factual
information regarding the standard of education in Papua New
Guinea. The Review stated that there had been a decline in
standards of education. It claimed that "there [was] the
greatest need for a more highly skilled and dedicated
professional group of teachers" (IASER,1979:61) and that
considerable dissatisfaction had been noted at community level
because of the "reported evidence that many Grade 6 leavers
[were] illiterate" (IASER,1979:24).
Since English is the nationally prescribed language of
instruction at all levels of education, the standard achieved
in English is particularly important. It has been shown that
the skills students have in the use of English "stand out as
contributing most in overall academic prediction" (Ord,1971:8).
It is also claimed that a psycholinguistic analysis of oral
reading miscues following the taxonomy of Goodman (1968,1971,1977)
enables the researcher to examine the subject's total language
competence and that such an analysis can reveal the degree of
bilingualism achieved by second language learners (Allen,1976).
The purpose of this study was therefore, to examine the oral
reading of a large sample of first-year students at Teachers'
College in Papua New Guinea.
It was hypothesised that a pattern of strengths and weaknesses
would emerge from the study of oral reading miscues (Goodman and
Burke,1971). It was further hypothesised that an examination
of the actual problems that were revealed by an analysis of the
miscues would provide evidence to be used as the basis for
recommendations to be formulated regarding the teaching of
Reading in the Community Schools of Papua New Guinea and also
regarding remedial and developmental emphases that might prove
beneficial to students in the Teachers' Colleges.
On the basis of this research it would appear that students
at College level do have "serious reading problems" (Price,1973:
15) and that they are unable to read text judged to be College
level with understanding. Students seemed to have achieved a
certain degree of oral fluency in reading which could be the
result of their skill in using the grapho-phonic and syntactic
cueing systems. However, this fluency was found to cloak a lack
of understanding of content. There was evidence that students
achieved a relatively low level of comprehension when the readings
contained concepts that were familiar; however, when the concepts
contained in the passage were unfamiliar, the scores for Comprehension
were significantly lower. During the retelling of passages read
orally, students gave evidence of a relatively low level of
facility in English expression. It was judged to be doubtful
that in the period of their training those students could acquire
the command of oral English considered indispensible for their
profession in an education system where the English language is
the medium of instruction.
The students tested were the products of the present
national policy of education through English from Grade One.
While changes regarding the optimum academic level of students
to be accepted into Teachers' Colleges, necessary inservicing
of College Staff, appropriate Courses in Educational Psychology
and English Language Method have been recommended, these can
only be seen as remedial. In order to effect the desired
change at the Teachers' College Level it would seem necessary
to introduce change at the level of the Community Schools in
the language of initial literacy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219119 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | Leamy, Noela M., n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Noela M. Leamy |
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