Awareness of Teachers Towards Using Songs in Teaching Reading Skills to Primary Schools in Tanzania: An Empirical Analysis
Keywords:
Teachers, songs, Reading skills, primary schoolsAbstract
Reading is a laborious journey that takes a child to a world of understanding written language for use in further education. This study explores the perception of teachers towards using songs in teaching reading skills to Standard One pupils. This study used a qualitative research approach. This study adopted a sample size of 24 pupils’ teachers. The study used questionnaires, interviews and documentary reviews as data collection methods and tools. The study found that female teachers who were 45 years old and older could interact well, start a song, dance with the pupil, and sing with them. The researcher also observed that teachers who had an experience of more than fifteen years of work knew many songs compared to those who were younger. This study found that most teachers understood that songs were effective in teaching reading. Teachers were aware that some pupils could understand sounds only by reciting them. It was further revealed that teachers used common songs to help pupils remember what they had learnt during the past lessons. There were a lot of challenges facing teachers in using songs to facilitate reading. The study recommended that teachers with little knowledge about using songs in teaching should seek assistance from qualified counsellors like senior teachers to assist their children in using songs during teaching in order to increase performance. Also, heads of schools should develop programmes of teaching methodology by inviting experts of different professions to enable teachers to get information about teaching using songs. The government should conduct seminars and workshops, especially in government schools, to update teachers on teaching using songs to make career service provision more successful, and the study was narrowed to the teachers as the decisive factors in the learning capacity of prospective pupil students; therefore, further research can be done to investigate the other background characteristics, like social media, community, and sociocultural institutions.
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