The effectiveness of using phonics method in teaching reading to year 3 of Sk Tanah Merah, Serian / Kim Dau Dunstan Ludan

The presence of illiteracy among Malaysians is not a new issue. In addition to that, education department in Malaysia is trying all the means to curb this problem, which has been faced by the Malaysian society. Despite the great efforts made by educators to help students to achieve zero illiteracy, still the problem remains unanswered. Hence, in order to assist minimize the problem, six students of lower primary school were chosen to become the experimental group in this study. These students were considered as struggling and poor readers after some personal observations have been done. The study covers the area on how effective is the teaching of reading by incorporating the phonics method to these experimental students. Results indicated that these students faced illiteracy problems in identifying alphabets and reading. By the end of the study, positive results showed that four of the students managed to read at least two words.