Use of word recognition skills in improving year five pupils identification of English words at a rural Tamil school.

The purpose of this study was to help weak pupils to identify more words in English by using word recognition skills. The subjects were four Year 5 pupils who were very weak in English. This study employed a qualitative research method. It was a descriptive case study using four weak pupils and it was conducted for 16 days. The samples were screened by using their Year 1 to Year 4 final examination results and those who obtained grade D and E were chosen. The pupils were asked to recognize the key words from Dolch Lists using word recognition skills. When they had succeeded in these activities, they were asked to recognize words in three texts from Year 4 and Year 5 English textbooks. The findings showed that the pupils improved in all three word recognition skills namely configuration clues, phonemic clues and picture clues. The subjects did not only improve in their word recognition skills, they also developed in their leadership ability and motivation. The teachers from national and vernacular schools can make use of word recognition skills to teach their pupils in order to facilitate Linus 2.0 program from Year 1 to Year 3.This study would not only help national remedial programs but also promote weak pupils’ reading ability.