Using Synthetic Phonics to Improve the Sound Discrimination and Reading Comprehension Skills of Basic Eight Students at Oyoko Methodist Junior High School

This study was conducted to examine the effect of using synthetic phonics on Basic Eight students’ ability to discriminate between the sounds of the letters of the English alphabet and answer reading comprehension questions correctly. The purposive sampling technique was used to sample the forty-four students from the Basic Eight class at Oyoko Methodist Junior High School for the study. The researchers used a combination of observation and teacher-made-test as instruments for the data collection exercise. Data gathered were analysed using frequencies, percentages, means, and range. The study concluded that the use of synthetic phonics is an effective intervention to aid the Basic Eight students of Oyoko Methodist Junior High School to discriminate between the sounds of the letters of the English alphabets and answer reading comprehension questions correctly. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that the head teacher of Oyoko Methodist Junior High School should organize school-based in-service training for the teachers on the use of the synthetic phonics approach to enable the teachers of English language to become conversant with the skills of using the approach to teach effectively.