Effect of Interactive Book Reading on Speaking Skills of Pre-primary School Children in Ibadan Metropolis in Nigeria

Abstract

Speaking skills are essential for play and learning in the classroom, aspassing and receiving information are achieved through these skills.However, many children find it difficult to interact using the Englishlanguage. The study adopted the pre-test and post-test quasi-experimentalresearch design. Forty-one children from two schools were assigned toexperimental and control groups in the study. Seven hypotheses and sixvalidated instruments were used and descriptive and inferential statisticswere employed for data analysis. There was a significant main effect oftreatment on pre-primary school children ' s speaking skills (F (1, 32) =34.95;P<0.05; ɳ2=0.52).Conclusively, interactive book reading is an effectivereading strategy for pre-primary school children. Based on the findings ofthe study, it was therefore recommended that, pre-school teachers shouldadopt, inter alia, interactive book reading to improve the quality of preprimaryschool children ' s speaking skills.Keywords: communication ability, conventional methods, literacydevelopment, self-esteem, home language