ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of selected teaching behaviours on development of reading skills in pre-primary in Malindi Sub-County. The selected teaching behaviours included: use of teaching/learning resources, teacher-pupil interaction and language of instruction. This is because reading has been a challenge in many countries around the world in spite of many resources that have been directed towards improving the situation. Further, reading is an element of literacy that can only be achieved through teaching. Although, the language policy in Kenya stipulates that, pupils in pre-schools should be instructed in the language of the catchment area, studies have revealed a non-abiding state in most pre-schools. Pupils are introduced to second languages too early before they have mastered their first language. The available studies have not focused on how language of instruction in pre-school influence development of reading skills for pupils and though most of these studies agree that the reading abilities of pupils all over the world is low, there is little literature for pre-school and no link has been made to teaching behaviours used by preschool teachers. Further, there are no studies that have investigated the influence of utilization of teaching/learning resources and teacher-pupil interaction on development of reading skills in pre-school pupils. This study adopted Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Theory as the theory to support the study. The study adopted qualitative design and adopted a descriptive survey methodology for thorough study of the situation. The independent variable was the selected teaching behaviors while the dependent variable was development of reading skills among pre-school pupils. This study was carried out in Malindi Sub-County because of the poor reading abilities among pupils in the sub-county. The target population for the study was pre-school pupils and their teachers. A multistage sampling technique was adopted. Data was collected from both private and public schools in rural and urban areas through lesson observations, teachers’ interviews and pupils’ assessment protocol. A pilot study was conducted in two schools to pre-test the instruments. Validity and reliability was established through triangulation and data was analyzed by both qualitative and quantitative means. Among the findings was that majority of the teachers used English language for instruction. Majority of the teachers did not use teaching/learning resources and there was poor teacherpupil interaction in the pre-schools. There was a very strong relationship between language of instruction and development of reading skills. There was a very strong positive correlation between teaching/learning resources and development of reading skills. Teacher-pupil interaction influenced development of reading skills of pupils. The study recommends a cross monitoring of implementation of language of instruction policy, quality assurance tracking teachers on using teaching/learning materials and capacity building for teachers to maintain positive teacher-pupil interaction.