The Use of Pre-Reading Activities in Reading Skills Achievement in Preschool Education

Although wealth of empirical researches have covered the impact of crucial, indispensable role reading skills play in the development of individuals’ mental faculties through the acquisition of knowledge in a particular language, scientific works on the assessment of the relationship(s) between pre-reading activities (consisting of games, puzzle solving, match making) and reading skills achievement remain depressingly scanty in Ghana. This study in the light of foregoing atmosphere explored how pre-reading activities facilitate pre-reading and reading skills among preschoolers with the use of randomized experimental control groups design which adopted pre and post-test of two classes, as well as observation guides to diagnose the problem of reading among the KG children in the two groups (control and treatment groups). The findings from these experimentations clearly portrayed the significant influence that pre-reading activities exert on the level of preschoolers reading skills achievements. Upon thorough analysis, and discussions predicated on the research outcome, it has been recommended that preschool educators incorporate levelappropriate pre-reading activities to enrich Preschool Education in Ghana.


Introduction
Reading skills unarguably form the bedrock whenever knowledge is acquired for individual development. Most often than not, the possession of reading skills among children is central to the goals of teaching English to children. For this reason, reading holds a significant value in every person's education. It is the means of communication and a gateway to knowledge and literacy, making it the greatest weapon in the hands of anyone who wants to live a full literate life (Dawson & Bamman, 1963;Graves, 1995;Savage, 1998;Sekyi-Baidoo, 2003;Yamashita, 2004;Hermida, 2009;Wolf & Barzillai, 2009;Al-issa, 2010).
The value of reading is also seen in the fact that it provides humans with rich sources of life experience which will otherwise take a long time to acquire if we rely solely on physical contacts and interactions (Nunan, 2003;Clark & Rumbold, 2006). It is through reading that the goals of language and literacy programs for children are meant to increase their ability to communicate orally, therefore, parent, teachers and child care professionals are required to provide adequate amount of time, learning materials and variety of interesting activities coupled with games for children to develop reading skills for later education.
Reading ability in children has become a major concern for all educational stakeholders (teachers, care givers, curriculum researchers and designers, and other educational service officers) and every nation at large (Mckey, 2002;Huyen & Nga, 2003). This is because reading ability among learners has a far-reaching influence and has accordingly, become an indispensable gateway to the acquisition of knowledge. Reading ability levels of learners impress hugely on their proficiency levels in language acquisition as well as their knowledge in all other subjects (Sekyi-Baidoo, 2003). Hence, reading plays important role in the life of every individual, young and old, and critically preschoolers who are just starting to learn about themselves and the world around them. It is necessary therefore for pupils to have the right and structured pre-reading activities such as holding books the right way, turning pages appropriately, relating picture scenes to life experience, making inferences on both what is read and pictures as well as left to right eye movement, to enhance readiness for formal reading and the acquisition of relevant reading skills for reading (Ajideh, 2006;Mihara, 2011;Kevan & Pammer, 2009;Azizifar et al., 2015).
However, English being the lingua Franca and therefore, the medium of instruction in Ghanaian schools is gradually losing its viability in the face of the disappointing attempts to resuscitate the situation with particular regards to reading and comprehension on the part of students (Opoku-Amankwa et al., 2012;National Education Assessment Unit, 2014;Kavi, 2015). Reading activities and for that matter the use of games in fostering reading skills are often relegated to the background. This is because pre-reading activities are very laborious and time consuming and therefore teachers and care givers do not give them serious attention (Tyner, 2009). Insufficient care is given to creating the correct type and amount of preparatory background for pupils learning to read, consequently, children lose interest in reading (Shu-yun, 2005;Ricci, 2011). This obviously highlights why Hargrave & Sénéchal (2000), Pakulski & Kaderavek (2012) and Abdulai (2014) discuss that, the provision of prereading activities geared toward games for children in their early years are very necessary for acquiring critical reading skills. With pre-reading activities children can develop initial thinking skills cognitively through aesthetics awareness which they can relate these experiences to events that bring them to real life situation Lynch, Wolcott, & Associates (2001), Wood (2002 and Kevan & Pammer (2009) intimates. Echeverri & McNulty (2010 corroborates this with the realization that, games in pre-reading activities play important role in language acquisition and for that matter reading skills. Given the inevitable nature of reading in language (English) acquisition to be specific and knowledge development in general, this work seeks to identify the role of games in acquiring English reading skills among the preschool pupils in the University of Education practice school of Ghana.

Pre-Reading Activities and reading achievement in preschool education
Just as reading has been of great interest to scholars and educational stakeholders, so has the possession of pre-reading skills gained tremendous considerations Sekyi-Baidoo (2003), Echeverri & McNulty (2010), Fisher (2001 and as Thongyon & Chiramanee (2011) puts forward that, pre-reading skills and activities are relevant dimensions in language acquisition, the study of Azizifar et al. (2015) supports with the realization that, reading activities and practices are pertinent in language acquisition and the acquisition of reading skills in Childhood education. Therefore, pre-reading activities has received great deal of attention as several studies intimate on conceptualized practices which help provide teachers and practitioners with clear knowledge and understanding in teaching preschoolers language (English) reading. Johnson et al. (2010) vehemently describe that, Prereading activities are series of activities ( i.e. games, early play, and jigsaw puzzles, role playing and imitation) to which pupils are exposed to, as a way of preparing them for formal reading. Ping (2014) acknowledges by proffering that, pre-reading activities are indispensable to pupils' latter applications in school activities and for that matter, teachers and early childhood care givers must use sufficient and developmentally appropriate learning materials coupled with games that appeal to the interest of pupils in order to make learning interesting. In line with this, Silinskas et al. (2012) and Kim & Quinn (2013) avouch that pre-reading activities are enabling activities, which provide early readers with comprehensive and necessary background to organize activities and to comprehend materials to be read. Thus in this view, pre-reading activities unearth and elicit prior knowledge, the purpose(s) for reading and building a knowledge base necessary for dealing with the content and the structure of the materials ascertains (Suggate et al., 2013).

Wasik & Bond (2001), Pemberton & Road (2009) and
Insofar as pre-reading activities prepare and build pupils foundation pertaining to reading materials, it goes to testify the important role pre-reading activities play in building pupils' focus and reinforce their attention to materials to be read (Hall & Moats, 2000;Walczyk & Griffith-Ross, 2007;Franceschini et al., 2013). Certainly, it enables the child to try out his emotional self gradually to stabilize himself through expression of the emotions in a variety of reading situation and to acquire pre-reading skills with less difficulty substantiates (Abdulai, 2014).
The concept of pre-reading activities has been emphatically discussed as the fundamental practices for exposing children to reading and sustaining their interests in reading text (Pemberton & Road, 2009;Suggate et al., 2013;Kim et al., 2010;Yolageldili & Arikan, 2011). Thus, activities such as relating pictures to the words of pages, fixing picture puzzles, role playing, matching and sorting help children to form basic understanding of the text, recognize the importance of reading and develop interests in reading text. Pataki et al. (2014) buttresses this by intimating that, activities that provide opportunities for preschoolers to identify words grouped in phrases or sentences train their eyes to read in later years. It is well reverberated that, when children in their early years are regularly provided with pre-reading and reading experiences, they attain the necessary reading skills needed for formal reading and makes them more likely to succeed when they reach the more serious instruction at their late basic school education (Abdulai, 2014;Pataki et al., 2014). Tsadidey (2002) describes pre-reading activities to be the use of varieties of games, comparative picture studies, and storytelling in pictures which are usually instrumental in helping children acquire their reading skills that is needed for formal reading. During the preoperational stage, children accumulate background information and many skills such as flipping pages of books, relating pictures to ideal life, movement of the eyes from right to left, sketching of pictures, maps, diagrams and graphs (Kaplan & Walpole, 2005;Yin et al. 2007;Meisinger et al. 2010), therefore, it is prereading skills that determine in a comprehensive terms the understanding of the subject of the text to be taught to children and thus form a cardinal foundation for their later reading abilities affirms (Suggate et al., 2013).  (2013) share akin views with their research findings that, many of the children with exposure to pre-reading activities possess great interests to understand the reasons for reading a text, such as building of knowledge to elicit an emotional response to the text from the student. In sync, Ghamrawi (2014) discusses that, pre-reading activities provide pupils the opportunity to make informed decisions about reading more of a text to find more interesting ideas from the text.
Adinolfi (2012) suggests why teachers need to design and provide for pupils pre-reading activities that provoke their interests. Thus the relevance of prereading activities goes a long way to provide students with the basic and necessary information about text, arouse their interests in reading text and to sustain them in reading environment during their formal learning stage (Jung & Sainato, 2013).
Often times, activities such as word & picture matching, word matching games, sorting box and letters, word & picture puzzle, come in issue whenever pre-reading and reading come to context. Yuliana (2003), Hayes (2009), Hashemi & Azizinezhad (2011) describe that, games and role play constitute pre-reading activities in preschool classrooms for the teaching and learning of language. In (Yamat et al. 2014), same is the view that, pre-reading activities which constitute various forms of games are necessary for preschool teachers to use in teaching language to young learners at kindergarten.
The forgoing discussion vouches that, pre-reading activities that includes but not limited to all forms of games are pertinent with passionate interests in teaching children language and thus highly recommended for practice at KG centers in modern early childhood education (ECE). Verily, it leaves no doubt to accept that, pre-reading activities are very important in teaching children in preschool centers because they help them in such a way that there is no novelty surrounding formal reading when it is eventually introduced in their formal schooling. It is equally substantive that, this study brings to fore the need for the use of pre-reading activities particularly games (which involves puzzle, sorting, matching,) and its effect in teaching English language to KG pupils on their achievement in reading.

Games and Reading Achievement in Preschool Education
Language learning and the acquisition of pre-reading skills in preschool education oftentimes become challenging tasks requiring constant efforts especially from teachers and young learners. According to Seidlhofer (2004), Kashinath et al. (2006) and Herrera et al. (2008) games encourage and motivate language learners to direct their energy and attention towards language learning, and activities to promote higher achievement in language acquisition and skills. Thus, by providing children with meaningful contexts which form the basis for reading particular text, they are able to maintain their interests and build upon their language skills, the focus of teaching language (Lee, 2009;Wang & Chen, 2010;Waite, 2011). Musa et al. (2012) discusses that, games are activities that are in great harmony to the mind and senses in getting a class to use its initiative in language lessons, particularly English. In tune with this, Klimova (2013) vehemently expresses that, games with clear beginning and ending, governed by rules are extremely important language teaching tools. Such that, they facilitate the acquisition of language skills in early education and provide learners the environment to compete while maintaining their enthusiasm, the feeling and expression of energy and eagerness to do more with focus to answer the question who wins or loses ascertains (Mourão, 2014). In this view, Kapantzoglou et al., (2012) observes that, games used in teaching language are laborious activities with rules, element of fun but goal oriented pertaining to teaching English language to children. They involve the cooperation of group members and the competing spirit between groups questing to achieve particular objective within a set of rules during language class (Hashemi & Azizinezhad, 2011). Obviously, the cardinal content in using games in teaching language is to foster cooperation and generate interest as the learning process becomes fun under solemn instructional planning, and activities (Oppenheim-Leaf et al. 2012). Understandably, learning in delightsome activities and processes with ease leads to successful learning, making the use of games in language teaching a preeminent tool for language achievement specifically English language. Jones et al. (2013) substantiates this with realization that, inasmuch as games warrant pupils to cooperate comprehensively to achieve learning goals, and as it is equally undeniable that most learners enjoy confederation and social interaction in achieving learning goals, successful learning is possibly certain whenever teaching and learning of language is smoothly facilitated by games in preschool education.
Ghamrawi (2014) adds that, games stimulate children's interests to be more active participant in classroom activities such that, they spur and motivate children with short attention span to get very absorbed in the competitive aspects of the games and process of learning language skills. Thus children become extremely active in classroom activities promoting high achievement in acquisition of language and literacy (Meacham, 2014).
Shah-Wundenberg et al. (2012), Owodally (2013) and Wyse & Goswami (2013) evince in agreeable terms that, the designing of games and their use in teaching are laborious activity giving teachers an overnight sensation in the daily activities at preschool centers. Nonetheless, the benefits to be derived from games are enormous and thus provide them the vitality to employ such techniques in teaching vulnerable children entrusted to their care. Several studies have tabled the suggestion that, almost all young learners have short attention span and are unable to sustain their attention over 20 to 30 minutes without losing focus and getting bored during classroom activities(Auleear Owodally, 2010; Posada et al., 2012;Mifsud et al. 2013;Pataki et al., 2014). And that, children are physically active and learn by doing, imagining and creating, therefore, teachers need to search for techniques, methods, activities and processes that will convert the active nature of children into good use during classroom activities. Stated simply, making the use of games vital instrument in teaching children at preschool centers establishes. Owodally (2011) amply discusses how the use of games creates enabling learning environment for learners to cultivate knowledge in productive and operative ways. Thus, sufficiently, it is intimated that, language (English) achievement in preschool education hinges on the application of games in teaching and learning of language contents (Ghamrawi, 2014) and their relationships have been unlocked (Yoon, 2015) that, whenever games are effectively applied in language lessons in preschool centers, language acquisition takes place smoothly. The review of these studies go to reinforce that, games and role play as a teaching method cannot be less valued in early childhood education such that, it provide young learners with exhaustive possibilities to connect their real-life situations to the confinement of the classroom and make learning situations more similar to that of the real world of the learners. Therefore, this study examines the effects of games on the acquisition of prereading skills (language achievement) by comparing two preschool classes labelled as the control group and the treatment group where the control group experiences language lesson without teacher using variety of games whereas the treatment group experiences language lesson through the use of games and participation in variety of pre-reading activities. The study highlights the reasons underpinning preschool teachers' intention to use games in their language lessons. Additionally, the principal objective of this piece is to ascertain the proposition that; Preschool Children who learn language contents through the use of games and pre-reading activities will have greater achievement than their counterparts who are taught without the use of games and prereading activities. This is to promote the interest and to provoke academic debates, discussions and knowledge sharing to encourage preschool teachers and care givers to adopt games in teaching their pupils while suiting the general impressions that drive the students' involvement and participation in language classes.

Research Goal, Sample and Sampling Procedure
The study was an action research, a small scale intervention concerned with diagnosing a problem pertaining to preschool classroom teaching and learning as well as finding appropriate solutions to it.
It is meant to assist the KG pupils in the university practice school of the University of Education Winneba Campus (Ghana) to identify two, and three letter words while acquiring pre-reading skills in language lessons. Experimental control groups design was employed, followed by a randomized pre and post-test of two classes. Test and observation guides were used to diagnose the problem of reading among the KG children in the two groups (control and treatment group). A treatment was given to the experimental group (treatment group) using games and pre-reading activities while traditional methods devoid of games and pre-reading activities were used to teach the same content to the control group.
Pupils' achievement was then assessed to examine the variability in the mean scores between the two groups at the pre-test stage and the post-test stages. Data were collected primarily with questionnaires distributed to teachers while observation guide and tests scores were utilized for measuring students achievement in prereading skills and the reading of two and three letter words during the pre and post lessons.
To adjust to the bias effect from the observers and the teachers involved in delivering lessons, the observing role was rotated between the two employed observers while the teachers were also rotated between classes. Teachers were made to understand the reasons for the study and hence to comply with the outline given per the classes they were asked to teach.
The population consisted of all the children studying at the University practice KG with sample of the KG2 class. A random sampling technique was used involving students who were present during the time of the research to draw a sample size of 47 pupils. The pupils were randomly assigned to groups labelled "KG2A group and KG2B group. During the pre-stage otherwise labelled as the "diagnostic stage", interview, (checklist), observation guides and class exercises were used to identify the evidence proving the existence of the perceived problem and the possible causes by observing three consecutive language classes (lessons) at the centre.
The researcher with the help of two observers and class teachers conducted pre-reading exercise using simple words on letter cards and pictures to rate the scores obtained by pupils with mean and SD scores tabled before the post stage of the study.
The postage begun with the KG2A class (treatment group) undergoing language lesson through the use of games and word drills while the KG2B class (control group) experienced normal form of teaching without the use of games and pre-reading activities (traditional language teaching in Ghanaian preschools). During assessment at this stage, the same tools (used at the pre-test stage) were used to assess the variability in students test scores after the two classes have been taught language content. In all cases, validity were concurrently examined as the researcher employed experts (lecturers) in the department of early childhood education at the university of education to cross examine the content validity of the test items. Then also, a correlation coefficient of .840 was obtained reliability test using the test/retest technique where the test items were initially applied on a pilot sample of 15 pupils.
The possible approaches and techniques employed are quantitative involving descriptive analysis, independent sample t-test and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) in making logical inference, utilizing the IBM SPSS version 21.

Data Analysis and Presentation
Data was retrieved from 47 participants distributed for class1 (KG2A) and class 2 (KG2B) as 22, 25 respectively. Among the pupils in the Class1, 14 pupils representing (63.6%) were female and 8 pupils constituting (36.4%) were males whiles in the class2, 15 pupils denoting (60%) were females and 10 pupils depicting (40%) constituted males. In total, pupils who participated in the study constituted 18 (39.3%) males and 29 (61.7%) females respectively. The ages of the pupils ranges between 6 and 7 years.

Language Achievement Scores in the Pre-intervention Stage Class2 A&B
The test scores obtained exhibit the achievement of language during the diagnostic stage of the study. It was amply evidential that, most of the pupils within the two classes had limited scores in reading letters and simple word. Their pre-reading skills as observed were also unsatisfactory. The estimated frequencies and percentages put most of the pupils' scores within pass mark with few of the pupils scoring within average and good. Then also, none of the pupils had excellent score which is scaled within 9 to 10 marks for the class KG2A (the experimental group). On the other hand, the scores obtained by the students within the control class (KG2B) were similarly despicable to write about. Many students scored below pass mark (below 5) with few of them obtaining high marks between average and good (5 to 6 & 7 to 8) while none of the students performed excellent in the KG2B class (the control group). The Table below is an exhibit Additionally, a comparison of the mean estimates evidently proffers that, there is no difference between the performances of the two classes in language achievement during the pre-intervention stage of the study. As shown in the analysis, students in the treatment group performed similarly to those in the control group during the pre-test stage. F (2, 47) = .103, p>.05, and T (2, 47) = 1.235, p>.05, Df (45) with a mean difference of 0.37138. Obviously, it is evidential that, there is no statistically significant difference in the language achievement scores between the members of the two classes. In this view, the null hypothesis of no difference in the test scores for the members within the KG2A class and the KG2B class is accepted against the alternative hypothesis.

Language Achievement Scores in the Post-Intervention Stage Class2a&B
Pertaining to the post-intervention stage, the scores obtained after the two classes have been exposed to reading in an experimental way involving the use of games and pre-reading activities (for the treatment class) and a control approach where pupils are taught in a regular approach without the use of games (for the control class) are intuitively displayed below. Descriptively, it is amply discernible that, many of the students within the experimental group performed extremely well in reading two and three letter words after experiencing series of games and pre-reading activities. Most of the pupils fell within the score range labelled very good and excellent and few performed averagely wiles none of the pupils had test scores below average (below 5).
On the other hand, the test scores obtained by the members in the control group at the post-test were not different from that obtained in the pre-test.
As displayed in the table below, most of the pupils had test scores below5 and 5-6 while few scored 7-8 and 9-10. By comparing the mean estimates obtained by the two classes shows that, there exists significantly different effect in the performance of the two classes. F (2, 47)= 0.204, p>.05, and T (2, 47) = 18.591, p<.05, Df (45) with a mean difference of 6.09601.

Test for Research Hypothesis
Pertaining to the test of the research hypothesis, ANOVA was used to examine the differences in the exams scores obtained by the two groups at the posttest stage. In examining the presence of homogeneity in the test score obtained at the post-stage, F observed is 2.174, P-value >.05 (.182). Then also, to control for the effect from the pre-test during the post-test stage, F (2.386) was not significant, p-value=.119. By controlling for the effect of the pre-test, the generated ANOVA result amply exhibited that, there exist significant difference between the language achievement values obtained by the members in the two groups (control and treatment group). For a mean squared of 408.367, F= 336.828, and p-value <.001 (0.000), with a Partial Eta Squared of .884. Thus for control group (KG2B) Vs the treatment group (KG2A), the post-test scores for language achievement is significantly different between groups such that, the membership in the KG2A vs. the KG2B class explain approximately 8.84% of the movement in the Mean&SD KG2A=Experimental group KG2B=Control group below5=Poor 5 to 6=Average 7 to 8=Good 9 to 10=Excellent dependent variable. The forgoing analogy provides the basis for accepting the alternative hypothesis that, Preschool Children who learn language contents through the use of games and pre-reading activities will have greater achievement than their counterparts who are taught without the use of games and prereading activities.
This goes to reinforce the current wave that, the use of games and pre-reading activities has tremendous effect on the acquisition of pre-reading skills and language achievement in preschool education. Thus for the use and improvement in teaching language through games and pre-reading activities, language acquisition among children increases.

Findings and Discussion
In this study, the use of games and pre-reading activities are vehemently discussed, their effects are tremendously telling as the analysis discloses that, games and pre-reading activities in language teaching provide children with great possibilities to improve their language skills and achievement. The study indicated that, when games and pre-reading activities are employed in teaching language and literacy at preschool centers, language acquisition and the achievement of pre-reading skills improves. From a comparison between the treatment class which experienced games and pre-reading activities during language classes and the control group which did not, it was evidential that, the use of games and pre-reading activities in teaching language contents promote higher achievement, accuracy of recognition of factual information, applicability of information in daily life to solve problems, and higher order reasoning. The import of this study is in sync with other contemporaneous researches (Musbalat, 2012;Piker, 2013;A. M. A. Owodally, 2013;Wyse & Goswami, 2013;Ghamrawi, 2014;Pataki et al., 2014), which conclusively provide the need for the use of games in language and literacy lesson in preschool education.

Implications and Recommendations for Preschool Teachers
Although the use of games and pre-reading activities are laborious, their effect are rewarding on the teaching and learning of English language in preschool education. The outcome of this study suggests the need for teachers at preschool centers to use games and prereading activities during the teaching and learning of language contents if only the focus of teaching is to help children acquire reading skills and to improve language achievement in their formal schooling. Thus it is cardinally imperative for the teachers at the university practice KG to use games and pre-reading activities in teaching language specifically English to their pupils to offer them the opportunities and possibilities to awake and widen their horizon while sustaining their enthusiasm and curiosity in language studies. Nonetheless, teachers must make games, play and pre-reading activities an integral part of their teaching if the focal point of teaching and learning at preschool education is observed as preparatory stage for formal education.

Conclusion
The findings of this research brings to light that, in today's volatile and increasingly dynamic early childhood education, the role of pre-reading activities pertaining to games and play are the most valuable in the teaching and learning of language. The significant contributions that this research elicits on the use of games as a pre-reading activity to augment the achievement of language and literacy in childhood education corroborates with various similar studies indicating to early childhood practitioners and teachers across board, not to downplay the importance of prereading activities (games) as a technical tool to achieving language and literacy. Nonetheless, it is imperative for further studies to broaden the knowledge in this topic area.