Improving the Reading Comprehension Skills of the First Year International College Thai Students Through Unlocking of Difficult Words

In my experience as a foreign teacher for more than a decade in Thailand, I always reminded my students that education is a key to open up new door of opportunities locally and internationally. Everyone needs a key that is fulfilling, invigorating and self-sustaining. Opportunities rarely knock on us. The feeling of being left behind others in terms of skills and abilities in the academic performance is a big challenge to identify learning strategy to progress. The classroom environment is unhealthy if this happened and experienced by some slow learners. At present, students who are now considered millennial is said to be smart and brain based. The only thing teachers must know is how to support and develop their existing brilliance so that they can compete with national and global professions. Reading is one of the four significant language skills for academic success and professional development (Dorkchandra 2010). Reading is one of the most salient education tools because it is our convenient means to access into the rich repository of knowledge accumulated and preserved by mankind in printed matter. It is largely through reading that we require much of the information of concepts which to be remembered. Reading is considered as the most important subjects in the curriculum. The significance of reading as a school subject cannot refuse. Every student who fails to comprehend on what they are reading may unsubstantially provide answers on questions being asked upon them. Skill in reading is a fundamental factor, a must needs that enable help or inspire that child to succeed in school and later in his activities. Failure or incompetence in the other subjects in the curriculum maybe attributed to lack of interest, skill proficiency, weakness and comprehension in reading. If the child experience in reading were not positive his vocational adoption and efficiency would be severely affected. Findings and Discussions This chapter presents, analyzes and interprets the finding of the study. The table shows the data of the pretest and posttest. Table 1 show that the weighted averages mean of the posttest (18.18) was greater than the pretest (16.86). The averages mean of the pretest scores and posttest scores was 1.28 As a result, the comprehension level of the students when difficult words are unlocked prior to story reading has a higher mean (18.18) rather than the pretest (16.86). This means that it is really an effective strategy in teaching. This could help the students develop their critical thinking and to help them understand the story well. Moreover, it really arouses the interest of the learners to participate in the classroom discussion. Conclusion and Recommendation Based on the data gathered and tabulated, the researcher concluded that; 1. There is a difference between the pretest and posttest where the posttest scores are higher than the pretest scores. 2. Unlocking difficult words in reading stories is very effective in improving reading comprehension of students. Recommendations: Based on the following findings and conclusion of this study in improving performance in reading comprehension, the researcher recommends that; 1. The result of this study should inspire English teachers to unlocked difficult words after reading the short story in improving students’ performance. 2. Seminar-workshop must be conducted to equip teachers with the reading knowledge and skills needed in unlocking difficult words before reading them story. 3. Unlocking difficult words should be conducted for the students especially the slow learners. 4. Parents should be updated and informed of their children’s reading deficiencies so they can help them to overcome their difficulties on reading comprehension.