Abstract :
The purpose of this study is to develop kindergarten students? reading skill
using Jolly phonics and to describe how to apply its approach to kindergarten
students.
The study was conducted at Tzu Chi School, Pantai Indah Kapuk Boulevard,
North Jakarta. The method used in this research was qualitative and focused on
twenty of Kindergarten 1 Joy?s students as the participants of the study. The study
held in term 2 and 3 of Academic Year 2012/2013. The data was taken by having
observation, tests and interview.
According to the findings, Jolly Phonics has been proven as a new way to
teach reading to kindergarten students in this school. It has interesting ways thus
children are motivated to participate in reading activity. Besides emphasizing the
phonics of letters, it also has movements for children to easily memorize every letter
sound. It can be seen from the result of students test taken every month. A better
progress has been shown from the mean scores. The mean score in October 2012 was
84 , in November and December 2012 was 85, in January and December 2013 was
87,5. It is obvious that students? reading ability has displayed good improvement. The
researcher took a simple specification which was teaching CVC (Consonant Vowel
Consonant) patterns or three-letter words for reading. The responses of questionnaires
given got above 65% for the answer of ?yes? and below 35% for the answer of ?no?.
The findings of the study above indicate that Jolly Phonics is an interesting
method to teach reading to kindergarten students. However, other researchers may
also have similar study to develop it into a better one in the future.