This paper investigated the English as a foreign language reading skills performance, including phonological awareness and word reading of early-grades (2-4 grades) primary school students and the impact of pre-primary school experience on these skills. Standardized reading tests were administered to 628 randomly selected Ethiopian EFL students, assessing their ability to identify capital and small letters, and their sight-word reading proficiency. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis revealed that over half of the participants performed poorly in identifying capital letters, with even weaker performance in small letter identification, and the poorest performance in sight-word reading. Notably, 336 students (53.6%) were identified as "zero-word readers," attempting to read words by reciting individual letters rather than recognizing them as whole units. Despite a significant majority (436 students, or 69.4%) having attended one to three years of pre-primary schooling, this prior experience did not significantly improve their English reading skills. The study recommends implementing targeted reading interventions focusing on letter names (both capital and small case), English phonemes, and phonics-based word reading strategies to support these students' reading development.
Aklilu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.