ISBN: 0-906938-12-0 (Available to order from:
Sandra.Hamilton@west-dunbarton.gov.uk)
Objectives:
This study aimed to evaluate the use of synthetic phonics
in primary schools in areas of socio-economic disadvantage
in a context where initiatives to enhance the teaching of
traditional analytic phonics were being used in control
schools.
Method: The sample comprised
18 primary schools (9 experimentals, 9 controls). For practical
reasons this was a quasi-experimental study rather than
a randomised control trial, as the education authority wished
schools to volunteer to participate in synthetic phonics
rather than to be randomly assigned. The 9 volunteer schools
were, however, carefully matched in pares on the basis of
socio-economic profiles and literacy attainment levels.
A synthetic phonics programme was introduced, supported
by training in implementation.
Results: Experimentals made
significant gains compared with controls in non-word reading
and word reading. They maintained their gains on long-term
follow up three years later. Qualitative questionnaire data
from teachers supported the quantitative findings, with
teachers holding the view that pupils were working at higher
levels of skill than had ever been known before.
Conclusions: This study concluded
that synthetic phonics brought added value to the teaching
of literacy in areas of socio-economic disadvantage. The
result was that the entire education authority became a
'synthetic phonics authority' in all its schools.
Letter sound knowledge, which, together with
phonological awareness, is highly predictive of pre-school
children's reading acquisition, derives from children's
knowledge of their associated letter names and the phonological
patterns of those names. In this study of 66 monolingual
pre-school children we examined whether phonological patterns
between letter names and their associated sounds might be
differentially associated with aspects of phonological awareness.
Results suggest that rudimentary levels of phonological
awareness may facilitate the learning of letter sound associations.
However, more explicit phonological awareness appears to
be linked bi-directionally with letter sound knowledge with
diverse name-sound associations, with letter sound associations
that do not follow regular patterns (e.g. 'juh' for 'j'
and 'huh' for 'h') most closely associated with performance
in more complex phoneme awareness tasks.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwell-synergy.com
Two studies were designed to investigate the
role of morphemic structure on students 'word reading. The
first study asked whether familiar morphemes in words facilitate
word reading for elementary students. Results showed that
lower and upper elementary students read words with two
morphemes (derived words with a based word and one suffix,
such as shady) faster than words with on morpheme (e.g.
lady). The second study was designed to investigate the
effects of phonological transparency and middle and high
school students' reading of derived words. Results showed
that phonologically transparent words, words in which a
base form is intact in the pronunciation of the derived
word (e.g. classic in classical) were recognized and read
faster than derived words that are less phonologically transparent
(e.g. colonial), pinpointing an aspect of morphemic structure
that affects reading derived words. The results indicate
that reading derived words is not accomplished solely by
familiarity with letter-sound associations or syllables;
morphemes also play a role. Results also suggest value in
emphasizing morphemic structure in models of word-reading
acquisition.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
International Reading Association
The current study examined several alternative
explanations of the association between serial naming speed
within fourth-grade children by determining the extent to
which the association between word reading, naming speed
for letters and numbers is mediated by global processing
ability. Children were given multiple measures of key constructs,
i.e. word-level reading, serial naming of both alphanumeric
and non-alphanumeric items, phonological processing ability,
articulation rate and global processing speed. The robust
association between alphanumeric naming speed and reading
within fourth-grade children was largely mediated by phonological
processing ability. Markedly different patterns of results
were observed for naming speed for letters and digits and
naming speed for colours and pictures in children of this
age. Relative to the latter, alphanumeric naming speed better
assesses an underlying phonological processing ability that
is common to word-reading ability. We argue that item identification
processes contribute little to individual differences in
alphanumeric naming speed within relatively proficient readers
and that the extent to which alphanumeric naming speed primarily
reflects phonological processing is likely to vary with
the level of overlearning of letters and numbers and their
names.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwell-synergy.com
The emergence of phonological awareness was
examined in a longitudinal study. Two issues were of particular
interest: (1) the relationship between phonological awareness
and early language development, and (2) the relationship
between theory of mind and phonological awareness. Of interest
was whether early language ability at 2 years was related
to phonological awareness (e.g. rhyming) at 4 years. Overall,
children's early language ability at 2 years predicted their
phonological awareness at 4 years. Also of interest was
the relationship between theory of mind understanding and
phonological awareness. At 4 years measures of theory of
mind were related to phonological awareness. Possible explanations
of the link between language, theory of mind and phonological
awareness are discussed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage
Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
Previous research has established that the
degree of 'wordlikeness' of nonwords affect young children's
nonword repetition performance. Experiment 1 examined the
possibility that output processes are responsible for the
wordlikeness effect by using a probed recall procedure.
Wordlikeness was defined in terms of phonological neighbourhood
density, although this measure was found to be related to
the traditional measure of wordlikeness involving adult
ratings. A significant effect of number of phonological
neighbours/wordlikeness was observed in favour of nonwords
with many neighbours. In experiments 2 and 3 the wordlikeness
effect was qualified by a significant interaction with nonword
repetition ability. Children with poorer repetition ability
were affected by number of neighbours/wordlikeness, while
children with better repetition ability were not. Children
with poorer repetition ability were significantly poorer
than the better repeaters with nonwords with few neighbours.
The results were interpreted in terms of theories of phonological
development than suggests progressive segmentation of lexical
representations. In experiment 4 the relationship of children's
nonword repetition ability to phonemic discrimination ability
was investigated. The results demonstrated that children
with better nonword repetition ability had superior phonemic
discrimination performance than children with poorer nonword
repetition ability.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwell-synergy.com
Fifteen regular grade 2 teachers used a set
of 150 written lessons that were designed to develop, over
the course of a school year, low and normally achieving
students' ability to decode by analogy (i.e., to read unknown
words using known words). The lessons provided (1) a planned
sequence for teaching phonic elements including common spelling
patterns and initial sounds, (2) teacher modeling of an
analogy decoding strategy, and (3) analogy decoding practice
with opportunities for students to transfer decoding skills
to unfamiliar words. The lessons were delivered in the context
of a comprehension-oriented reading program, and teachers
prompted students to use an analogy decoding strategy during
reading activities apart from the lessons. Results of Hierarchical
Linear Modeling analyses showed significant positive relationships
between the number of lessons that teachers completed and
students' gains on standardized tests of word reading and
reading comprehension, controlling for previous reading
achievement. On additional posttests, students read 89%
of the base words taught in the program and, when prompted
to decode by analogy, 83% of a set of novel one-syllable
words. The results show the feasibility of improving word
reading and comprehension outcomes through systematic and
strategic analogy-based phonics.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
International Reading Association
Evidence suggest that phonic interventions
delivered by trained researchers improve early reading and
spelling. This study sought to explore whether school Learning
Support Assistants (LSAs) can also improve performance using
these methods. Four groups (each of n = 27) of the poorest
reading 6-year-old children in nine schools were screened
and selected for this study. LSAs were briefly trained to
administer phonic programmes as small group interventions
for nine weeks. Rhyme- and phoneme-based programmes were
also contrasted with controls receiving the National Literacy
Strategy. At post-test, all intervention group children
were better decoders, and had better phonological awareness
and letter-sound knowledge than controls. The phoneme-based
group had better letter-sound knowledge than the other intervention
groups. It is concluded that trained Learning Support Assistants
can deliver effective early preventive programmes for literacy
difficulties.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
Taylor and Francis Group: www.tandf.co.uk
This paper reports a study that followed the
development of reading skills in 72 children from the age
of 8.5 to 13 years. Each child was administered tests of
reading, oral language, phonological skills and nonverbal
ability at time 1 and their performance on tests of reading
comprehension, word recognition, nonword decoding and exception
word reading was assessed at time 2. In addition to phonological
skills, three measures of non-phonological oral language
tapping vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension
were unique concurrent predictors of both reading comprehension
and word recognition at time 1. Importantly, all three measures
of oral language skill also contributed unique variance
to individual differences in reading comprehension, word
recognition and exception word reading four and a half years
later, even when the autoregressive effects of early reading
skill were controlled. Moreover, the extent to which a child's
word recognition departed from the level predicted from
their decoding ability correlated with their oral language
skills. These findings suggest that children's oral language
proficiency, as well as their phonological skills, influences
the course of reading development.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Blackwell
Publishing: www.blackwell-synergy.com
This study investigates prospective relationships
between phonemic awareness and reading performance during
the first year of Finnish primary school. Pedagogical interest
lay in finding out whether systematic use of phonics in
reading instruction supported children's reading performance
even if children can already decode. A total of 85 children
were examined three times on phonemic awareness and four
times on reading performance during the first school year.
At the beginning of the school year, they were also tested
on initial reading skills. The results showed that the development
of phonemic awareness and reading performance was reciprocal.
Reading performance predicted phonemic awareness in the
beginning of the first year while the development of phonemic
awareness during the first year predicted reading performance
at the end of the first school year. The results suggested
further pedagogical tools are necessary that consider the
support phonemic awareness still offers, even when children
have become literate.
Abstract reproduced with permission of Sage
Publications Ltd: www.sagepub.co.uk
Several research studies linking early phonemic
awareness to the prevention of later reading difficulties
strongly suggest that phoneme segmentation and blending,
rather than rhyming and alliteration abilities, are the
key aspects of phonemic awareness that are related to the
prevention of difficulties. Yet, there is a persistent belief
among many educators that instruction in rhyming and alliteration
are adequate to develop phonemic awareness and developmentally
more appropriate than segmentation and blending activities.
Using quasi-experimental methods, I evaluated two approaches
for teaching phonemic awareness to 4-and 5-year-old children
in four Head Start classrooms, The first approach focused
on rhymes, alliteration, and story activities. The second
approach focused on phoneme segmentation and blending in
the context of sounding out actual words. Results showed
that children taught using the second approach produced
significantly greater gains in phonemic awareness and letter-sound
knowledge, compared to children using the first approach.
Both approaches were more effective when teachers had previously
taught attention skills to their children.
Abstract reproduced with permission from Elsevier
Journals: authors.elsevier.com/JournalDetail.html?PubID=620184&Precis=
The relationship between phonological awareness
and musical aptitude in pre-school children was examined.
In Experiment 1, Turkish children, and in Experiment 2,
American children performed various phoneme deletion tasks
with words in their respective native languages and with
pseudo-words. They also did initial and final tone deletion
tasks with snippets of melodies. Because none of these children
knew how to read, both tasks were presumed to depend largely
on pure auditory skills. In general, success in the different
phoneme deletion tasks reflected the characteristics of
the specific languages with which the children were familiar.
In addition, in both experiments, children in the high musical
aptitude group did much better on all tasks than those in
the low musical aptitude group, showing that success in
manipulating linguistic sounds were related to awareness
of distinct musical sounds.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
International Reading Association.
There is a debate over whether children's
early rhyme awareness has important implications for beginning
reading instruction. The apparent finding that pre-readers
are able to perform rhyme tasks much more readily than phoneme
tasks has led some to propose that teaching children to
read by drawing attention to rime units within words is
'a route into phonemes' (Goswami, 1999a., p. 233). Rhyme
and analogy have been adopted as an integral part of the
National Literacy Strategy (DfEE, 1998), a move which appears
to have been influenced by three major research claims:
1) rhyme awareness is related to reading ability, 2) rhyme
awareness affects reading achievement, and 3) rhyme awareness
leads to the development of phoneme awareness. A critical
examination of the experimental research evidence from a
methodological viewpoint, however, shows that not one the
three claims is sufficiently supported. Instructional implications
are discussed.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
International Reading Association.
A quantitative meta-analysis evaluating the
effects of phonemic awareness (PA) instruction on learning
to read and spell was conducted by the National Reading
Panel. There were 52 studies published in peer-reviewed
journals, and these contributed 96 cases comparing the outcomes
of treatment and control groups. Analysis of effect sizes
revealed that the impact of PA instruction on helping children
acquire PA was large and statistically significant (d =
0.86). PA instruction exerted a moderate, statistically
significant impact on reading (d = 0.53) and spelling (d=0.59).
Not only word reading but also reading comprehension benefited.
PA instruction impacted reading under all the conditions
examined although effect sizes were larger under some conditions.
PA instruction helped various types of children: normally
developing readers as well as at-risk and disabled readers;
preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders; low socioeconomic
status children as well as mid-high SES. PA instruction
improved reading, but it did not improve spelling in disabled
readers. PA instruction was more effective when it was taught
with letters than without letters, when one or two PA skills
were taught than multiple PA skills, when children were
taught in small groups than individually or in classrooms,
and when instruction lasted between 5 and 18 hours rather
than longer. Classroom teachers were effective in teaching
PA to their students. Effect sizes were larger for studies
using more rigorous experimental designs with rigor assessments
drawn from Troia (1999). In sum, PA instruction was found
to make a statistically significant contribution to reading
acquisition.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
International Reading Association.
This study analyzed phonics teaching and learning
in eight whole language first grades from October through
May. Documentation included field notes of weekly half-day
observations merged with transcriptions of teacher' student
interactions during phonics instruction. Findings indicated
that foundation concepts (phonemic and phonological awareness,
phonemic segmentation) and letter-sound relationships were
taught. Strategies were presented in tandem with skills.
Phonics instruction occurred in various reading and writing
activities typical of whole language classrooms. The writing
program was a key phonics instructional context. Teachers
differentiated phonics instruction based on learner development
and ongoing assessments. During reading and writing conferences
teachers documented student progress. They provided differentiated
instruction across various contexts. Four pre and post assessment
measuring encoding and decoding in isolation and in context
documented achievement gains for 178 students. Pretest scores
(range of 0-37) on Hearing and Recording Sounds in Words
(HRSW) grouped students into three statistically contrasting
clusters. Scores from the three remaining assessments were
scaled together using the Rasch model to determine composite
pre and post achievement scores. Comparison of pre and post
scores using Rasch scaling documented gains in encoding
and decoding knowledge. Group 1 (N = 123) demonstrated high
pretest scores (HRSW 27-37) and achieved mean posttest Text
Reading Level scores equivalent to Grade 5 (Composite gain
= 7.15). Statistically comparable gains (6.08) were achieved
by 13 students with limited HRSW pretest scores (2-14) and
posttest Text Reading Level score equivalent to preprimer
texts. Highest gains (8.61) were achieved by 42 students
(pretest HRSW 15-26) with posttest Text Reading Level scores
equivalent to Grade 1 readers.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
International Reading Association.
The methodological rigor of 39 studies of
phonological awareness intervention was evaluated based
on internal and external validity criteria. The internal
validity criteria encompassed general design characteristics,
measurement, and statistical treatment, while the external
validity criteria included research hypotheses, participant
selection and description, and generalization and maintenance
measures. The most serious methodological flaws observed
in many of the studies were (a) nonrandom assignment of
participants to conditions, (b) failure to control for Hawthorne
effects by providing alternate interventions to control
groups; (c) insufficient or nonexistent assurance of fidelity
of treatment; (d) poor measurement sensitivity; and (e)
inadequately described samples. Only seven studies met two
thirds or more of all the evaluative criteria, although
all of these investigations are compared with those of two
similar methodological reviews. Suggestions for improvement
of future intervention research are provided.
Abstract reproduced with permission of the
International Reading Association.
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