The Effects of a Phonological Awareness-based Program on Developing Reading and Spelling Skills of EFL Primary Fourth Graders

University of Sadat City

Faculty of Education

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

The Effects of a Phonological Awareness-based Program on Developing Reading and Spelling Skills of  EFL Primary Fourth Graders

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Master Degree in Education

(Curriculum and Instruction of EFL)

    BY

Hamdi Mohamed Mahmoud El Shenawy

Supervisor of English

Supervisors

  Dr. Adel Tawfik Ibrahim                          Dr. Gamal Mohamed Shehata

Professor of curriculum and instruction                             Professor emeritus of curriculum

and Dean of the Faculty of Education                                and instruction of  EFL, Faculty of

University of Sadat City                                             Education, University of Menia

2018

Introduction

Due to the weak relationship between the English letters and their corresponding sounds, the learners, especially young foreign children, find it difficult to link sounds to their letters easily. This problem is evident in children’s deficiency in reading as an encoding skill and spelling as a decoding skill. Phonological awareness involves the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words, syllables and phonemes. Therefore, phonological awareness is indispensable for children to learn because it strongly related to reading and spelling skills. Consequently, the researcher seeks to investigate the effects of a proposed training program based on phonological awareness instruction in developing oral reading and spelling skills among a sample of fourth grade children who study English as a foreign language.

The research problem

The problem of the present research is evident in the weakness of the EFL oral reading and spelling skills among EFL primary school pupils. This deficiency in such skills can be ascribed to the feeble sound-letter relationships in the English language. That makes it difficult, to a great extent, for beginners like primary school children to connect sounds to their matching letters in order to give correct pronunciation in oral reading or produce the right spelling in writing. Therefore the present research attempts to investigate the effects of using a proposed phonological awareness-based program in developing oral reading and spelling skills among fourth graders of primary school.

The research questions

To investigate the problem, the researcher attempted to answer the following question:

  1- What is the effect of using a phonological awareness-based program on   developing overall oral reading skills end each of oral reading sub-skills among a sample of fourth grade pupils?

  2- What is the effect of using a phonological awareness-based program on developing overall spelling skills and each of spelling sub-skills among a sample of fourth grade pupils?

Purpose of the research

The present research aims at:

1- investigating the effects of a phonological awareness-based program in developing oral reading among primary fourth pupils.

  2- examining the effect of a phonological awareness-based program on developing spelling among primary fourth pupils.

Significance of the research

1- The research provides a proposed phonological awareness-based program for primary stage pupils. It may be a helpful tool for EFL curriculum designers.

2- The research presents two diagnosis tests: an EFL oral reading test and an EFL spelling skills test. These tools may be beneficent for interested researchers.          

3- The research provides the reader with a review of literature on                         phonological awareness that is relatively a new field of study for Arab researchers.

4- The research may pave the way for interested future researchers to conduct various studies on phonological awareness involving different samples.

Hypotheses of the research:

1-There are statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control one in the post-test mean scores on the overall oral reading test and its sub-skills (word reading – reading accuracy – reading fluency) in favor of the experimental group assessment.

2-There are statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control one in the post-test mean scores on the overall spelling test and its sub-skills (vowels – consonants – word recognition – word correction – word formation) in favor of the experimental group assessment.

3-There are statistically significant differences between pre and post mean scores of the experimental group on the overall oral reading skills test and its sub-skills (word reading – reading accuracy – reading fluency) in favor of the post test assessment.

4-There are statistically significant differences between pre and post mean scores of the experimental group on the overall spelling test and its sub-skills (vowels – consonants – word recognition – word correction – word formation) in favor of the post-test assessment.

Definitions of Terms

1- Phonological Awareness

Operationally the researcher defines phonological awareness as “the ability to attend and recognize the sounds of structure of a language. This skill is known to be important for learning to spell and read ".

2- Phonemic awareness      

Operationally the researcher defines phonemic awareness sa “phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness concerning the structure of phonemes in words rather than their meanings”.

3- Oral reading

     Patel and McNab (2011) pointed out that “oral reading is a motor, cognitive, and linguistic feat that requires the reader to decode the grapheme (letters) into phonemes (sound units) sequence and integrates such a decoded message with syntactic and semantic information".

4- Spelling

    According to Rapp and Kane (2002: 263) “spelling skill refers in a general sense to the expression of orthographic knowledge regardless of the modality of output ".

Delimitations of the research:

 The present research is delimited to:

-  a proposed training program based on phonological awareness as an independent variable, and the program's effect on oral reading and spelling as dependent variables.

-   The sample of research that comprised (60) fourth grade participants who were selected from Elbaraa Ibn Malek primary school in Tala Educational Directorate, Menoufia.

-  second term of the academic year (2016-2017).

Review of literature

Theoretical Background

1-   Relationships between phonological awareness and reading and spelling skills:

Phonological awareness is an important precursor of learning to read. This awareness of phonemes fosters a child’s ability to hear and blend sounds, encode and decode words and spell phonetically. In addition, children with such phonological awareness deficits experience difficulty, therefore, in segmenting, manipulating and blending words, syllables and sounds of both spoken and written language. These abilities are necessary if children is to be able to recognize sound structures in order to read aloud, and in sounding out unfamiliar words in order to spell them ( Harper, 2011).

   Children who have phonemic awareness skills are likely to have an easier time learning to read and spell than children who have few or none of these skills. The children with phonological awareness deficits may be able to recognize words by relying on either sight reading or remembering the shape of the written word. This can result in spelling errors that are based on an incorrectly remembered look of a word rather than errors in sound structures (Johnston, 2000).

   Frost (2001) also confirmed the relation between phoneme awareness and initial reading development assuring that phonemic awareness is an indispensable catalyst in the development of initial word processing ability. In addition,  Richardson et al. (2004, p.33) pointed out that it is now well known and well-established that there is a casual connection between children’s phonological awareness skills and their acquisition of reading and spelling.

In this context Sharma et al. (2006) added that a deficit in phonological awareness is believed to be the primary reason why many children have difficulty learning to read. Also, Manning and Kato (2006) examined the relationship between phonemic segmentation and early literary skills. The research found that as children begin to read and write phonological

 awareness and knowledge of phonics develop gradually and simultaneously.

     Mildwidsky (2008, p.33) concluded thatphonological awareness plays a vital role in reading and spelling, and phonemic awareness is a component of phonological awareness. In such a context, Chappell et al. (2009) conducted a study to determine the effectiveness of assessment of phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and reading fluency. The results suggested that the educational diagnosticians who participated in the study were not sufficiently knowledgeable in identifying the components of reading fluency and phonological awareness and phonemic awareness, and they consequently are poor readers. Thus, awareness of phonemes fosters childrensʼ ability to hear and blend sounds. 

   Verhagan (2010) investigated the influences of early phonological awareness and naming speed on Dutch children’s later word spelling in a longitudinal study. Results showed strong relationship between spelling and phonological awareness. It was concluded that phonological awareness and naming speed predicted spelling in the early Grade one, later grade one, and later grade two.                         

   On the other hand, Stockall (2005) mentioned that phonological awareness while important to reading is not developmental, and the task of rhyming, and manipulation of phonemes are not necessary processes to learning to read, however, isolation, of phonemes and blending and segmenting when combined with paired associate learning to phoneme-grapheme symbol is a necessary and critical step for decoding the alphabet writing system. The research findings related to phonemic awareness suggested that although it might be necessary, it is not sufficient for producing good readers.

   Holm (2008) founded that a measure of phonemic segmentation accounted for a significant portion of variance in children’s spelling performance even after the variance in rhymes.In this context, Funes and Samuelsson (2011) investigated the relationship between phonological awareness , rapid automotive naming and reading and spelling skills in children learning to read in different alphabetical writing system. Results demonstrated that RAN was more related to reading than spelling across orthographies.

   Yopp (2000, p. 132) pointed out that one of the successfully element in learning to read is phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is important for it helps children to grasp and use the alphabetic principal to read and write. Thus, students level of phonemic awareness and phonics skills both predict initial reading success throughout the school year. Phonemic awareness is also considered a prerequisite to phonics, and without phonemic awareness, phonics makes no sense and spelling is learned by rote.

   Therefore, Cambrell et al. (2007) mentioned that some striving readers in the middle grades need additional support in the fundamental skill area of phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding and spelling. A predictable relationship exists between phonemic awareness and spelling that represent those sounds in written language.   Hu (2002) mentioned that research has shown that a crucial determinant of success in reading and spelling attainment of an alphabet language, and phonological awareness is strongly related to success in reading and spelling acquisition,

   Regarding spelling, Stahel and Mckenna (2000, p.1) mentioned that phonological awareness is also related to spelling, and the elision errors may reflect difficulties in spelling.      The children with phonological awareness deficits may be able to recognize words by relying on either sight reading or remembering the shape of the written word. This can result in spelling errors that are based on an incorrectly remembered look of a word rather than errors in sound structures (e.g. went is spelled as wetn rather than whent).

   Bernstein and Ellis (2000) explored the fundamental connection between phonemic awareness, the alphabetic principles and phonics in learning to read. Results provided evidence that phonemic awareness can significantly bridge the critical gap between inadequate perception for literacy and success in beginning reading. In thiks context,  Kroese et al. (2000) conducted a study on 78 children (8 to 12 year olds). It was founded that phonological awareness tasks are significantly correlated with reading, decoding and spelling measures.

   Keesey (2012) mentioned that acquiring phonemic awareness is imperative for successful literacy development. Many students lack the necessary phonemic awareness skills to become competent reader.   Roberts (2005) pointed out that theoretical background suggested that articulation  and vocabulary would influence the children’s English phoneme awareness in kindergarteners. In addition, the first grade phonemic awareness was related to the first grade word decoding.

Moreover, Frost (2001) confirmed the relationship between phoneme awareness and initial development assuring that the development of initial word processing ability. Eventually, Ashby et al. (2013) pointed out that phonological awareness is a known predictor of early decoding and word recognition, but less is known about the relationship between phonological awareness and reading text fluency.

]

   To conclude, there is a strong relationship between phonological awareness and reading skills from one side and with spelling skills from the other side. Results of the recent studies regarding the relationship between phonological awareness and reading and spelling showed that children in the early stages of literacy need to be acquainted with phonological awareness skills. Moreover, a predictable relationship exists between phonemic awareness and reading from one side and spelling from the other side, that is, one could predict the students’ level of performance on reading and spelling skills from their the outcome of their performance on phonological skills.

2-Developing reading skills through phonological awareness    instruction

  A number of studies have shown the benefits of phonological awareness instruction for literacy development, particularly in word recognition, reading and spelling skills. Besides, increased segmentation skills predict improvement in word reading (Stackhouse 2002, p.31).

   Randall (2011) examined the efficiency of using an empirically validated approach to teach phonological awareness and decoding to struggling readers during the first year of schooling. Results of the study showed that structured games and activities developed phonological awareness and knowledge of letter sound pattern. Instruction sessions took place four times a week, four minutes over six weeks. Improvement in these reading-related skills appeared to generalize to accuracy text, assessed by their reading book level.   Gursky and Lynn (2003) conducted a study with the aim of testing the efficacy of a phonological awareness instruction on phonological awareness, reading and spelling on twenty-four kindergartners. The results showed positive gains of the instruction on reading and spelling skills.

   Shoebottom (2007) investigated the effects of a twelve-week language enriched phonological awareness instruction on seventy-six Hong Kong young children who were learning English as a second language. The findings suggested that phonological awareness instruction embedded in vocabulary learning activities might be beneficent to kindergarteners learning English as a second language. Also,Mayer andMotsch (2015) investigated the effects of a classroom intervention focusing on phonological awareness and/or automotive word recognition in children with a deficit in the domain of phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming. The results suggested that children with a double deficit are at risk of developing dyslexia unless they receive specific support..

    Jordan (2005) mentioned that each time one should teach only one phoneme level skill. Before learning to read children must develop phonemic awareness or the ability to recognize and isolate individual sounds in words. This awareness of individual sounds or phonemes is critical for mapping sounds onto print in an alphabetic writing system in English. It directly impact both reading and spelling skills. Also, Hatcher (2005, p.338) suggested that training in phonological awareness instruction should be an effective foundation for teaching children of all levels of ability to learn to read. Phonological awareness intervention can be combined with phonics and other reading intervention.

Review of related studies

1- Studies of relationships between phonological awareness and reading and spelling skills:

   Alotaiba et al. (2010) examined the role of home literacy. Parental education and demographic factors in addition to conventional literacy skills at the beginning and end of kindergarten in predicting end-of-kindergarten spelling achievement were also investigated. The study involved nine school and twenty-nine classrooms serving as economically and ethnically diverse population (N=288). Students spelled three types of words: sight words, decodable real words, and decodable pseudo words; spellings were scored to allow partial credit for invented spelling. Results from a three-step hierarchical regression indicated the variables accounted for 66% of the variance in spelling scores with a single strongest spelling predictor being at a one-minute letter-sound fluency test.

   Fraser (2010) explored the role of five segmental and supra-segmental levels of English phonological awareness as predictors of individual differences in word reading in Korean children learning English. 104 children in grade three were assessed on English levels of stress, rhyme, simple phoneme and constant cluster awareness as well as English and Hangul word reading. Results indicated that awareness of syllables, rhyme and phonemes were uniquely predictive to Hangul word reading. These results support the notion that segmental phonology elements, not present in the mother language, may be predictive of individual differences in the second language word reading.

   Furnes and Samnelsson (2011) investigated the relationship between phonological awareness and rapid automatic naming, in addition to the relationship between phonological awareness and reading and spelling. Participants were 750 American/Australian children and 230 Norwegian/Swedish between kindergarten and second grade. Results demonstrated that rapid automatic naming was more related to reading than spelling across orthographies, with the opposite pattern shown for rapid automatic naming.

   Lee (2011) examined the relative contribution of phonological awareness and orthographic knowledge to the English reading proficiency in 122 seven grade Chinese students learning English as a foreign language. Besides, exploring the influence of these two fundamental skills on word identification and reading comprehension was also investigated. Results indicated that orthographic knowledge accounted for a large share of variance in both word identification and reading comprehension. In addition, phonological awareness instruction explained unique significance variance in reading.

   Li et al. (2012) conducted a study to investigate the relationships between English and Chinese phonological awareness, and the cross linguistic transfer of phonological awareness in 48 grade 2 and 47 grade Chinese English-immersion students. The results of the study indicated a correlation between phonological awareness and English listening comprehension. English listening comprehension had a significant effect on both grades.

   Pannell (2012) carried out a study with the aim of identifying relationships between reading ability in third graders and phonological awareness in kindergarteners. The second purpose was to identify specific pre-reading skills that best predict later reading success. The population for the study was 244 fourth graders enrolled in three primary schools. The data were obtained from kindergarten phonological awareness and literary screening and standards of learning examinations in reading from phonological awareness skills (rhyme awareness, letter recognition, sound-letter relationship, and concept of words) were evaluated to determine the predictability for later reading success. The Pearson correlation coefficient indicated that female students with high kindergarten phonological awareness showed high scores on third grade examination in reading. Rhyme awareness was identified as the best early predictor of later reading ability.

   Robinson (2013) examined the literature gap regarding the predictive validity of two kindergarten predictor variables (phonological awareness acquisition rates and phonemes segmentation accuracy) for third grade reading success. Data were collected from 209 kindergarten class children. Linear regression was used to determine the predictive validity of phonological awareness acquisition rate and accuracy of third grade oral reading. The results of this study indicated that only phonological awareness acquisition rates were significantly predictors of third grade oral reading fluency. Kindergarten phoneme segmentation accuracy rate was not a significant predictor of third grade reading fluency. The results showed that predictive variables such as phonological awareness should be considered when implementing a more refined, meaningful early intervention strategy for enhancing future reading success of children known to be at high risk for reading difficulties.

   Sheena (2016) assessed the clinical utility of an invented spelling and word stress (supra-segmental level measures), and whether it can be used to better identify reading difficulties. Sixty grade children, aged 8-9, in the New Jersey and New York area participated in the study. Results showed that participants with reading difficulties were found to have poorer performance when spelling real and non-real words, and more difficulty in detecting word stress. Poor reader were also found to struggle with spelling words with double consonants at the beginning and ending of words, and performed worse on spelling two and three syllable words than typical readers.

   Edward and Taulb (2016) examined the relationship among sound blending, sound segmentation, and reading comprehension in 48 African fourth-grade students. Statistically significant relationships were found between blending and segmenting skills and blending and reading comprehension. The results

indicated that sound blending skills account for more variance in the prediction of reading comprehension than segmenting skills with such a unique research population.

   From the above studies, it can be concluded that there is a strong role of phonological awareness skills in English word reading acquisition for children.

2- Studies of phonological awareness-based programs for developing reading and spelling skills: 

      Seward (2009) evaluated the influence of a summer phonological awareness-based intervention for children showing early signs of reading delay. The intervention program lasted for two weeks. There were five groups of participants of twenty pupils each. All the children who participated in the intervention were identified by their teachers as having difficulty in phonological awareness and word reading skill. The intervention program sought to improve children’s word reading ability by improving explicit instruction in phonological awareness. The children participated in pre- and post-test assessment reading skills and general cognitive skills. Results showed that children in the three intervention groups showed positive changes in phonological awareness and word reading skills at the end of the grade compared to comparison group of children with similar initial abilities but did not receive any intervention.

   Yang (2009)  aimed to test whether instruction using rhyme picture book can help improve non-native English speakers' phonological awareness and reading ability, and whether there is a relationship between phonological awareness and reading skills. The study involved two classes of third grade EFL students. Pre- and post-tests were administrated, and data were analyzed using dependent and independent t-tests on the means. Results showed that the experimental group significantly improved their phonological awareness compared to the control group. With respect to the relationship between phonological awareness, the results showed that there was a moderate correlation in the post-tests of the experimental group. Consequently, using rhyme picture book in phonological awareness instruction helped students improve their phonological awareness. It also helped students to remember words and sounds and, as a result, it helped improve their reading ability.

   Buckstein (2010) explored the relationships between rhyming ability and phonological awareness skills and reading abilities by examining the effect of rhyming instruction on those skills. A total of eighteen kindergarten-age children participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to an experimental group (N=9) and a control group (N=9). Both groups were pre-tested using seven subtests from the phonological awareness test. The experimental group children were provided with seven sessions of rhyming instruction, then the two groups were post- tested. Results indicate that rhyming instruction can improve early reading abilities, and therefore supports the hypothesis of the study that rhyming instruction will have little effect on phonological awareness skills, but may have a unique relationship with reading. These results add further support to the growing body of evidence that rhyming ability plays a fundamental role in reading success.

   Robinson (2010) examined the effect of a classroom-based phonological awareness program on reading and spelling abilities in kindergarten children. The study aimed to determine the effects of this type of phonological awareness instruction on reading and spelling in kindergarten children within the regular classroom. Three kindergarten classrooms received the intervention twice a week and three classrooms served as the controls. Pre- and post-intervention tests were administrated. The results indicated that students who were exposed to classroom-based phonological awareness program displayed greater phonological awareness abilities, spelling abilities, and reading abilities than students who did not receive the instruction.

   Raftery  (2010)  investigated the effect of a phonological awareness training program on phonological awareness of struggling readers and determine its impact on their reading achievements and reading attitudes. The program incorporated  phonological  awareness training activities with reading instruction. Qualitative and quantitative data of various forms were collected including research diary and observation, an attitude survey, sound linkage test of phonological awareness Bakery, and the Neale Analysis of reading ability. Results indicated that the use of training on phonological awareness had a positive impact on phonological awareness and the levels of reading achievement and attitudes towards reading.

   Berg (2011) investigated the impact of phonological awareness instruction in seventeenth and eleventh grade secondary students who were low achievers. Those students received daily explicit and systematic intervention. The instruction consisted of multi-sensory approach using spelling activities while teaching phonological awareness skills. Qualitative data were gathered from pre- and post- instruction reading fluency test. Results showed that six of seven students in the study made significant gains in the oral and silent reading fluency. Results also indicated that there is evidence to suggest that the inclusion of phonological awareness skills in a small group setting impacts reading fluency outcomes of low achieving students.

   Wall (2011) investigated the effects of using invented spelling as a new training model for teaching phonological awareness and spelling in kindergarten. Results  showed  that children in the intervention group made significantly greater gains on five out of seven sub-tests: letter identification, matching rhyme, blending  sounds,  segmenting sounds, and spelling. These results suggest that the attention to sounds in words is required for invented spelling, along with direct teaching of letter names and spelling of high frequency words.

   Keesey (2012) explored the effects of word box instruction, a research-based intervention designed to promote phonemic awareness, on phonological awareness, reading, and spelling skills of two groups of students: three kindergarteners at risk for reading failure, and five fifth graders struggling with reading and spelling. Results demonstrated a functional relation between the word box instruction and increase in all three students’ ability to segment and develop phoneme-grapheme relationships, along with demonstrated improvement in spelling and reading.

   Carson et al. (2013) investigated the influence of a short, intensive period of phonological awareness instruction implemented by classroom teachers on raising the literacy achievement of children with and without spoken language impairment. Thirty-four children received 10 weeks of phonological awareness instructions from their teachers. Ninety-five children continued with their usual reading program. Results showed that children who received phonological awareness instruction demonstrated superior literacy outcomes compared to children who followed the usual literacy curriculum. The study suggested that a short, intensive period of classroom phonological awareness instruction can raise the literacy profiles of children with and without spoken difficulties.

   Wolf (2013) investigated the effectiveness of using phonological awareness instructions in combination with reading intervention for increasing reading fluency and comprehension. Participants included five elementary-aged students who have a special education diagnosis. When examining reading

fluency, one of the five students who received the phonological awareness and reading intervention improved on reading fluency from baseline to intervention. When examining reading comprehension, all students demonstrated little to no change in comprehension questions.

   Ghoneim and Elgotmy (2015) investigated the effects of a suggested multi-sensory phonics program on developing kindergarten pre-service teachers’ EFL reading accuracy and phonemic awareness. A total of 40 fourth year kindergarten pre-service teachers, faculty of education, participated in the study that involved one group experimental design. Pre-post rests were administrated to assess the participation’s phonics skills. The results showed that the suggested multi-sensory phonics program was effective in developing kindergarten pre-service teachers’ EFL reading accuracy and phonemic awareness.

   Pape-Neumann et al. (2015) investigated phonological awareness training intervention to improve reading in German dyslexic third and fourth graders with a phonological awareness deficit. Results showed that phonological awareness training directly improved reading comprehension in German dyslexic children with a phonological awareness deficit.

Comments on related previous studies

 -Most studies indicated positive relationship between phonological awareness and early acquisition of reading and spelling skills.

-Many studies showed that early phonological awareness skills in preschoolers -Most results suggested that phonological awareness should be taught side by side with early reading and spelling as they consolidate each other.

-The majority of the above studies were conducted on samples of kindergarteners of native speakers, or primary school children of foreign language learners.

-Though phonological awareness is a relatively recent field of study, there are plenty of studies carried out, especially in Western countries rather than Arab countries.

-Some of the studies results underscored the role of phonemic awareness in the acquisition of EFL reading and spelling.

-Moststudies indicated a positive effectiveness of phonological awareness training and instruction in improving phonological awareness skills among English learners, especially who are at the early stages of literacy.

-Nearly all of the above studies showed a transfer from phonological awareness training and instruction to reading and spelling skills.

-Almost all of the above studies were conducted on kindergarteners or primary school children. That indicates the significance of early phonological awareness-based intervention programs for enhancing reading and spelling skills.

-Some results proved thephonological instruction on reading and spelling skills.

Material and Method

Participants of the research

The research participants comprised (60) children selected randomly from the fourth year primary school pupils at El-Bara’a Ibn Malik primary school in Menoufia governorate during the second term of the academic year (2016-2017). The study sample was divided into (30) pupils for the experimental group, and (30) pupils for the control one.

Instruments of the research:

-   A pre-post test of oral reading skills.

-   A pre-post test of spelling skills.

Design of the research

The researcher utilized the quasi-experimental design of two groups (an experimental group and a control one). Class (4-1) was assigned to be the experimental group, while class (4-2) represented the control one. The two groups of (30) participants each were subjected to pre-tests and post-tests of oral reading and spelling  skills.  The  experimental  group received instruction through the proposed training program, while the control group received the regular instruction. The two groups were read mister  to the post-tests.

Findings and Discussion

2- The first hypothesis

The first hypothesis stated that “There are statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control one in the post-test mean scores of the overall oral reading test and its sub-skills (word reading - reading accuracy - reading fluency) in favor of the experimental group assessment.

To test the above hypothesis, t-test was used, and the results are shown in the following table:

Table (1): Results of the independent sample t- test values of the mean scores of the experimental group and the control one in the overall post oral reading test and its sub-skills.

The above table shows that the overall mean score of the experimental group in the oral reading test is (69.56), whereas that of the post test is (51.20) and the t-value is (3.50). This value is significant at the (0.01) level. Regarding the oral reading  sub-skills, the t-value of the “word reading” is (3.72), and that of the “reading accuracy” is (2.36), and that of the “reading fluency” is (3.18). All these values are significant on the (0.01) level

3- The second hypothesis

The second hypothesis stated that “There are statistically significant differences between the experimental group and the control one in the post-test mean scores of the overall spelling test and its sub-skills (vowels – consonants – word recognition – word correction – word formation) in favor of the experimental group assessment.

To test the above hypothesis, t-test was used and the results are shown in the following table:

Table (2): Results of the independent sample T- test values of the mean scores of the experimental group and the control one in the overall post spelling test and its sub-skills.

The above table shows that the                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   overall mean scores value of the experimental group in the spelling post test is (69.60), whereas that of the control group is (51.13), and the t-value is (3.92). This value is significant at the (0.01) level.

4- The third hypothesis

The third hypothesis stated that “There are statistically significant differences between pre and post mean scores of the experimental group on the overall oral reading skills and sub-skills (word reading–reading accuracy–reading fluency) in favor of the post test assessment.

To test the above hypothesis, t- test was used, and the results are shown in the following table:

Table (3): Results of the paired “t- test” values of the pre and post test of the experimental groups on the overall oral reading test and its sub-skills.

The above table shows that the overall mean score value of the experimental group in the oral reading pre-test is (47.76), whereas that of the post test is (69.56), and the t-value is (62.81). This value was significant at the (0.01) level.

5- The fourth hypothesis

The fourth hypothesis stated that “There are statistically significant differences between pre and post mean scores of the experimental group in the overall spelling test and its sub-skills (vowels–consonants–word recognition–word correction – word formation) in favor of the post test assessment.

To test the above hypothesis, t- test was used and the results are shown in the following table:

Table (4): Results of the paired “t- test” values of the pre and post test of the experimental groups in the overall spelling test and its sub-skills.

The above table shows that the overall mean scores value of the experimental group on the oral reading pre-test is (47.43), whereas that of the post test is (68.60), and the t-value is (61.76). This value is significant at the (0.01) level.

6- Discussion and interpretation

  The main purpose of the present research was to develop oral reading and spelling skills among EFL primary fourth graders through using a phonological awareness-based program. The program included twenty sessions implemented for practicing English sounds on the word, syllables, and phonemes levels. According to the research results of the study, the phonological awareness-based program has improved both oral reading and spelling skills among the research participants. This was evident in the results of the experimental group’s post test assessment compared with that of the pre test. The results also revealed the superiority of the experimental group’s post test assessment over that of the control one.

   Thus, it can be said that the phonological awareness- based program is effective in developing the experimental group pupils’ oral reading and spelling skills, comparing with the control group pupils who were taught and instructed by the ordinary school program and did not have any additional phonological awareness practice.

   These results may be attributed to the effectiveness of using the proposed intervention instructional program. It gave the pupils opportunities to practice sounds manipulations and letter-sound correspondence. Thus, pupils were able to recognize and spell words and read sentences accurately. There was integration between the program activities of the phoneme and syllable manipulation from one side and the oral reading and spelling skills from the other side. That is, the pupils were given chance to practice on reading aloud and spelling with phonological awareness skills simultaneously. That kind of integrated exercises may help affirm and enhance  the sound-letter correspondence. Consequently, pupils were able to overcome the difficulties related to some English consonant and vowel sounds with relation to their representing letters that may reflect on oral reading and spelling skills.

   Moreover, the number of sessions (20 sessions) was sufficient to help pupils deal with the phonological awareness sub-skills. The sessions were held in appropriate and quite place in the school’s art room three times a week. Each fifty-minute session covered one separate sub-skill. Such intensive practice may be reflected positively on enhancing word reading and spelling skills.

   These findings may also be ascribed to the activities used in the phonological-based program such as pair work, group work, team work, role play and modeling. These varieties of activities help overcome the shell of shyness of some reluctant and shy pupils, motivate them and stimulate them to share enthusiastically in the activities. The researcher modeled each activity in front of the pupils using different teaching aids like flash cards and pictures. Thus, pupils became able to deal with difficulties and overcome the confusion related to sound-letter relationship, and they gradually became aware of the sounds and the letters they represent, manipulate individual sounds, and deal with syllables and rhymes.

   The permanent assessment throughout each session, the remedial work devoted to the backward pupils, the constant reinforcement and encouragement throughout the whole session may be the main elements of the program’s success. Such procedures helped consolidate the phonological awareness skills and sub-skills.

   Therefore, the phonological awareness instruction is proved to be effective in developing oral reading and spelling skills. Such effectiveness may be due to the effectiveness of the program which was based on theoretical grounds in choosing the appropriate skills and sub-skills and in the implementing of the intended activities that might conform to the participants’ abilities.

   The results of the present research, with respect to the oral reading skills assessment, are consistent with the results of many previous studies which confirm the effectiveness of phonological awareness-based program in developing oral reading skills, these studies include: (McCollum, 2000), (Thomas, 2000),  (Selway, 2004), (Seward, 2009), (Yang, 2009), (Robinson, 2010), and (Pape-Neumanntz,2015).
    On the other hand, the results of the present research concerning the spelling skills assessment is consistent with other studies which revealed the effectiveness of the phonological awareness-based program in developing spelling skills such as (McGinnis, 2000), (Martin & Silva, 2007), (Lopez, 2003) and (Houston, 2006).

   To conclude, it is clear from the above discussion of the results that the four hypotheses were confirmed and accepted. Accordingly, the phonological awareness-based program can be effective in developing oral reading and spelling skills for the fourth year primary school pupils.

     14-Conclusion

Based on the results of the statistically analysis of the data, it can be concluded that oral reading and spelling skills were developed as a result of using the phonological awareness-based program. This means that the proposed program was effective in achieving the aims of the present research. The effectiveness of the program may be due to the various activities and tasks the researcher presented to the pupils. Moreover, the number of sessions (20 sessions) was sufficient to cover the phonological awareness sub-skills instruction that may be reflected positively on enhancing word reading and spelling skills. Besides, the variety of the instructional activities such as pair work, group work, role playing, and modeling may have a great effect in success of the sessions. Also, the permanent assessment throughout each session, the remedial work devoted to the backward pupils, the constant reinforcement and encouragement throughout the whole session may be considered the main elements of the program’s success.

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