ABSTRACT
Lie, Alfred.
(1991). Effects of a
training program for stimulating skills in word analysis in first-grade
children. Reading Research
Quarterly, 26, 234-250.
Introduction
The purpose of this longitudinal study was to determine the effect of stimulating and training students to attend to the phonological units of speech and language.
Ten first-grade classrooms of Norwegian students were chosen to participate in this study. The students were assigned to one of three groups. Sixty (60) students from three classrooms were assigned to the phoneme isolation group where they were instructed in the identification of individual phonemes in the initial, medial, and final positions. A second treatment group composed of fifty-two (52) students from three classrooms received instruction in phoneme segmentation (sequential treatment). Ninety-six (96) children from four classrooms composed the control group. Measures of metaphonological skills were administered to each group during the course of the study.
Population
Two hundred and eight (208) students from the Halden, Norway school district were chosen for this study. The ten classes represented seven different schools. Care was taken to assure that the groups were evenly matched and heterogeneously composed. The positional analysis group contained 60 students (26 boys and 34 girls). The sequential treatment group was comprised of fifty-two (52) students. There were twenty-two (22) boys and thirty (30) girls. Finally, of the ninety-six (96) students in the control group, forty-nine (49) were boys and forty-seven (47) were girls.
Additionally, subsets of students were formed from each group. These three randomly matched groups were composed of sixteen students each. The groups of students were matched according to ability level. These subsets were chosen so that the development of their metaphonological skills could be examined.
Methodology
Each of the three groups received daily instruction for ten to fifteen minutes each day.
The students in the positional analysis group were trained in identifying phonemes in the initial, medial, and final part of words. This oral training focused on the child's own pronunciation of words.
The children in the sequential analysis group were trained to identify the sounds in spoken words in the proper sequence. As with the positional analysis group, this training was also oral. The students were taught a general technique for analyzing spoken words.
The activities in which the control group participated were considered to be neutral ones. To avoid the possibility of the Hawthorne Effect, the teachers were told that this group was an experimental group, whose purpose was to train students in concept development.
The participants in each group were administered the following pre-tests:
· Goeteborgsprovet (a Swedish intelligence test)
· ITPA – Norwegian edition
· Auditory sequential memory test
· Auditory reception
· Auditory association
· Sentence imitation
· Letter knowledge
Results of the pretests indicated that there were no significant differences among the three groups.
We read short stories, a group administrated reading test was administered at the end of first grade. Also administered was the spelling test, We write words and sentences.
At the end of grade two, students participated in a reading comprehension test and a spelling test that consisted of eight (8) sentences/fifty-one (51) words.
Additionally, a subset of fifty-four (54) students were administered the Malmquist Swedish Tests of Prereading Ability and a test of metaphonological skills (individual phoneme analysis, sequential analysis, and synthesis of phonemes). The purpose of these tests was to measure the skills taught in the experimental treatment groups.
Results
Results of the reading posttests for grades one and two suggest that the sequential analysis group attained the highest mean. In second place came the positional group, followed by the control group. With respect to the spelling subtest, once again, the sequential group out-performed the positional group and the control group. It should be noted, however, that the means of both experimental groups were almost identical.
The results of the metaphonological subtest studies indicated that both treatment groups (sequential and positional) out performed the control group.
Discussion
The results of this study provide evidence that systematic training in skills that stimulate and promote word analysis skills in first grade, aids in enhancing the development of reading and spelling skills. Training in both sequential analysis and positional analysis had a positive effect on the acquisition of reading and spelling skills. Significant differences in reading between both treatment groups and the control group were indicated at the conclusion of grade 1 only. However, significant differences (positive) were evident at the conclusion of grade 2.
Finally, the results of this study indicate that programs that develop phonological awareness in beginning reading play a major role in supporting, nurturing, and enhancing the literacy development of young children.