ABSTRACT
Lundberg, I., Frost, J.,
& Petersen, O. (1988). Effects
of extensive program for stimulating phonological awareness in preschool
children. Reading Research
Quarterly, 23, 263-284.
Introduction
The aim of this longitudinal was to assess the long-term effects of phonological training on children's progress in reading and spelling in first and second grade. Two hundred and thirty-five (235) Danish preschool children received daily training sessions in phonological awareness for a period of eight (8) months. The training consisted of a series of metalinguistic games and exercises which aimed to stimulate the children's awareness and attention to the phonological structure of language.
Population
This study involved the use of one (1) experimental group and a control group. The experimental group represented twelve (12) different kindergarten classes on the island of Bornholm, Denmark. Of the two hundred and thirty-five children in the group, one hundred and thirty-four (134) were boys and one hundred and one (101) were girls. Members of the control group represented ten (10) different kindergarten classes in Jutland, Denmark. One hundred and fifty-five (155) students comprised this group. Of those students, seventy-five (75) were boys and eighty (80) were girls. Though the experimental and control groups were largely separated by geography (Bornholm is in the most eastern part of Denmark, while Jutland is in the most western part), the two groups were similar in regards to socioeconomic status. Residents of both rural regions represented lower middle and working classes, living in small villages and towns.
Due to the geographical constraints of the study, a strict random assignment of the children to the two groups was not possible. The study began in August of 1985. The average age of the students was six (6) years old.
Methodology
In September, before the training program began, the students were administered a series of pretests. These same tests were given as a post-test the following May.
The test of Prereading Ability was organized in four hierarchical steps. Students were first presented five, two or three letter words. Next, they were presented with three, three word sentences. At the third and fourth levels a seven word sentence and an eleven word sentence were presented respectively. The students' reading level was scored from 0-4 (0 designating failure and 4 designating success at all levels).
The Letter Knowledge test required children to identify a series of randomly selected upper and lowercase letters. The children were also administered tests of Language Comprehension and Vocabulary.
Finally, the Metaphonological Test administered included seven subtests: 1) rhyme test, 2) segmentation of sentences into words, 3) syllable synthesis, 4) syllable segmentation, 5) deletion of initial phoneme, 6) phoneme segmentation, and 7) synthesis of phonemes.
The kindergarten training program for the experimental group had been carefully planned. It included daily sessions of metalinguistic games and exercises designed to assist students in discovering and attending to the phonological structure of language.
The first month of the program focused on listening games, rhyme, and sentence segmentation. In month two syllable segmentation was introduced. By the middle of the third month activities involving phonemes were introduced. Such activities included games, looking at pictures, motor activities, dancing, singing, and noncompetitive social activities. For the most part these activities were designed for whole class participation and were structured so that all students could experience some level of success.
Since this was a longitudinal study, follow-up testing was done in both grade one and grade two. At the beginning of grade one, students were administered Metaphonological Transfer tests. The tests included: rhyme task, initial sound analysis, word length analysis, syllable segmentation, and phoneme segmentation. Also given at the start of first grade was the Raven's Progressive Matrices, a nonverbal test designed to assess intellectual ability. Tests of mathematics, reading, and spelling were administered about seven months into first grade.
In grade two the mathematics, reading, and spelling tests were again administered, approximately seven months after the first grade tests.
Results
Results of the kindergarten Prereading Ability Pretest revealed that one child in the experimental group had some reading ability as did two children in the control group. At the time of the post-test, fifteen children in the experimental group showed some reading ability as opposed to two children in the control group.
On the Letter Knowledge test, the Language Comprehension test, and the Vocabulary test, no significant differences were found between the groups on either the pretest or post-test.
On the Metaphonological pretests, the control group outperformed the experimental group. However, at the conclusion of the training program, posttest scores revealed that the experimental group dramatically out-performed the control group. Close examination of posttest scores of children in the experimental group revealed that improvement occurred with children of all ranges of ability.
Results of posttests from grades one and two indicated that the experimental group once again out-performed the control group. In grade one the difference in reading was only marginally significant. However, with respect to spelling, the difference between the experimental and control groups was quite significant.
Discussion
The results of this longitudinal study indicate that students' level of phonemic awareness ability can accurately predict their potential achievement in reading and spelling. Important findings from this study suggest that students can be trained in phonological awareness prior to and independently of learning to read. Furthermore, these findings suggest that training in phonological awareness does indeed facilitate early reading achievement. Analysis of the tests of Metaphonological skills clearly indicates that attention to phonemic segments must be taught. The experimental group clearly benefited from their training, significantly out-performing the control group on the posttest. From the results of this study, it can be concluded that the children in the experimental group will have an advantage in learning how to read and spell.