scholarly journals EFL Prospective Teachers’ Competency in Phonological Awareness: Impact on Teaching English Reading

Author(s):  
Yousef Alshaboul

Deficits in EFL teachers’ proficiency have surfaced recently as one of the possible factors contributing to children’s reading problems at their early encounters with literacy. Phonological awareness (PA) has dominated specialists’ interests well-timed with escalating reports containing more provoking evidence connecting children's reading disability with deficiencies in PA. This paper aims at investigating the impact of perceived proficiency, GPA, and gender of prospective teachers on shaping their future reading instruction detectable by prospective teachers' PA beliefs, awareness and knowledge. Towards this end, a four-section survey was administered to 158 pre-service EFL teachers. Results confirmed significant differences related to knowledge and beliefs at the expense of awareness. 

Author(s):  
Yousef Mohammad Alshaboul

Families, schools and stakeholders long for developing good readers (Ponitz & Rimm-Kaufman, 2011) and would do all it takes to save young children from becoming illiterate or low achievers (Anthony & Farncis, 2005; Share & Stanovich, 1995; Snowling, 1998). Since the landmark study of Moats (1994), a flow of research has targeted teacher education advocating for teachers being competent in PA (Carlisle, Kelcey, Rowan, & Phelps, 2011; Kennedy, 2013; Washburn et al., 2017). EFL teachers’ proficiency seems to contribute to the reading difficulties that early graders encounter. This paper investigates the knowledge, beliefs, practices and awareness in phonological awareness (PA) of twohundred and ten ramdonly selected EFL in-service teachers and then examines the impact of teachers’ experiences, qualifications, and gender on shaping teachers’ instruction. The researchers used a four-section survey to collect teachers’ demographic information, perceived and actual knowledge of phonological awareness and classroom practices related to PA, phonics, and syllabication. The results reported teachers as moderate level in the beliefs, practice and awareness of PA. In terms of teachers’ knowledge in PA, however, results showed teachers lacking the basics in teaching reading. This study adds to the body of literature and sheds light on the status quo of EFL in-service teachers’ competency and brings to the attention of every stakeholder the critical role EFL teachers play in helping EFL children become readers. Although the results point towards teachers as possible cause behind children’s low-literacy level, this study raises important questions for further investigations, and implications for EFL teacher education and preparation are highlighted.


2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 1083-1115 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALEXANDRA GOTTARDO ◽  
ADRIAN PASQUARELLA ◽  
XI CHEN ◽  
GLORIA RAMIREZ

ABSTRACTThe relationships among first language (L1) and second language (L2) phonological awareness and reading skills were examined in English L2 learners with a variety of L1s, specifically Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese (maximum N = 252). Longitudinal and concurrent relations between word reading and subcomponents of phonological awareness (i.e., syllable, onset-rime, phoneme, and, where applicable, tone awareness) were examined in kindergarten and first and second grades. The relationships between reading and specific subcomponents of phonological awareness were associated with the orthography being read, English or the L1. Phonological awareness subcomponents related to English reading were generally similar for the three English L2 groups, despite differences in the orthographies of learners’ native language. The findings support the psycholinguistic grain size theory with regard to links between phonological sensitivity and the sound–symbol correspondences used to read the specific languages.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-16
Author(s):  
Amirah Jazimah Sabjan

Abstract This study put its interest in investigating parental reading beliefs and children’s reading performance. It also sought to determine whether there is an association between parental reading beliefs and children’s reading performance. This research employed a quantitative research design and it used a quota sampling technique to select the respondents. A total of 30 parents from Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Pusu Kuala Lumpur answered a questionnaire about parental reading beliefs. The questionnaire used was adapted from a study by DeBaryshe and Binder (1994). In order to measure the children’s reading performance, the parents were asked to state their children’s comprehension marks towards the end of the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of five factors related to parental reading beliefs which were teaching efficacy, positive attitude, verbal participation, reading instruction and basic knowledge. The data collected was analysed using Pearson Correlation. The results showed that all the factors under parental reading beliefs had positive relationship with children’s reading performance except for one factor which was reading instruction. All of them were not significant and as this study was a preliminary study, hence the results should not be generalised due to number of reasons. Keywords: Parents, reading beliefs, reading performance, primary school, quantitative research


Author(s):  
Yan Liu ◽  
Hongbing Liu ◽  
Yan Xu ◽  
Hongying Lu

With the development of Internet technology, teachers are constantly seeking innovative methods to match the potential of enhanced technology. Although many studies have been conducted before on this subject, they are not enough in this field. The purpose of this article is to explore innovative designs to change traditional modes of teaching and examine the impact of online English instruction of reading, based on constructivism. The research study was carried out at the Number 9 middle school of Bengbu, an underdeveloped area of China. In the study, online methods were compared with traditional textbook literature methods to improve the reading proficiency of students. A questionnaire survey was designed specifically for this study and it was administered to the students at the end of a semester, and the data was analyzed. The outcome of this study indicated that students considered online method as effective and that they gained more knowledge. This method helped them in improving their reading skills, aroused student interest and motivation, and exam performance of the students has been improved significantly, and thus, it created a positive learning situation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Kirnan ◽  
Nina E. Ventresco ◽  
Thomas Gardner

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