Could Phonemic Awareness Instruction Be (Part of) the Answer for Young EFL Learners? A Report on the Early Literacy Project in Malaysia

GREGORY TWEEDIE CfBT Education Singapore doi: 10.5054/tq.2010.238131 & The Curriculum Specifications for English, set out in the Ministry of Education Malaysia syllabus for Year 1, calls

Could Phonemic Awareness Instruction Be (Part of) the Answer for Young EFL Learners? A Report on the Early Literacy Project in Malaysia

ROBERT C JOHNSON

College of the Marshall Islands

Majuro, Marshall Islands

M GREGORY TWEEDIE

CfBT Education

Singapore

doi: 10.5054/tq.2010.238131

& The Curriculum Specifications for English, set out in the Ministry of Education Malaysia syllabus for Year 1, calls for instruction in phonemic awareness (PA; see definition below) as part of the acquisition of word recognition skills Students are expected to be able to learn individual letters of the alphabet and their sounds; read aloud consonants in initial positions and vowels in both initial and medial positions; and compare words for similar sounds (Curriculum Development Centre, 2006, p 20)

In some parts of rural Malaysia, where English is functionally a foreign language, and being learned by many Year 1 pupils as a third or even fourth language, these objectives may be overly optimistic Rural students in national schools are instructed via the medium of Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysia’s official language, also known as Malay), and asked in Year 1 to master its alphabet and sound system, alongside English Year 1 students in rural Chinese- or Tamil-medium schools are busy acquiring the script and sound system of one of those languages, of Bahasa Malaysia, and of English

as well For children from orang asli (aboriginal) or one of the many other linguistic backgrounds in the country, this task is complicated even further The ongoing frustrations of both teachers and teacher-trainers in these rural parts of the country led some to wonder whether direct instruction in phonemic awareness might assist young Malaysian learners

in the acquisition of phonemic awareness in English

BACKGROUND

Phonemic Awareness Instruction

While studies of the efficacy of phonics for the teaching of reading are multitudinous—often set in the context of the reading wars—studies

involving PA acquisition among children learning English as a foreign language are much rarer

Morag Stuart set out to test the effect of PA instruction among inner-city UK 5-year olds who were learning English as a second language PA acquisition, and its application in reading and writing, were found to be accelerated in the group receiving treatment (Stuart, 1999) However, the language acquisition environment in the UK is, of course, vastly different from the situation in which young English language learners in rural Malaysia find themselves English, to be sure, is very much part of the Malaysian ‘‘linguistic scenery’’ (Asmah, 1992, in Tan, 2005, p 48); however, in rural settings, where this present study of PA instruction occurred, it is a distinctly foreign language (Azman, 2002)

Takeda’s (2002) study of the effect of phonics instruction on Japanese junior high school students investigated whether such tuition at the beginning of their English language studies would assist with reading development, and whether such instruction would help foster positive and enthusiastic attitudes toward English language learning Comparisons of pretest and posttest results between treatment and control groups indicated that the phonics instruction significantly improved students’ ability to read in English A postinstruction questionnaire suggested that students felt the phonics teaching had been useful and had assisted in improving reading ability

What Is Meant by Phonemic Awareness?

For the purposes of this study, the definition of phonemic awareness has been drawn from the National Reading Panel’s (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2001) oft-discussed systematic review Initially defining phonemic awareness (PA) as ‘‘the ability to focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words,’’ the authors stress that PA differs from phonological awareness, which is ‘‘a more encompass-ing term referrencompass-ing not only to PA but also to awareness of larger spoken units such as syllables and rhyming words’’ (Ehri, Nunes, Stahl, & Willows, 2001, p 253) The authors cite previous literature to argue that

PA is a strong predictor of how well children eventually learn to read (pp 254–255) Our present study, then, opted to follow the working definitions of the National Reading Panel Study:

Some forms of PA instruction would qualify as phonics instruction, which involves teaching students how to use grapheme–phoneme correspondences

to decode or spell words What distinguished PA studies from the general pool

of phonics studies, however, is that instruction given to students in the treatment groups, but withheld from controls, was limited to grapheme–

phoneme manipulation and did not go beyond this to include other activities, such as reading, decodable text or writing stories (Ehri et al., 2001, p 254)

The present study sought to add to the existing body of research by investigating the following research question: Can the acquisition of phonemic awareness in entry-year rural Malaysian English language learners be accelerated through direct phonemic awareness instruction?

THE STUDY

In a joint rural educational development project between the Curriculum Development Centre of the Malaysia Ministry of Education, and CfBT Education, a team of expatriate English language coordinators (ELCs) attempted, among other initiatives, to address poor English reading outcomes among rural Malaysian primary school students through the development of an Early Literacy Project (ELP), which both tested the effects of phonemic awareness instruction among Year 1 English language learners, and attempted to highlight to local colleagues a workable method of PA tuition

As phonemic awareness is part of the ‘‘main highway to success in literacy learning’’ (Brooks, 2003, p 7), the ELCs sought to create a contextually suitable approach for schools and teachers that would allow for PA instruction to be conducted in entry-year classrooms long after the research study was completed

Participants

In all, 862 students, in 9 rural Malaysian school districts, were given PA instruction over a 6-week period in early 2007 The results of precourse and postcourse tests were measured against a control group of 168 students who did not take part in the ELP Due to the logistical challenges inherent in centrally coordinating a study of this magnitude and geographical distance, the choice of participating schools and students was left to the trainer coordinating the study in each district, and to the schools, teachers, and administrators involved; however, inclusion was dependent upon underperformance on a prior Year 6 national exam, whether the school had enough enrolment for at least two classes of Year 1 students, and involvement of at least one

Chinese-or Tamil-medium school in each participating district

Treatment

Pretests were administered to a minimum sample of 15 randomly selected students in each class Over the next 6 weeks, students in treatment

groups received direct phonemic awareness instruction, with lesson content focused heavily on active learning Total physical response (TPR) was incorporated to make the lessons interesting for young learners while interweaving skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in relation to phonemic awareness The lessons were designed to be conducted in routine patterns, for easy replication by the regular teacher

It should be noted that ELP classes took place during regularly scheduled English classes, and so did not constitute any additional time dedicated to English skills development, which could have influenced the ELP students’ results relative to the control group Students in the control group received the regular syllabus content called for in entry-year instruction; though the syllabus does call for some phonemic awareness training, the treatment groups differed in that the instruction was direct and intentional in targeting PA

Testing

Five tests were chosen for pretesting and posttesting of both the treatment and control groups:

1 Sounds fluency: children were shown lower-case letters arranged in

random order and asked to give the sounds of as many letters as possible

2 Basic reading: children were asked to read words and short sentences taken

from the Year 1 syllabus and from the treatment materials

3 Number awareness: children were asked to read numbers from a page and

identify the number of fingers held up by the examiner

4 Nonsense words: children were asked to read a list of nonsense words (nup,

mox, etc.)

5 Simple writing test: the researcher spoke five words/letters, and the child

was asked to write them

Pretests and posttests were administered by the ELC on a one-to-one basis, with each student tested Local teachers were on hand to provide assistance in case of any communication difficulties Correctness of a given answer was at the discretion of the ELC, but efforts to normalize the process were made through the design and discussion of agreed-upon standards by those who created the tests and the trainers involved

at initial planning sessions

RESULTS

Paired-sample t tests indicate both ELP and control group scores significantly improved from pretest to posttest for each test item and overall test scores (p 5 0.000 for all items and total scores) Analyses of

covariance (ANCOVAs), however, show ELP students’ improvements were significantly greater on all counts (Table 1), strongly suggesting ELP tuition was successful in accelerating the acquisition of relevant numeracy and literacy skills

Further ANCOVA results suggest that, while having attended pre-school did seem to help students do better on the posttest (F 5 25.506,

p 5 0.000), whether or not students participated in the ELP classes was

an even more influential factor (F 5 177.520) Unlike their urban counterparts, many pupils in rural Malaysia do not have the opportunity

to enjoy the benefits of preschool, such as developing literacy and numeracy skills prior to entering Year 1 The possibility that ELP tuition may help students who did not attend preschool close the gap on those who did, therefore, was an important one, warranting further investiga-tion

Linear regression analysis produced findings mirroring the above ANCOVAs, indicating the three most significant factors influencing performance on the posttest were, in order of importance, (1) performance on the pretest (t 5 35.100, p 5 0.000), (2) whether students were in the ELP or control group (t 5 –8.923, p 5 0.00), and

TABLE 1

Test for Group Differences Between ELP and Control Group

Question

Group mean Group

differ-ence change

E – C (%)

ANCOVA test for group effect ELP students (E) Control students (C)

Pretest

Post-test

Change (%)

Pre-test

Post-test

Change (%) F ratio

Signifi-cance 1a 18.82 22.59 20.03 19.67 22.18 12.76 7.27 12.49 0.000 1b 1.63 15.87 873.62 4.58 6.48 41.48 832.13 307.35 0.000

2 3.22 7.10 120.50 4.68 6.84 46.15 74.34 14.94 0.000 3a 2.02 4.11 103.47 2.23 3.82 71.30 32.16 5.55 0.019 3b 2.60 3.49 34.23 2.79 3.36 20.43 13.80 23.30 0.000 3c* 4.41 8.11 83.90 4.93 7.75 57.20 26.70 6.57 0.011

4 2.47 6.07 145.75 3.38 4.76 40.83 104.92 26.27 0.000

5 1.29 2.26 75.19 1.58 1.98 25.32 49.88 28.18 0.000 Total* 33.39 63.71 90.81 40.80 53.66 31.52 59.29 177.50 0.000

*Scores exclude one district because an examiner inadvertently omitted Question 3c from the test.

Note: Questions:

1a Letter recognition: Students name letters of the alphabet

1b Phonemic awareness: Students produce the phoneme associated with letters of the alphabet

2 Basic reading: Students read a series of 1-syllable words and two 4-word sentences 3a Numeracy : Students name numbers presented as digits (e.g., ‘‘1’’)

3b Numeracy : Students name numbers presented as words (e.g., ‘‘one’’)

3c Numeracy: Students say how many of some object (fingers, blocks, etc.) are being presented

4 Basic reading: Students read a series of 3-letter nonsense words (tak, pel, etc.)

5 Basic writing: Examiner says a letter or simple word and student must write it down

(3) whether or not students had attended preschool (t 5 –5.957, p 5 0.000) (Table 2)

ANCOVA and linear regression procedures were then repeated considering the ELP group alone, in order to better understand the influence of who taught the students in the ELP classes on student learning and performance ANCOVA findings confirm this variable did significantly influence ELP student performance on the posttest (F 5 21.043, p 5 0.000) Interestingly, and perhaps contrary to what many would have predicted, follow-up pair-wise comparisons show that pupils taught by a local teacher (previously trained by the foreign trainer) significantly outperformed those team-taught by the local teacher and foreign trainer together (D5 4.313, p 5 0.000) and surpassed students taught exclusively by the foreign trainer to an even greater extent (D5 6.213, p 5 0.000)

Linear regression results suggest the three most significant factors influencing performance on the posttest among ELP students were, in order of importance, (1) performance on the pretest (t 5 31.165, p 5 0.000), (2) whether or not students attended preschool (t 5 –4.774, p 5 0.000), and (3) who taught them (t 5 –2.910, p 5 0.000) (Table 3)

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Previous studies indicate that the impact of direct phonemic awareness instruction on phonemic awareness acquisition among children is large and significant; this investigation has attempted to extend previous research by focusing exclusively on the effect of direct phonemic awareness instruction with children learning English as a foreign language

Results of the study suggest that ELP students—those who received direct PA tuition—made much larger gains in every skill tested, and on

TABLE 2

Linear Regression Analysis for ELP Group and Control Group Combined

Model

Unstandardized coefficients

Standardized coefficient b t Significance B

Standard error

Pretest total 0.855 0.024 0.785 35.100 0.000 ELP/control –14.056 1.575 –0.190 –8.923 0.000 Preschool –10.836 1.819 –0.133 –5.957 0.000 School type 1.200 0.639 0.039 1.877 0.061 Class size –0.081 0.079 –0.021 –1.027 0.305 Note: R 5 0.0851(a); a 5 dependent variable: posttest total; R25 0.725, adjusted R 2 5 0.723; standard error of estimate 5 13.06065.

overall test scores, than students in the control group who attended their regular English language classes Further, ANCOVA and linear regres-sion analysis findings suggest ELP classes may have helped students who did not attend preschool close the gap on those who did, in terms of developing their literacy and numeracy skills

These findings could have very practical implications for language education in disadvantaged areas or foreign (as opposed to second) language scenarios in general, especially if future research indicates that such early gains translate into greater literacy rates and language acquisition for students later on Based on the results of the current study, and others such as Takeda (2002), educators and administrators may do well to note the apparent efficacy of direct phonemic instruction

as part of the ‘‘main highway’’ (Brooks, 2003, p 6) to literacy, particularly where access to the target language is limited

ANCOVA and linear regression analysis results indicate ELP students taught by their regular teacher (who had previously received training from the foreign trainer) did significantly better than pupils taught directly by the foreign trainer, or those who received some form of team-teaching involving both

These findings point to some intriguing conclusions regarding the role of the foreign expert in educational development projects First, education officials, school heads, and certainly local teachers themselves, may wish to note that exotic (and expensive) native-speaker teachers, even those with impressive credentials, are not, by default, more effective solutions for their students than trained local educators Further, results indicate that educational administrators, if desiring to make use of outside expertise, may find the most effective approach is a cascade model of training, in which the trainer imparts information, knowledge, or practice to the teacher, which then cascades down to other teachers or, in this case, students Whatever the expertise level of the trainer who is currently parachuting in from the outside, the findings of this study intimate

TABLE 3

Linear Regression Analysis for ELP Group Alone

Model

Unstandardized coefficients

Standardized coef-ficients b t Significance

B Standard error

Pretest total 0.851 0.027 0.779 31.165 0.000 Teacher –1.802 0.619 –0.068 –2.910 0.004 Class size –0.148 0.084 –0.041 –1.762 0.079 Preschool –9.989 2.092 –0.119 –4.774 0.000 School type 1.183 0.657 0.042 1.799 0.073 Note: R 5 0.835(a); a 5 dependent variable: posttest total; R 2 50.697; adjusted R 2 5 0.695; standard error of estimate 5 13.40277.

that it is very difficult indeed to substitute for the practical knowledge of

a group of students and their language learning needs possessed by their regular, local teacher

THE AUTHORS

Robert C Johnson has worked as an ESOL teacher and teacher trainer in Korea, China, Mexico, Malaysia, and the Pacific Islands He is currently the Director of Assessment at the College of the Marshall Islands, Majuro, Marshall Islands.

M Gregory Tweedie has worked as an ESOL teacher and teacher trainer in Canada, China, Singapore, and Malaysia He is currently working as a teacher consultant with CfBT Education and the Singapore Ministry of Education.

REFERENCES

Asmah, Haji Omar (1992) The linguistic scenery in Malaysia Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka.

Azman, H (2002) Multilingual practices in rural Malaysia and their impact on English language learning in rural education In A Kirkpatrick (Ed.), Englishes in Asia: Communication, identity, power and education (pp 303–311) Melbourne, Australia: Language Australia.

Brooks, G (2003) Sound sense: The phonics element of the National Literacy Strategy A report to the Department for Education and Skills [electronic version] Retrieved 18 September 2007 from http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/pdf/literacy/gbrooks_ phonics.pdf.

Curriculum Development Centre, Malaysia Ministry of Education (2006) Curriculum specifications for English [electronic version] Retrieved 9 October

2007 from http://www.ppk.kpm.my/english/index.htm.

Ehri, L C., Nunes, S R., Stahl, S A., & Willows, D M (2001) Systematic phonics instruction helps students learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel’s meta-analysis Review of Educational Research, 71(3), 250–287 doi:10.3102/ 00346543071003393.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000) Report of the National Reading Panel Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction: Reports

of the subgroups (NIH Publication No 00-4754) Washington, DC: U.S Government Printing Office.

Stuart, M (1999) Getting ready for reading: Early phoneme awareness and phonics teaching improves reading and spelling in inner-city second language learners British Journal of Educational Psychology, 69(4), 587–605 doi:10.1348/ 000709999157914.

Takeda, C (2002) The application of phonics to the teaching of reading in junior high school English classes in Japan TESL Reporter, 35(2), 16–36.

Tan, P K W (2005) The medium-of-instruction debate in Malaysia English as a Malaysian language? Language Problems & Language Planning, 29(1), 47–66 doi:10.1075/lplp.29.1.04tan.