EFFECTS OF EXPLICIT RIME- BASED PHONICS METHOD ON PRIMARY SCHOOL EFL STUDENTS‟ PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS AND WORD RECOGNITION ABILITY

Abstract

In this study attempts were made to investigate the effects of an explicit rime based phonics method on the phonological awareness and word recognition outcomes of Grade Three students at public primary schools in Hawassa. More specifically the study tried to examine the efficacy of an explicit rime based phonics method on students‘ phonological awareness at rhyme, onsetrime and phoneme levels and their accuracy and fluency in reading learned words, invented words and non-instructed or novel words. Furthermore, the study attempted to identify the phonological awareness levels and subskills/tasks that best predict students‘ word recognition development. This research project was quasi experimental in design. Data was gathered twice using tests, once before the intervention pre-test and after the intervention post-test. Pre-test and post-test mean scores were analyzed using a t-test statistical procedure, Linear Model Regression Analysis and Cohen‘s d effect size calculator. The study involved four public primary schools in Hawassa: Nigistu Fura and Tabor Primary Schools (for the pilot study), Haiq and Ethiopia Tikdem (for the main study). In each school, one Grade Three section was randomly selected and assigned into either experimental or control group. The main participants of the study were two sections of Grade Three students (N=92) from the two primary schools. Beginning reading lessons embedded in word study and vocabulary activities with an explicit rime-based phonics method was prepared and used with the experimental group. The word study and vocabulary activities with no explicit rime based phonics method from Grade Three English textbooks was used with the control group. The intervention was conducted by the actual Grade Three English teachers who were trained by the researcher prior to the intervention. Both groups received two hours of extra lessons for 16 weeks. The effect of an explicit rime based phonics method on students‘ phonological awareness and word recognition outcomes was examined through the pre and post phonological awareness (PAT) and word recognition (WR) tests. The results of the pretest showed that there was no significant difference in the students‘ phonological awareness and word recognition outcomes between the groups. The results of the post-test in all cases revealed that there was a significant difference between the groups in phonological awareness and word recognition outcomes with the experimental group achieved significant improvements. The Cohen‘s d output showed that the magnitude of the intervention effect in the experimental group was large for all subtests and the total phonological awareness and word recognition outcomes. Besides, the result of linear regression analysis revealed that phonological awareness at onsetrime and phoneme levels and phonological awareness sub-skills/tasks such as rime blending, phoneme deletion and phoneme substitution were found to be important predictors of students‘ word recognition development.