The Effect of Phonemic Awareness Training on Phonemic Awareness Understanding and Spelling Ability of Third Graders

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of phonemic awareness training on phonemic awareness understanding and spelling ability of third graders after six weeks of phonemic awareness training. The subjects, 14 girls and 4 boys, were from one heterogeneously-grouped, regular education classroom in a small northeastern Illinois village. The Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation and a writing sample evaluated using the Index of Control Formula were administered as a pretest/post test measurement in the study. Five low achieving students were selected from the scores of the Y oppSinger Test of Phoneme Segmentation. For a period of six weeks the children were instructed in phonemic awareness training activities. The pretest and post test scores were analyzed to measure gain in phonemic awareness understanding and the Index of Control from writing samples. A criterion score of 7 5 % was set for the post test scores on the Y opp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation. The results indicated a significant difference in their phonemic awareness understanding. The coefficient of correlation was calculated on the pretest and post test scores on the Index of Control Formula using the nonindependent t test. The t critical value was then compared for the two-tailed test at the .05 level of significance. The results indicated no significant difference was measured on the writing sample.