Effects of Synthetic Phonics and Whole Language Methods of Teaching Reading on Iranian Elementary EFL Learners’ Spelling and Pronunciation

Subject Areas : Journal of Teaching English Language Studies

Hadi Salehi ¹ , Nasim Mirdamadian ²

1 - English Department, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran
2 - English Department, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran

Received: 2023-06-06 Accepted : 2023-08-20 Published : 2023-09-19

Keywords: Pronunciation, spelling, : Reading skill, Whole Language approach, phonics approach, balanced approach,

Abstract :

There has been a fierce controversy for decades over which approach is more effective in order to achieve the best reading instruction and there is no clear answer until today. This study mainly compared the effectiveness of Whole Language, phonics, and balanced approach to develop the EFL learners’ reading in the light of spelling and pronunciation development over time. Thirty Iranian elementary EFL learners were selected from an English Language Institute in Isfahan, Iran. The participants were randomly divided into three different instructional groups, Whole Language group, phonics group, and balanced group (phonics group integrated with Whole Language group), with 10 students in each group. The students in the Whole Language group were exposed only to Whole Language method with the book Family and Friends (Starter), while those who were in the phonics group only received phonics instruction with the book Let’s Go Phonics 1. The students in the balanced group were taught through both phonics and Whole Language methods with the books Let’s Go Phonics 1 and Family and Friends (Starter). All three classes were held twice a week for 12 weeks and each class lasted 1 hour. A series of tests were designed by the researchers used to assess the participants’ word pronunciation and spelling. A series of ANOVA tests were also carried out to compare pretest and posttest scores of three instructional groups in reading spelling and pronunciation. Meanwhile, two weeks after the immediate posttest, the students were tested again in reading spelling and pronunciation. The findings suggested that for the three groups of Whole Language, phonics, and balanced methods, there were improvements on both pronunciation and spelling from pretest to immediate posttest and delayed posttest. There were also no significant differences among them on the immediate posttest, but for the delayed posttest, both phonics and balanced methods were seen to be more effective than the Whole Language method, with the slight differences between phonics and balanced groups. To sum up, this study lends its support to the synthetic phonics integrated and balanced judiciously with Whole Language approach, neither phonics nor Whole Language can be considered strong enough programs to stand alone.

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