Effects of Synthetic Phonics and Whole Language Methods of Teaching Reading on Iranian Elementary EFL Learners’ Spelling and Pronunciation
الموضوعات : نشریه مطالعات آموزش زبان انگلیسیHadi 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
الکلمات المفتاحية: Pronunciation, spelling, : Reading skill, Whole Language approach, phonics approach, balanced approach,
ملخص المقالة :
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.
Anderson, N, J. (2003). Reading. In D. Nunan (Ed.). Practical English Language Teaching. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Applied Educational Research Scheme (AERS) (2008). How do schools in Scotland measure their own progress? AERS feedback to schools. Retrieved June 19, 2018, from: http://www. ces.ed.ac.uk/pdf%20files/AERS_FB1.PDF
Bald, J. (2007). Using phonics to teach reading and spelling. London: Paul Chapman.
Beard, R. (1990). Developing reading (2nd ed.). Sevenoaks: Hodder and Stoughton.
Blake, D. and Hanley, V. (1995). Dictionary of educational terms, Aldershot, Arena.
Cattell, J. M. (1886). The time it takes to see and name objects. Mind (11): 524–538.
Duke, N.K., Pressley, M., & Hilden, K. (2004). Difficulties with reading comprehension. In C.A. Stone, E.R. Silliman, B.J. Ehren, & K. Apel (Eds.). Handbook of language and literacy: Development and disorders. New York & London: Guilford Press.
Ehri, L., C. (2003). Systematic phonics instruction: Findings of the National Reading Panel.
Feitelson, D. (1988). Facts and fads in beginning reading: A cross-language perspective. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Goodman, K.S. (1967). Reading a psychological guessing game in Frederick V.
Goodman, K. S. (1994). Reading, writing, and written texts: A transactional socio psycholinguistic view. In R.B. Ruddell, M. R. Ruddell, & H. Singer (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (4th ed., pp. 1093-1130). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Goswami, U. (2005). Synthetic phonics and learning to read: A cross‐language perspective. Educational Psychology 21(4): 273-282.
Gough, P. B. (1972). One second of reading. In J. F. Kavanagh & I. G. Mattingly (Eds.), Language by ear and by eye: The relationship between speech and reading. Oxford, England: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology P.
Grabe, W. (1988). Reassessing the tem interactive. In P. Carrell, J. Devine & D. Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading (pp. 56-70). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Grace, M. (2007). What is whole language? Retrieved June 9, 2018, from: http://falcon.tamucc.edu/~mgrace/m_grace/WL.html
Honig, W. (1996). Teaching our children to read: The role of skills in a comprehensive reading program. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Jeynes, W. and Littell, S. (2000). A meta-analysis of studies examining the effect of whole language instruction on the literacy of low-SES students. Elementary School Journal, 101 (1), 21-33.
Johnston, R. S. and J. E. Watson (2005). The effects of synthetic phonics teaching on reading and spelling development: a seven year longitudinal study. S. E. E. Department. Edinburgh.
Jung, D-B. (1998). A direction of teaching written English skills. Primary English Education, 4(2), 5-47
Kelly, G. J. (2008). Inquiry, activity, and epistemic practice. In R. Duschl & R. Grandy (Eds.) Teaching scientific inquiry: Recommendations for research and implementation (pp. 99-117; 288-291). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Krashen, S. (1999). Three arguments against Whole Language and why they are wrong. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Krashen, S. (2002). Defending whole language: The limits of phonics instruction and the efficacy of whole language instruction. Reading Improvement, 39(1), 32-42. Retrieved from: http://www.projectinnovation.biz/ri_2015.html
Lee, Y. (2004). Phonemic awareness of Korean primary school students. Foreign language education, 11(3), 103-131.
Mc Donough, J. and Shaw, C. (1993). Materials and methods in ELT. Oxford: OUP. Pressley, M. (2006). Reading instruction that works: The case for balanced teaching. New York & London: Guilford Press.
Morrison, J., & Mosser, L. (1993). Whole language and traditional reading instruction: A comparison of teacher views and techniques. ERIC Reproduction Service No. 365 963.
Morrow, L.M; Gambrell, L.B & Pressley, M. (2003). Best practices in literacy instruction. New York & London: Guilford Press.
NCTE. (1999). NCTE position statement on reading. [Electronic Version].Retrieved February 24, 2018 from: http://www.ncte.org/positions/reading.shtml
National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) (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 (NIH Publication No. 00–4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/smallbook.cfm
Nuttall, C. (1996). Teaching Reading Skills in a foreign language. Oxford: Heinemann.
Pressley, M. (2002). Reading instruction that works: The case for balanced teaching. NewYork, NY: Guilford Press.
Pressley, M., Roehrig, A., Bogner, K., Raphael, & L. M., Doleza, S. (2002). Balanced literacy instruction. Focus on Exceptional Children, 34(5), 1-13.
RAND Reading Study Group. (2002). Reading for understanding: Toward an R & D program in reading comprehension. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
Rasinski, T.V., Padak, N.D., & Fawcett, G, (2010). Teaching children who find reading difficult. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Reutxel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B. (2000). Teaching children to read: From basals to books (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Merrill.
Reyhner, J. (2003). The reading wars: Phonics versus Whole language. Retrieved February 9, 2018 from: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/Reading_Wars.html
Rumelhart, D.E. (1980). In R.J. Spiro, et al. (Ed.), Schemata: The building blocks of cognition (pp. 123-56).
Stahl, S. & Kuhn, M. (1995). Does whole language or instruction matched to learning styles help children learn to read? School Psychology Review, 24(3). Retrieved June 19, 2018, from EBSCOhost.
Stahl, S.A. Duffy-Hester A.M. & Stahl, K.A.D. (1998). Everything you wanted to know about phonics (but were afraid to ask). Reading Research Quarterly, 33, 338-335.
Tsiadimos, S. (2015). Early EFL literacy introduction: A comparative study of Whole-word and systematic phonics approaches. Unpublished master’s thesis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, English Language and Literature Department, Central Macedonia, Greece.
Watson, D. (1989). Defining and describing whole language. Elementary School Journal, 90, 129-141
