Can Phonics Instruction and Big Book Shared Reading in Combination Work Better Than on Their Own?
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Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Permission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the Author. Can Phonics Instruction and Big Book Shared Reading in Combination Work Better Than on Their Own? A thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Albany Campus, New Zealand. Laura Lo-Ming Tse 2011 ii Abstract The present study is an experimental study, and the purpose was to make an empirical comparison between three ways of teaching: phonics instruction, big book shared reading, and combining phonics and big book. The study involved 96 Year 2 children from three primary schools in South Auckland. Children were taught in small groups of four according to different reading ability levels (“at”, “below”, and “well- below”) after being randomly assigned into one of four conditions: phonics only (P), big book only (BB), a combination of phonics and big book (PBB), and a treatment control (C). The researcher met with the groups once a week for 30 minutes, from May to November. Children completed pre- and post-assessments of word reading, passage reading, reading comprehension, spelling, pseudoword decoding, phonemic awareness, receptive vocabulary, and math. Results from a 3-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the phonics and big book combined group outperformed the other two reading groups, and also the treatment control group in word reading, reading comprehension, decoding pseudowords, and phonemic awareness. The phonics only group outperformed the big book only group in decoding and phonemic awareness. The three ability groups (“at”, “below”, and “well-below”) responded similarly on norm- referenced tests to the different approaches used in this study. The intervention did not advantage one ability group over the other. Sub-sections of the word reading, phonemic awareness, and decoding tests were also analysed. In the word reading test, results showed that the combined group outperformed the other three groups in reading short, regular one-syllable words, and short, one-syllable, slightly irregular words. In the phonemic awareness test, the combined group outperformed the other groups in segmentation, blending, and deleting the first phoneme. In basic decoding skills, the combined group outperformed the other three groups in ability to decode consonant-vowel-consonant (cvc) pseudowords. A further analysis of weekly phonics quizzes given during the 12-week training period showed that the combined group performed better than the other three groups, and that the phonics group performed better than the shared book group. iii The findings of the present study suggest that a combination of phonics and big book shared reading is more effective way to teach reading to 6-year-olds than providing them with only phonics instruction, or only shared book experience. iv Acknowledgements Many people contributed to the making and completion of this thesis. First, I wish to thank my primary supervisor, Professor Tom Nicholson, for his thoughtful comments, critique of my work, and encouragement over the years. I am grateful for his expertise which guided me through the development and completion of the research project as a whole. Secondly, I would like to thank my co-supervisors, Professor Bill Tunmer, and Dr. Keith Greaney. Their guidance and expertise have been invaluable. I would particularly like to thank the students, teachers, principals and parents of the three primary schools for their participation and support. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to work with your students and your children. This research would not have been possible without their participation. I am also very grateful to all my friends for their continual support and encouragement throughout, especially Polly, Shanti, Louise, Isabella and June, for their love, understanding and friendship. Finally, I thank my family for their patience, unconditional love, and support. v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................ viii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. x Definitions……………...………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................. 4 1.1 Theories of learning to read ................................................................................ 4 1.2 The problem – and a possible solution ............................................................... 4 1.3 Aim and contribution .......................................................................................... 5 1.4 The contemporary New Zealand literacy context .............................................. 5 1.5 The significance of the present study ................................................................. 6 1.6 Structure of this thesis ........................................................................................ 6 Chapter 2: Literature Review ........................................................................................ 8 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 8 2.2 Part A: Theoretical perspectives ......................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Code-cipher theory .................................................................................................8 2.2.2 Sight word theory .................................................................................................10 2.2.3 Knowledge Sources Theory .................................................................................11 2.2.4 “Psycholinguistic guessing game” theory ............................................................13 2.2.5 The role of phonemic awareness ..........................................................................15 2.2.6 Syllables, onsets, rimes and phonemes ................................................................18 2.3 Part B: Instructional perspectives ..................................................................... 20 2.3.1 Book reading approach ........................................................................................20 2.3.2 Phonics and phonemic awareness ........................................................................25 2.3.3 Combining phonemic awareness, phonics, and book reading .............................29 2.3.4 Less skilled readers ..............................................................................................32 2.4 Summary .......................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 3: Method and Design .................................................................................... 35 3.1 Hypotheses ....................................................................................................... 35 3.2 Preview of the chapter ...................................................................................... 35 3.3 Participants ....................................................................................................... 36 3.4 Ethics ................................................................................................................ 37 3.5 Design ............................................................................................................... 37 3.6 Random assignment and research design ......................................................... 37 3.7 The formation of the three ability groups ......................................................... 38 3.8 Measures ........................................................................................................... 39 3.9 Weekly Quizzes ................................................................................................ 42 3.10 Procedure .......................................................................................................... 43 3.11 Phonics only instruction ................................................................................... 44 vi 3.12 Big Book only shared reading .......................................................................... 48 3.13 Phonics and Big Book combined approach ...................................................... 52 3.14 Treatment control group ................................................................................... 56 3.15 Summary .......................................................................................................... 57 Chapter 4: Results ......................................................................................................... 58 4.1 Hypotheses ....................................................................................................... 58 4.2 Description of the chapter ................................................................................ 58 4.2.1 Design ..................................................................................................................58