The diploma thesis is elaborated on a special pedagogical topic. The topic of the thesis is Diagnosis of phonemic awareness in preschool children, while the subject of the diploma thesis is the assessment of the level of phonemic awareness, specifically the ability to isolate sounds. The work is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part contains four chapters dealing with the phonetic-phonological level, phonemic awareness, phonetic-phonological level in preschool children and the diagnosis of phonemic awareness. The last, fifth chapter is the practical part of the thesis. The aim of the research is to find out the ability to isolate the first and last vowel of words in preschool children and at the same time to find out whether there is a difference between children attending kindergarten and preparatory class of primary school. For a selected research sample of children attending a regular kindergarten and a preparatory class in a regular primary school, the Voice Isolation Test was performed using a standardized MABEL test battery, so the testing method was used. The research survey showed that about a third of preschool children are able to isolate sounds at the beginning of the school year, but there is a significant difference between kindergarten and preparatory class...

The aim of this study is to highlight pre-school teachers perceptions and experiences of phonological awareness teaching to see if there is consistency with previous research. As well as whether the preschool teachers consider themselves to have sufficient knowledge to conduct quality teaching in the subject. The method used is qualitative semi-structured interviews with ten active preschool teachers, where they shared their experiences of teaching linked to phonological awareness. Phenomenography is used as a research approach in the study, which involves paying attention to variations in a group of people around a specific phenomenon. The resulting results are analyzed and printed based on the categories, so-called outcome rooms, that were noticed. The results indicate that the preschool teachers descriptions of the teaching linked to the phonological awareness do not completely match the results of the research in order to give children the best possible conditions to encounter the written language. As the teaching tends to include activities at the lower levels of phonological awareness, while research believes that teaching at the higher level, so-called phonemic awareness, is necessary. However, a consensus can be seen in the pre-school teachers descriptions of success factors, which mainly contain activities at the phoneme level. Furthermore, it appears that the preschool teachers express that they do not have sufficient knowledge to conduct high-quality teaching, and that the knowledge that exists tends to be based on experience only. The conclusion is that more scientifically based knowledge, especially in phonemic awareness, is needed for preschool teachers to feel secure in conducting quality teaching. / Syftet med denna studie är att belysa förskollärares uppfattningar och erfarenheter av undervisning inom fonologisk medvetenhet för att se om det finns en samstämmighet med tidigare forskning. Samt om förskollärarna anser sig ha tillräckliga kunskaper för att bedriva kvalitativ undervisning inom ämnet. Metoden som används är kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med tio aktiva förskollärare, där de fick delge sina erfarenheter av undervisningen kopplat till den fonologiska medvetenheten. Fenomenografi används som forskningsansats i studien, vilket handlar om att uppmärksamma variationer hos en grupp människor kring ett specifikt fenomen. Resultatet som framkommer analyseras och skrivs ut utifrån de kategorier, så kallade utfallsrum, som uppmärksammades. Resultatet indikerar på att förskollärarnas beskrivningar av undervisningen kopplat till den fonologiska medvetenheten inte helt stämmer överens med forskningens resultat för att ge barn bästa möjliga förutsättningar att möta skriftspråket. Då undervisningen tenderar att innehålla aktiviteter på den fonologiska medvetenhetens lägre nivåer, medan forskningen anser att undervisning på den högre nivån, så kallad fonemisk medvetenhet, är nödvändig. En samstämmighet kan dock ses i förskollärarnas beskrivningar av framgångsfaktorer, som i huvudsak innehåller aktiviteter på fonemnivå. Vidare framkommer det att förskollärarna uttrycker att de inte har tillräckliga kunskaper för att bedriva kvalitativ undervisning, och att den kunskap som finns tenderar att endast vara erfarenhetsbaserad.  Slutsatsen är att mer vetenskapligt grundad kunskap, i synnerhet inom fonemisk medvetenhet behövs för att förskollärarna ska känna en trygghet i att bedriva undervisning med hög kvalitet.

No description available.

Arising from the increasing demands of the twenty-first century workplace, concern over learner reading performance is at the forefront of national education. The increasing demands have raised the literacy bar for learners and subsequently, schools have been forced to accommodate instruction for these increased expectations. Successful reading requires the learner to incorporate a number of reading skills in appropriate ways. Oral reading fluency and reading comprehension are identified as components in effectively gaining meaning from text. A reciprocal relationship exist between the two that allows one to comprehend more thoroughly as one reads more fluently. Additionally, as one reads more fluently, one‟s ability to comprehend also improves. This is due to the fact that one‟s brain is more capable in processing text when one is able to read fluently. Therefore, when one automatically identifies words one is able to comprehend text more completely. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a linear relationship exists between Grade 4 learners‟ oral reading fluency on different types of tests and their reading comprehension. The study was conducted within a positivistic research paradigm. A one-shot crosssectional survey design was used to determine the relationship between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension of Grade 4 learners in selected schools in Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province. Five schools, representing the different quintiles, were selected to participate in the study. A total of 406 Grade 4 learners made up the study population. Two tests were developed and validated in order to assess the learners‟ oral reading fluency and reading comprehension. The data was analysed by means of descriptive statistics as well as Pearson product-moment correlations. The results indicate that learners in rural schools could only read at 52 words per minute (wpm) which meant that they could be grouped in the 10th percentile. With regard to reading comprehension the learners in the rural areas scored an average of 54% on the first reading comprehension test. Their results on the second comprehension test indicated that they experienced difficulties with inference questions. The results indicated that learners in urban schools read at 107.5 words per minute (wpm) which meant that they could be grouped between the 50th and 75th percentile. In their first reading comprehension test they scored an average of 78%. Their results on the second comprehension test indicated that they experienced difficulties with interpretation questions. Pearson product moment correlations indicated a practically significant difference between rural and urban schools on oral reading fluency and reading comprehension with urban schools outperforming rural schools. Overall, the results indicated a practically significant relationship of r = 0.69 between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension. The findings of this study should be noted by teachers as well as be addressed in interventions as a matter of urgency. / MEd (Learner Support), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Arising from the increasing demands of the twenty-first century workplace, concern over learner reading performance is at the forefront of national education. The increasing demands have raised the literacy bar for learners and subsequently, schools have been forced to accommodate instruction for these increased expectations. Successful reading requires the learner to incorporate a number of reading skills in appropriate ways. Oral reading fluency and reading comprehension are identified as components in effectively gaining meaning from text. A reciprocal relationship exist between the two that allows one to comprehend more thoroughly as one reads more fluently. Additionally, as one reads more fluently, one‟s ability to comprehend also improves. This is due to the fact that one‟s brain is more capable in processing text when one is able to read fluently. Therefore, when one automatically identifies words one is able to comprehend text more completely. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a linear relationship exists between Grade 4 learners‟ oral reading fluency on different types of tests and their reading comprehension. The study was conducted within a positivistic research paradigm. A one-shot crosssectional survey design was used to determine the relationship between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension of Grade 4 learners in selected schools in Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province. Five schools, representing the different quintiles, were selected to participate in the study. A total of 406 Grade 4 learners made up the study population. Two tests were developed and validated in order to assess the learners‟ oral reading fluency and reading comprehension. The data was analysed by means of descriptive statistics as well as Pearson product-moment correlations. The results indicate that learners in rural schools could only read at 52 words per minute (wpm) which meant that they could be grouped in the 10th percentile. With regard to reading comprehension the learners in the rural areas scored an average of 54% on the first reading comprehension test. Their results on the second comprehension test indicated that they experienced difficulties with inference questions. The results indicated that learners in urban schools read at 107.5 words per minute (wpm) which meant that they could be grouped between the 50th and 75th percentile. In their first reading comprehension test they scored an average of 78%. Their results on the second comprehension test indicated that they experienced difficulties with interpretation questions. Pearson product moment correlations indicated a practically significant difference between rural and urban schools on oral reading fluency and reading comprehension with urban schools outperforming rural schools. Overall, the results indicated a practically significant relationship of r = 0.69 between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension. The findings of this study should be noted by teachers as well as be addressed in interventions as a matter of urgency. / MEd (Learner Support), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In South Africa, the topic of reading has been of great interest on the development of language since it has been estimated that 12 million learners will go through the education system per year. A key concern for all these learners is language. The majority of South African learners do not speak English as their home language, yet the dominant language of learning and teaching (LoLT) is English. It is important for these learners to become fluent in the LoLT as the future of education is dependent upon it. South Africa has been struggling since 2001 to implement a programme in schools that will improve the Literacy abilities of learners. An in-depth study was undertaken to determine whether the THRASS methodology would possibly improve the reading and spelling abilities of Grade 2 English second learners at an inner city school in Pretoria. The research explored the reading and spelling difficulties encountered by these learners. A profile of the Grade 2 English second language learner was compiled. An understanding of how the THRASS programme works has been included. The results from the research indicated that the reading abilities of the Grade 2 learners had improved, however, there was not a significant difference in their spelling abilities. / Inclusive Education / M. Ed. (Inclusive Education)

This diploma final project deals with prevention of dyslexia in kindergarten. Teoretical part has three chapters. In the first part, there is a short survey of the development literacy and definition of foundations of literacy like phonemic awareness and letter knowledge. The second part describes the world of preschooler. There is a short characterization of development of child at this age. The last chapter in theoretical part is called Prevention of Dyslexia. Practical part is based on the questionnaire for teachers. The questionnaire was originally created for the purpose of the international longitudinal study ELDEL ("Establishing the Foundations of Literacy in European Languages"). The aim of this thesis is a bit different from the longitudinal study. The objective of this thesis lay in the description of the structure of teacher's practices in prevention of dyslexia, not just in literacy foundations development and find out, which activities teachers prefer. If they are inspired by czech tradition or if they know and prefer outland views of preventiv dyslexia.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Renan de Almeida Sargiani.pdf: 1879594 bytes, checksum: 30d53cbb220f22cadcfb3ef6f994cefd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-01-29 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Earlier studies showed that reading performance depends on phonemic awareness skills and visual attention span (VAS). Phonemic awareness refers to sensitivity and intentional control over the smallest speech sounds, i.e., phonemes. Visual attention span refers to the amount of distinct visual elements (letters) that can be processed simultaneously within a given set. There are hardly any studies on these two skills and their role in reading performance among Brazilian Portuguese speakers. This study aims at verifying (1) the existence of relationships between the skills of VAS and phonemic awareness and their relations with the reading performance of Brazilian children and (2) whether these relations would modify during their schooling years. The sample was made up of 48 students (1st, 3rd and 5th grade) from a public elementary school in Sao Paulo (Brazil). Children were assessed in three sessions through a battery of tasks which included single word reading, phonemic awareness, VAS, nonverbal IQ, verbal short-term memory and letter identification threshold. Results showed that VAS and phonemic awareness correlated with performance in reading of regular and irregular words and nonwords from 1st to 5th grade of elementary school. They also indicated that VAS and phonemic awareness play a more important role at the beginning of the learning of reading, i.e., in 1st grade, but continue to be of importance to reading ability in 3rd and 5th grade especially in reading of nonwords. It was also observed that there is a development of reading skills, phonemic awareness and visual attention span with the progress in schooling / Estudos anteriores demonstraram que o desempenho em leitura depende das habilidades de consciência fonêmica e de amplitude visuo-atencional (AVA). A consciência fonêmica se refere à sensibilidade e controle intencional dos menores sons da fala, isto é, os fonemas. A amplitude visuo-atencional se refere à quantidade de elementos visuais distintos (letras) que podem ser processados simultaneamente dentro de um conjunto. Ainda são escassas as pesquisas sobre essas duas habilidades e seu papel no desempenho em leitura em falantes do português do Brasil. No presente estudo, verificou-se (1) a existência de relações entre as habilidades de AVA e de consciência fonêmica e o desempenho em leitura em crianças brasileiras e (2) se essas relações se modificavam com o progresso na escolarização. Participaram desse estudo 48 alunos do 1º ano, 3º ano e 5º ano do ensino fundamental de uma escola pública de São Paulo. As crianças foram avaliadas em três sessões por meio de uma bateria que incluía tarefas de leitura de palavras isoladas, tarefas de consciência fonêmica, tarefas de EVA, Q.I. não verbal, memória verbal de curto prazo e limiar de identificação de letras. Demonstrou-se que a AVA e a consciência fonêmica se correlacionam com o desempenho em leitura de palavras regulares, irregulares e pseudopalavras desde o 1º até o 5º ano do ensino fundamental. Os resultados indicam que a AVA e a consciência fonêmica desempenham um papel mais importante no 1º ano da aprendizagem da leitura, mas continuam tendo um papel relevante no 3º ano e no 5º ano principalmente na leitura de pseudopalavras. Observou-se também que ocorre uma evolução das habilidades de leitura, consciência fonêmica e amplitude visuoatencional com o progresso na escolarização

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciene Aparecida Felipe Siccherino.pdf: 4097771 bytes, checksum: 1814d38f941ca9f10beba1d3fda6991c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Previous studies have shown that intervention in phonemic awareness associated with letter-name knowledge is very important for learning to read because of the letter name is heard in the pronunciation of many words and representing the phonemes in a systematic way in the spelling of words the graphemes give to the phoneme some materiality. The present study investigated whether the instruction in phonemic awareness with correspondence activities between letters and phonemes, the formation of pseudowords, and pseudowords segmentation using moveable alphabet and the support of pictures of phonemic articulation, facilitate and accelerate the reading and the writing of words. Participated in this study 43 children from kindergarten in a private school located in the ABC Paulista, São Paulo, Brazil. Data collection consisted in five stages: Selection of participants; Pretest; Intervention Program, Post-test 1 (applied one day after the intervention sessions); Post-test 2 (applied seven days after the intervention sessions). The participants were randomly assigned to two groups: an intervention group and a control group. Children in the intervention group participated of educational activities in correspondences between letters and phonemes, teaching of pseudowords and pseudowords segmentation in phonemes. Children from the control group did not participate of the intervention activities and remained in classrooms with the regular activities of the school. Results indicated that systematic instruction of the correspondence between letters and phonemes, the formation of pseudowords and pseudowords segmentation was highly significant to develop ability of reading and writing pseudowords and real words. Based on the theory of Ehri (2005) the children were in the pre-alphabetic phase at baseline. Following the intervention activities the children in the intervention group (IG) had a significant progress in reading and writing, which allowed their movement to complete alphabetic phase, during post-test 1 and phase during post-test 2. Conversely, some children in the control group (CG) remained in the pre-alphabetic post-test 1 and post-test 2 while other children begin to moving to the partial alphabetic phase. It was possible to observe a strong correlation between the ability of phonemic segmentation and the reading and the writing of pseudowords and real words / Estudos anteriores demonstraram que a intervenção em consciência fonêmica associada ao conhecimento do nome das letras do alfabeto tem grande importância para a aprendizagem da leitura porque o nome da letra é escutado na pronúncia de muitas palavras e ao representarem os fonemas de forma sistemática na grafia das palavras, os grafemas dão ao fonema certa materialidade. O presente estudo verificou se a instrução em consciência fonêmica com atividades de correspondência entre as letras e os fonemas, a formação de pseudopalavras, e a segmentação de pseudopalavras utilizando letras móveis e imagens de articulação fonêmica como apoio, facilitam e aceleram a leitura e a escrita de palavras. Participaram deste estudo 43 crianças da educação infantil de uma escola da rede privada localizada na região do ABC Paulista, São Paulo, Brasil. A coleta de dados foi composta por cinco momentos: Seleção dos participantes; Pré-teste; Programa de Intervenção; Pós-teste 1 (aplicado um dia após as sessões de intervenção; Pós-teste 2 (aplicado sete dias após as sessões de intervenção). Foram formados dois grupos de forma aleatória: um grupo de intervenção e um grupo controle. As crianças do grupo de intervenção participaram de atividades de ensino sobre as correspondências entre fonemas e letras, a formação de pseudopalavras e a segmentação de pseudopalavras em fonemas. As crianças do grupo controle não participaram das atividades de intervenção e permaneceram nas salas de aula com as atividades regulares da escola. Os resultados indicaram que a instrução sistemática da correspondência entre fonemas e letras, a formação de pseudopalavras e a segmentação de pseudopalavras em fonemas foi altamente significativa para desenvolver a habilidade de leitura e escrita de pseudopalavras e de palavras reais. Com base na teoria de Ehri (2005) as crianças estavam na fase pré-alfabética no início do estudo. Após as atividades de intervenção as crianças do grupo de intervenção (GI) tiveram um avanço significativo em leitura e escrita, o que permitiu o movimento delas para a fase alfabética completa, no pós-teste 1 e no pós-teste 2. Em contrapartida, algumas crianças do grupo controle (GC) permaneceram na fase pré-alfabética no pós-teste 1 e no pós-teste 2 e outras começaram a mover-se para a fase alfabética parcial. Foi possível observar forte correlação entre a habilidade de segmentação fonêmica e a leitura e escrita de pseudopalavras e palavras reais

Esta dissertação é composta por dois estudos conduzidos a fim de compreender de maneira integrada os fatores cognitivos/neuropsicológicos e ambientais relacionados ao desempenho em leitura (precisão e fluência) de crianças. A amostra foi composta por 185 alunos, 78 (42,2%) meninos e 107 (57,8%) meninas, do 4º ano do Ensino Fundamental de escolas públicas de Porto Alegre e Belo Horizonte. No primeiro estudo, foram investigadas as variáveis cognitivas/neuropsicológicas e ambientais que melhor explicam o desempenho de leitura (precisão e fluência). Nas análises de regressão linear observou-se a consciência fonológica e a nomeação seriada rápida (NSR) como melhores preditores na precisão de leitura, apoiando a hipótese de que o processamento fonológico é um contribuinte fundamental para a leitura no nível lexical. As variáveis ambientais importantes para leitura de palavras irregulares e fluência em leitura foram o nível socioeconômico (NSE) e o índice de desempenho (IDEB) da escola de origem. No segundo estudo, comparou-se o desempenho neuropsicológico, características comportamentais e ambientais de 3 grupos de crianças provenientes do estudo 1: com dificuldades de leitura/escrita (DLE); com dificuldade combinada de leitura/escrita e aritmética (DC) e sem dificuldades de aprendizagem (SD). Os grupos DLE e DC apresentaram desempenho estatisticamente inferior ao das crianças sem dificuldades de aprendizagem em consciência fonológica, NSR e memória de trabalho fonológica. O grupo DC apresentou desempenho inferior ao do grupo com DLE apenas em fluência verbal ortográfica. As crianças com dificuldades acadêmicas (DLE e DC) apresentaram maior escore no questionário de características de desatenção e hiperatividade e menor NSE. Os resultados contribuem para a compreensão de modelos multifatoriais (cognitivo/neuropsicológico, comportamental e ambiental) no desempenho da leitura e nas dificuldades de aprendizagem. Ambos os estudos mostram que a leitura no nível da palavra está mais relacionada às habilidades de processamento fonológico do que as habilidades visuoespaciais ou funções executivas, nas crianças avaliadas no quarto ano. É importante considerar a inserção de atividades para promover estas habilidades no currículo no Ensino Infantil e Ensino Fundamental como medida preventiva (primária e secundária) de dificuldades de leitura. / This dissertation consists of two studies conducted to understand cognitive, neuropsychological and environmental factors related to children’s reading performance (accuracy and fluency) in an integrated way. The sample consisted of 185 4th grade students, 78 (42.2%) boys and 107 (57.8%) girls, from public elementary schools from Porto Alegre city and Belo Horizonte city. In the first study, we investigated the cognitive and environmental variables that best explain the reading performance (accuracy and fluency). In linear regression analyzes observed phonological awareness and rapid serial nomination as best predictors of the accuracy, supporting the hypothesis that phonological processing is a key contributor to the reading on the lexical level. Important environmental variables for reading irregular words and fluency in reading were the socioeconomic status (SES) and the index of Brazilian education. In the second study, we compared the neuropsychological performance, behavioral and environmental characteristics of 3 groups of children from the study 1: difficulties with reading / writing (DLE); combined with reading / writing and arithmetic (DC) and without difficulty (SD). DLE and DC groups had statistically lower performance than children without learning difficulties in phonological awareness, NSR and phonological working memory. The DC group had underperformed the group with DLE only orthographic verbal fluency. Children with academic difficulties (DLE and DC) had higher scores on the questionnaire of inattention and hyperactivity characteristics and were from lower SES families. The results contribute to the understanding of multifactorial models for reading performance and learning difficulties, given the performance results from the interaction among different factors (cognitive/neuropsychological, behavioral and environmental). Both studies showed that the word reading level is more consistent related to phonological processing skills than visuospatial abilities and executive functions in this 4th grade sample. It is important to consider the inclusion of these skills in the curriculum in Infant and Primary Education as a preventive measure (primary and secondary) of reading difficulties.