<p>Literacy is an important part of communication. Phonological awareness, i.e. the ability to recognise the sound units of language and to manipulate them, has been found to be crucial in literacy acquisition.</p><p>In 2005 the development of a communication device, a talking joystick called the PhonicStick, started at The School of Computing at the University of Dundee in Scotland. The main focus with the project was to help children with physical disabilities to create spoken words by blending sounds together on the PhonicStick. It was also hypothesized that the PhonicStick could act as a support to literacy learning with typically developing children.</p><p>The aim of the present study was to investigate if a group of 10 typically developing South African 5-6 year old children could learn how to use the PhonicStick in three sessions and to see if their phonological awareness improved by using it. The training with the PhonicStick took place over a period of three weeks. The participants’ phonological awareness was screened before and after the sessions with two sub-tests of The Phonological Awareness Test (PHAT). In addition, their ability to produce sounds and words with the PhonicStick was tested.</p><p>The results showed that all the participants appeared to be interested in the PhonicStick and that they found it relatively easy to manoeuvre. The participants’ ability to produce sounds and words on the PhonicStick showed a statistically significant improvement from the first session to the third session. The participants’ phonological awareness skills did not appear to improve after three sessions. More time is needed to find out if this training would result in improved phonological awareness skills.</p>

Literacy is an important part of communication. Phonological awareness, i.e. the ability to recognise the sound units of language and to manipulate them, has been found to be crucial in literacy acquisition. In 2005 the development of a communication device, a talking joystick called the PhonicStick, started at The School of Computing at the University of Dundee in Scotland. The main focus with the project was to help children with physical disabilities to create spoken words by blending sounds together on the PhonicStick. It was also hypothesized that the PhonicStick could act as a support to literacy learning with typically developing children. The aim of the present study was to investigate if a group of 10 typically developing South African 5-6 year old children could learn how to use the PhonicStick in three sessions and to see if their phonological awareness improved by using it. The training with the PhonicStick took place over a period of three weeks. The participants’ phonological awareness was screened before and after the sessions with two sub-tests of The Phonological Awareness Test (PHAT). In addition, their ability to produce sounds and words with the PhonicStick was tested. The results showed that all the participants appeared to be interested in the PhonicStick and that they found it relatively easy to manoeuvre. The participants’ ability to produce sounds and words on the PhonicStick showed a statistically significant improvement from the first session to the third session. The participants’ phonological awareness skills did not appear to improve after three sessions. More time is needed to find out if this training would result in improved phonological awareness skills.

The effectiveness of teaching synthetic phonics to EFL students Abstract The diploma considers the effectiveness of systematic and explicit Synthetic Phonics teaching methods in the EFL learning environment. The theoretical section examines foreign language methodology - the field of reading acquisition in young learners, especially English language pronunciation. It studies how systematic explicit Phonics approach can help in learning how to read and pronounce words correctly. It explores the similarities and differences between teaching Synthetic and Analytic Phonics, and compares them. Furthermore it discusses whether synthetic phonics is useful not only for native English speakers, but also for EFL students. The practical part focuses on testing two groups of children who have different experiences of phonics. The data were collected in Prague and the Hradec Králové region. There were 62 students tested out of whom 33 were in a control group and 29 were taught using a systematic Phonics approach. A specially designed test consisting of two different activities was applied. It tested word reading, non-word pronouncing and sight word recognition. The aim of the research was to find out whether explicit Synthetic Phonics teaching instruction helps not only native English speakers, but also EFL learners in...

The effectiveness of teaching synthetic phonics to EFL students Abstract This diploma thesis deals with the effectiveness of systematic and explicit Synthetic Phonics teaching methods in the EFL learning environment. The theoretical part of the text investigates the similarities and differences between teaching Synthetic and Analytic Phonics. Whether synthetic phonics is essential not only for native English speakers, but also for EFL students is examined. Furthermore, it introduces the changes and development in phonics teaching in a historical context. The practical section describes the test preparation and presents how the research methodology was applied. It also examines the data collected from testing four groups of Prague primary school children who have different experience of phonics. Last but not least, the empirical section presents the results of 60 students' readings and analyses their performances concluding with an assessment as to whether explicit Synthetic Phonics teaching instruction helps EFL students in pronouncing words or not. Key words: synthetic phonics, analytic phonics, phonemes, graphemes, pronunciation and articulation, spelling, reading, writing