National and international studies indicate that the preparation of teachers to teach reading is inconsistent across universities worldwide. Teacher preparation programmes lack rigorous research based findings and recommendations point to the fact that evidence–based research and integrated approaches should be incorporated to address this inconsistency. There is a need for a comprehensive curriculum to guide pre–service teachers toward a coherent knowledge base for the effective teaching of reading as teachers do not have an understanding of what to teach or how to teach it. Literature identifies that the inclusion, and explicit teaching of the five reading literacy components (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension) form the essential components which should be instructed to enable teachers to teach reading. This study analysed a teacher preparation programme to identify what reading literacy components are taught as well as how the reading literacy components are taught within the programme. The results reflect that the reading literacy components are included haphazardly within the teacher preparation programme and there is no evidence–based research incorporated. It is clear that the pre–service teachers are not taught “how” to teach the reading literacy components as the science of reading is not focused on in the teacher preparation programme studied. The findings of this study support the literature base requiring teachers to be equipped with a disciplinary knowledge base to teach reading. Furthermore, teachers should be provided with a rigorous, research–based curriculum which will enable them to become expert reading literacy teachers who will be well prepared to implement research–based programmes and practices. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Thesis (Ed. S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Psychology, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 22-25).

MEd / Department of Curriculum Studies

No description available.

The diploma thesis examines the space, which is devoted to the work with the phenomena of the Russian language phonetics level, both on phonemic and prosodic levels in the selected coursebooks for teaching Russian language at lower and upper secondary schools. The theoretical part deals with the main principles of phonetics didactics and its importance and goals. Next, the approaches to teaching phonetics and the ways in which phonetics can be taught are also defined. Finally, attention is paid to the issue of interference phenomena. The theoretical part of the thesis provides the basis for the practical part of the thesis. The practical part offers the characteristics of the examined coursebooks, which is followed by the results of content analysis of coursebooks. The research focuses on the quantity, i.e. the number and frequency of assignments to form phonetic literacy, and the quality of the assignments. Both textbooks and workbooks of selected coursebooks are subjected to analysis. Methodologically, this work is based on the already realized analysis of the supervisor of this diploma thesis. The results of the analysis are presented at the very end of this part of the work and are provided first for each coursebook, then the result of the comparison of coursebooks with the results of the...

In this study, I deal with general laws or principles of Czech orthography. After the introduction, I define the smallest written unit, a grapheme in the second chapter. In the third and fourth chapters, I focus on how and where two main principles of Czech orthography manifest, and how and where they are violated. The first of these principles is the phonemic principle, ie. the principle of a one-to-one correspondence between a phoneme and a grapheme, and the second one is the morphemic principle, ie. the principle of a one-to-one correspondence between a morpheme and its written form.

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