This thesis examines the effects of phonics-emphasis Direct Instruction reading programs on the phonological processes of students with teacher-identified reading problems in nine northern and western Melbourne primary schools. The students (131 males and 75 females, mean age 9.7 years, standard deviation 1.2 years) were assigned to the treatment condition or to wait-list comparison groups. Based on the results of a program placement test of rate and accuracy, students were assigned to one of two entry points into the Corrective Reading program (A, B1). The students in the intervention group received 60-65 lessons (in groups of five to ten students) from teachers at their schools, or, for some students, at a resource centre for surrounding schools. An additional study, with younger (mean age 8.8 years) less advanced readers involved a similar design and teaching approach. The program, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, was presented to thirteen student s in two settings. When compared with a similar cohort of wait-list students, the students in each program made statistically significant and educationally important gains in such phonologically-based processes as word attack, phonemic awareness, and spelling; and, statistically significant gains, of at least moderate effect size, in phonological recoding in lexical access and phonological recoding in working memory. A further question involved the prediction (from pretest scores) of those students who would not make progress in word attack solely from the reading programs. In this thesis, only the presence or absence of the reading programs predicted improvement in word attack. The studies in this thesis contribute to the long-standing debate on how best to ensure that children learn to read; to the understanding of the relationship between phonemic awareness and reading; to an understanding of the effects of the current system on at-risk children; and, how additional or alternative approaches more attuned to the findings of reading research may improve the effectiveness of the system.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/210035 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Hempenstall, Kerin John, kerry.hempenstall@rmit.edu.au |
| Publisher | RMIT University. Health Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.rmit.edu.au/help/disclaimer, Copyright Kerin John Hempenstall |
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