The development of phonological awareness in kindergarten: preschool teachers' views and practices
Submitted by:
Maria Kreza
Abstract:
Research finding suggest that the development of phonological awareness in preschool children supports reading and writing and the development of their literacy skills and knowledge (e.g. Aidinis & Nunes, 2001; Diamanti et al., 2017; Manolitsis & Tafa, 2011; Mesmer & Williams, 2015). Preschool teachers employ practices that aim to promote phonological awareness but they do so less often compare to practices supporting other literacy skills and knowledge (e.g. Alghazo & Al-Hilawani, 2010; Bingham & Hall-Kenyon, 2013; Sandvik, van Daal & Adèr, 2014; Tafa, Chlapana & Loizou, 2013). Nevertheless, there are no studies that describe in detail the specific practices they implement across the different periods of a school year.
The aim of this study is to explore preschool teachers’ practices targeting the development of phonological awareness. More specifically the aim of this study is to explore the units of oral language (e.g. words, syllables, rimes) that teachers ask the children to identify and to manipulate, the activities they implement for each unit, and record the different practices that the teachers implement for the development of phonological awareness each semester of the school year. Moreover, the study examines teachers’ views regarding the importance of developing preschool children’s phonological awareness and their perspectives on the teaching approaches than can be applied.
The sample consisted from 70 kindergarten teachers from different regions of Greece. Data were collected via an online questionnaire and quantitative analysis was performed.
It was found that all the preschool teachers implement practices of phonological awareness for all the units of oral language, but they varied regarding the order they asked children to manipulate the various units during the school year. Moreover, for each unit of oral language, there were differences in the frequency the teachers implemented relevant activities in each semester and these differences were statistically significant. The majority of teachers stated the importance of phonological awareness to promote the learning οf reading, writing and the development of oral language. They also stated that the activities of phonological awareness should be playful and should be integrated into activities that are not directly related to language development.
References
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Alghazo, E. M., & Al-Hilawani, Y. A. (2010). Knowledge, skills, and practices concerning phonological awareness among early childhood education teachers. Journal of research in childhood education, 24(2), 172-185.
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Diamanti, V., Mouzaki, A., Ralli, A., Antoniou, F., Papaioannou, S., & Protopapas, A. (2017). Preschool phonological and morphological awareness as longitudinal predictors of early reading and spelling development in Greek. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 2039. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02039
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Tafa, E., Chlapana, E., & Loizou, E. (2013, August). Kindergarten teachers' emergent literacy views and practices. Paper presented at the 18th European Conference on Reading. Jönköping, Sweden.