Phonemic Awareness, Phonics Instruction and their Impacts on Reading Outcomes in Early Reading Development

Abstract

This research investigates phonemic awareness and phonics instruction and their impacts on reading outcomes in early reading development in Ali-Sabieh. Using a quasi-experimental research design, the study tests the proposed intervention on a control and experiment group of Kindergarteners in Ali-Sabieh. The data collected enabled post-test scores to determine the effect of participating in phonics and/or phonemic awareness instruction in isolation and compare these average score gains with similar students not participating in any supplementary instruction (according to students with similar pre-test scores and similar baseline test scores). Data were collected from 3 schools and a total of 120 students, 40 from each school.  The teachers played the role of administering the tests and implementing the proposed intervention. The results suggest that through phonemic awareness and phonics instructions interventions, reading outcomes can significantly be improved in children whose first language is not English in Ali-Sabieh, Djibouti. This instructional strategy also showed the potential of guaranteeing early reading development success.