Abstract
We examined the generalized effects of training children to fluently blend phonemes of words containing target vowel teams on their reading of trained and untrained words in lists and passages. Three second-grade students participated. A subset of words containing each of 3 target vowel teams (aw, oi, and au) was trained in lists, and generalization was assessed to untrained words in lists, trained and untrained words in target passages, and novel words in generalization passages. A multiple probe design across vowel teams revealed generalized increases in oral reading accuracy for target words presented in both lists and passages for all 3 students on 2 vowel teams and for 1 student on all 3 vowel teams. Generalized increases in oral reading fluency in both lists and passages were found for all 3 students on the vowel team that was trained to a fluency criterion, with two students showing increases prior to training on the other two vowel teams. Implications of these results for building fluency in prerequisite phonemic awareness skills as an intervention for promoting generalized oral reading fluency are discussed.
Highlights
Phonemic awareness is widely recognized as an important prerequisite skill for proficient reading (Ehri et al 2001; Snow et al 1998)
Because each word list contained a mix of four trained and four untrained words, these data suggest that all three students demonstrated some generalized increases in oral reading accuracy to untrained words presented in lists during the retention assessments
Previous research has shown that training students to blend the sounds that make up nonsense words can generalize to accurate reading of real words (Daly et al 2004)
Summary
Phonemic awareness is widely recognized as an important prerequisite skill for proficient reading (Ehri et al 2001; Snow et al 1998). Children typically acquire phonemic [end of page 16] awareness through early literacy experiences at home, many do not and are at risk for later reading failure (Snow et al.). For these children, explicit instruction in how to identify the separate phonemes of spoken words (segmentation), say words with specific phonemes removed (deletion), or blend sequences of phonemes to form words (blending) is needed to promote phonemic awareness. In 2000, the National Reading Panel conducted a meta-analysis examining the effects of explicit instruction in phonemic awareness on phonemic awareness, reading, and spelling outcomes (Ehri et al 2001). Overall ESs on spelling (.59) and reading (.53) were moderate, with effects on reading assessed using tests of word and nonsense word reading as well as reading comprehension
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