Pedagogical Mediation in the English Phonemic Awareness Class in First through Third Grades of Costa Rican Public Education

Abstract

According to the Ministry of Public Education’s (MEP) English teaching syllabus for elementary school (first cycle grades 1 to 3 and second cycle grades 4 to 6), the pedagogical approach that is prevalent to achieve the national goal is the Action-Oriented Approach. In concordance to MEP’s theoretical support, it is through the phonemic awareness development that English teachers must introduce the reading and writing skills. This study took place in two Educational Regions: San José Central and San José Norte. The researchers analyzed the effectiveness of the methodology used by first through third grade (First Cycle) English teachers and designed three workshops to enhance their pedagogical mediation of phonemic awareness. The main finding was a gap between the approach stated in the new English program in terms of the phonological awareness and the development of best practices in the didactic plan, «Task Cycle», to scaffold young learners’ process of reading and writing.