The rise of phonological awareness in Spanish early childhood education students

In the 21st century, critical thinking skills are essential for children in early childhood education, to help them in their learning and life in general. To cultivate and promote these skills in early childhood education, children need the support and guidance of their teachers. It is therefore imperitive to understand teachers’ views on the importance of critical thinking skills in early childhood education. The aim of this study is to address this question and explore teachers’ views on the importance of critical thinking skills in early childhood education in Dodoma, Tanzania. Methodology. This study employed a qualitative research approach with a phenomenography research design. The total sample of the study was five informants, selected through purposive sampling technique. The study used in-depth interviews with pre-primary schoolteachers to elicit data on their views towards the importance of critical thinking skills in early childhood education in the Kongwa District of the Dodoma region. After the data collection process, the analysis was done using the Miles and Huberman Model (2014). The findings demonstrate that critical thinking skills are important in early childhood education: they enhance children’s’ problem-solving abilities, their creativity and the foundations of learning; they foster intellectual development among children and they enhance their socialisation and language development. In conclusion, this study contributes to understanding teachers' views on the importance of critical thinking skills in early childhood education in Tanzania, and in other areas around the world. Conclusion. Based on the importance of critical thinking skills in early childhood education, this study recommends the need to incorporate critical thinking skills into the core curriculum, across several subject areas in early childhood education by including activities that encourage and motivate children to think critically.

<p>本研究旨在探討國小高年級識字障礙學生聲韻覺識、唸名速度和中英文識字的關係，聲韻覺識、唸名速度對英文識字的預測力，以驗證「語言譯錄差異假說」的理論。研究對象包括國小高年級識字障礙學生，及其同生理年齡和同識字能力之兩組一般學生，每組人數各30位、總計為90位學生。研究工具包括智力測驗、中英文聲韻覺識及唸名速度測驗，以及中英文識字測驗。經由共變數分析、F考驗與逐步迴歸分析，以釐清中英文聲韻覺識、唸名速度等識字基礎認知能力是否為影響英文識字的關鍵因素。結果如下：(1)在聲韻覺識方面，識字障礙組明顯落後於同生理年齡組學生，但與同識字能力組學生相當，故可能不是識字困難的因。(2)在唸名速度方面，識字障礙組不僅明顯落後於同生理年齡組學生，也落後於同識字能力組學生，故可能是識字困難的因。(3)無論是識字障礙組或同生理年齡組之一般學生，英文聲韻覺識和唸名速度都最是能預測英文識字表現的變項，故未完全支持語言譯錄差異假說。</p> <p> </p><p>Purpose </p> <p> In the study of dyslexia, many empirical studies have pointed out that phonological awareness and rapid naming tasks are the most effective in distinguishing good readers from weak readers, so they are widely used in the early screening of children with suspected learning disabilities. In view of this, this study lists phonological awareness and naming speed ability as the main basic literacy cognitive variables, and further explores the influence of phonological awareness and rapid naming on literacy ability. In the 1980s, Sparks, Ganschow and others began to conduct a series of studies on foreign language learning difficulties, and later they proposed the “Linguistic Coding Differences Hypothesis” (LCDH) to explain the problem of foreign language learning difficulties. They believe that when a learner has difficulty in learning a foreign language, it is because the language processing ability of the learner’s mother tongue is inherently problematic. Reading and writing ability of the mother tongue is the prerequisite ability for learning a foreign language, especially those skills involving symbol decoding and phonological processing. Chinese and English are two different writing systems. While English is alphabetic writing system, Chinese is logographic writing system. Does LCDH still work for Chinese-speaking Taiwanese children with dyslexia when they learn English? Or the difference in writing systems will not pose as an obstacle, and students with Chinese literacy disabilities can also learn English well? What key problems do students with Chinese literacy disabilities encounter in learning English? Does it stem from the pre-existing difficulties of the mother tongue itself? Is there a commonality between the native language and the foreign language? If the relationship between the two languages can be further clarified, then findings can provide suggestions for teachers to conduct remedial instruction and help students who are not good at learning their mother tongue. This study was aimed to test the LCDH. We examined the relations between reading-related cognitive skills (i.e., phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming) and word reading of Chinese children with dyslexia in their Chinese language (L1) and in English (L2). </p> <p> Methods </p> <p> A total of 90 children [30 with dyslexia (Ds), 30 chronological age (CA) controls, and 30 reading-level (RL) controls] participated in this study. The three groups were matched by IQ and SES. All children were administered measures of Chinese character list, English word reading, and rapid naming as well as phonological awareness tasks in both L1 and L2. Chinese phonological awareness tasks included initial sound detection, rime detection, and tone awareness. English phonological awareness tasks included initial sound deletion and sound sorting. Chinese rapid naming task was 5 Zhu-In-Fu-Hao symbols randomly presented 10 times. English rapid naming task was 5 alphabets randomly presented 10 times. Children were asked to name them as fast as possible. RL group refers to the control group whose chronological age is lower than the experimental group but has the same reading ability. It is assumed that the dyslexia group performs lower than the same chronological age control group in a certain cognitive ability, and is also worse than the same reading ability group. Then the researchers can speculate that the cognitive ability is not likely to be different due to the influence of reading ability, but may be the cause of the difference in reading performance. Therefore, participants of this study included the literacy disorder group in the upper grades of elementary school, the same chronological age group and the middle grade group with the same literacy ability, so as to clarify whether the basic cognitive ability of Chinese and English literacy is the key factor affecting English literacy. Three research questions were: (1) What were the differences of L1 and L2 phonological awareness performance in Ds, CA, and RL groups? (2) What were the differences of L1 and L2 rapid automatized naming performance in Ds, CA, and RL groups? (3) What were the predictive power of L1 and L2 phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming to the three groups learning English words? </p> <p> Results </p> <p> The major findings of this study were as follows: (1) Ds performed significantly lower than CA in all reading-related cognitive skills in Chinese. However, Ds also performed significantly lower than RL in rapid naming. To sum up, Chinese rapid naming may be the cause of Chinese character reading disability. (2) Ds performed significantly lower than CA in all reading-related cognitive skills in English. However, Ds also performed significantly lower than RL in rapid naming. To sum up, English rapid naming may be the cause of Chinese character reading disability. (3) There were significant correlations among phonological awareness (deletion), rapid naming and character reading in English; Chinese was not significantly correlated with English. Deletion and rapid naming were the best predictors of English character reading. </p> <p> Conclusions </p> <p> Children with dyslexia showed weaker performance than CA controls in both languages and had more difficulties in rapid naming than RL controls. Rapid naming rather than phonological awareness may be the cause of Chinese character reading disability. Reading-related cognitive skills in Chinese did not contribute significantly to the ability to read English words, suggesting little cross-linguistic transfer from L1 to L2. This result did not fully support the linguistic coding differences hypothesis. According to the findings, recommendations of this study for further studies and practical implementation included: (1) Rapid naming was critical to L1 and L2 word reading performance. It could be a powerful detective index in early diagnosing children with dyslexia. (2) Phonological awareness and rapid naming were important to English word learning. Teachers can spend more time in teaching phonological awareness and rapid naming when children with dyslexia start to learn English. (3) Children in middle grade have shown big differences in English word reading task (from 0 to full scores). Teachers should pay attention to these children with low English reading performance and provide remedial instruction as early as possible. (4) LCDH was not fully supported in this study. In the future, different groups can be involved, such as participants with various language learning experiences or education levels, to explore the possibilities of LCDH in different conditions. </p> <p> </p>

Phonological awareness is a critical component of phonological processing that predicts children’s literacy outcomes. Phonological awareness skills enable children to think about the sound structure of words and facilitates decoding and the analysis of words during spelling. Past research has shown that children’s vocabulary knowledge and working memory capacity are associated with their phonological awareness skills. Linguistic characteristics of words, such as phonological neighborhood density and orthography congruency have also been found to influence children’s performance in phonological awareness tasks. Literacy is a difficult area for deaf and hard of hearing children, who have poor phonological awareness skills. Although cochlear implantation (CI) has been found to improve these children’s speech and language outcomes, limited research has investigated phonological awareness in children with CI. Rhyme awareness is the first level of phonological awareness to develop in children with normal hearing (NH). The current study investigates whether rhyme awareness in children with NH (n = 15, median age = 5; 5, IQR = 11 ms) and a small group of children with CI (n = 6, median age = 6; 11.5, IQR = 3.75 ms) is associated with individual differences in vocabulary and working memory. Using a rhyme oddity task, well-controlled for perceptual similarity, we also explored whether children’s performance was associated with linguistic characteristics of the task items (e.g., rhyme neighborhood density, orthographic congruency). Results indicate that there is an association between vocabulary and working memory and performance in a rhyme awareness task in NH children. Only working memory was correlated with rhyme awareness performance in CI children. Linguistic characteristics of the task items, on the other hand, were not found to be associated with success. Implications of the results and future directions are discussed.

Recent national developments in the teaching of literacy in the early years in the UK mean that teachers need to have explicit fluent knowledge of the sound structure of the language and its relationship to orthography in order to teach reading effectively. In this study, a group of 38 graduate trainee primary teachers were given a pencil and paper test of phonological awareness as part of a course on teaching literacy. Results from the pencil and paper test were used as the basis of teaching about the sound structure of words. The test was repeated six months later. The results showed that they did not use a consistent system for segmenting words into component sounds. Though there was substantial improvement on second testing, many trainees still did not show evidence that they had yet developed sufficient insights into the sound structure of words to be able to teach children about phonemes with certainty. It is argued that student teachers need substantial explicit training and practice in manipulating the sound structure of words to enable them to teach this aspect of language confidently.

Early childhood education in India is undergoing significant changes, guided by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage (NCF-FS) 2022. This paper explores practical pedagogical approaches for pre-primary and early childhood care and education (ECCE) in India, aligning with these policy recommendations. It examines key strategies for implementing play-based learning, developing language and literacy skills, building foundational numeracy competencies, and incorporating inquiry-based and activity-based learning approaches. The study emphasizes the importance of creating stimulating learning environments featuring well-equipped indoor and outdoor play areas to facilitate meaningful play experiences. It details methods for fostering oral language development, phonological awareness, and early literacy skills through various activities and a print-rich classroom setting. Strategies for developing number sense, basic operations, spatial awareness, and other core numeracy concepts are outlined. The paper also explores approaches for integrating inquiry-based learning to nurture scientific thinking and problem-solving skills. Additionally, the paper discusses the role of diverse activities in promoting holistic development across physical, cognitive, social-emotional, language, and aesthetic domains. It highlights integrating art and experimentation in ECCE to enhance creativity and self-expression. The role of educators is analyzed, focusing on their contribution to creating stimulating learning environments and facilitating meaningful experiences for children. Challenges in implementing these approaches include infrastructure and resource constraints, teacher training needs, parental engagement, and cultural relevance. However, the evolving policy landscape also presents opportunities for transformation through increased investment, flexibility in curriculum design, and an emphasis on developmentally appropriate practices. The paper concludes with recommendations for future directions, such as strengthening ECCE infrastructure, enhancing teacher professional development, fostering community engagement, conducting further research, and developing culturally appropriate resources. By synthesizing evidence-based practices aligned with policy directives, the paper provides a comprehensive overview of effective pedagogy for fostering young children’s holistic growth and development in early childhood education in India.

Immigration is when individuals leave their country of residency to permanently settle in a different country. According to the United Nations (UN) Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in 2017 a cumulative of 258 million persons were residents in a country that differed from their own. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the increase in prohibited immigration impelled the United States (US) to propose a number of immigration laws. In 2012, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, which allowed undocumented immigrants to work legally without being deported as long as they maintain a useful and lawful status. Approximately 800,000 immigrants attained DACA standing, permitting them to legally work and go to school in the US. Furthermore, the immigration law of 1965 prompted an excessive entrance of multicultural immigrants to the United States which brought about a great representation of children who live with immigrant families. These children faced several environmental structures which were affected by changes and multiplicity in their family situations. Immigrant children attempted to understand a different culture, values, and emerging issues in relation to their assimilation paths.The purpose of this volume is to offer a complete representation of the way immigrant children and families respond and develop in the US and Europe. It will extend current knowledge and reinforce contemporary frameworks that associate the cultural differences between immigrant families and teachers. In the classroom environment teachers have the opportunity to effectively assume both nurturing and instructional roles to aid young children to cultivate their social and cognitive abilities. The teachers’ personal characteristics, formal education, specialized training, and cultural knowledge may affect their effectiveness in the classroom environment. Most of the studies show that both family and teachers have the most significant effects on the children’s development and learning. Immigration researchers and scholars were invited to review, critically analyze, discuss, and submit a manuscript for the volume titled, Contemporary Perspectives on Research on Immigration in Early Childhood Education. The concept of immigration has heavily influenced modern views in early childhood education. Researchers, scholars, and educators need to understand the current sources based on theoretical frameworks that contribute to the purposes of immigration in the United States and Europe. The contents of the volume reflect the major shifts in the views of early childhood researchers, scholars, and educators in relation to the research on immigration, its historical roots, the role of immigration in early childhood education, and its relationship to theory, research, and practice.

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) speakers often face difficulties producing certain English phonemes correctly when they live in a non-English-speaking country. The sounds /p/, /t/, and /k/ are among the most common articulation problems Saudi EFL learners have to encounter. In adult learners, the speech habits formed during the early years become "fossilized" and affect the acquisition of correct pronunciation. Therefore, recent research investigates the effectiveness of targeted phonological awareness training on improving these hard-to-articulate phonemes among adult Saudi EFL learners at the tertiary level. To address this issue, this study conducted a four-week experimental teaching session that involved improving phonological awareness with explicit teaching of the Voice Onset Time (VOT), and the precise place and manner of articulation of the sounds in question to twenty pre-medical Saudi EFL learners. This was enhanced through repetitive practice of the targeted phonemes, use of minimal pairs, and extended, reading aloud of passages. The results showed that participants were able to identify their pronunciation errors and articulate the target sounds in isolated words and in continuous speech. There was also an overall improved oral fluency of the test participants in their English production, possibly indicating that the phonological awareness approach could have wider benefits beyond the simple articulation of phonemes.

Early childhood education (ECE) is the formal or informal teaching for the holistic development of the children. Important objective of ECEs is to bring positive experiences of pre-school education that may work as platform for enhanced academic capabilities and social competencies of the students. In the industrialized world the wave of universalization of primary education has become a part of formal education system in developed countries. Pakistan, like several other developing countries, started ECE programs in last two decades with very limited budget and doubts regarding benefits and popularity from the parents and other stakeholders. Recent educational policies have highlighted ECE which has given expansion in budget, coverage to masses, pre-service and in-service teacher training programs, relevant learning material development, and involvement of public and private sector. In year 2002, a project was started in selected 2,225 ECE Class Rooms across 36 districts of the Punjab (Govt. of Punjab, 2017). By developing ECE rooms, play facilities and leaning kits were provided and supplemented with teacher training and provision of learning material. This study aims to compare the public ECE and Public non ECE students in social development and language learning. This casual comparative study explored the impact of ECE on Social Competencies and academic achievement in Urdu and English languages. Sample of 300 students studying in public ECE and public non ECE institutions in urban and rural areas of Bhakkar district was selected by two stage stratified random sampling technique. Two research instruments (Social Competencies Scale and Language Achievement Test) were used to collect the data. Independent t-test was used to compare mean social competencies scores and language achievement scores of public ECE and public non ECE students. The study found that students studying in public ECE institutions are better in social competencies and language learning than that of students in public non ECE schools.

Shared book reading in preschool settings plays an influential role in supporting children’s oral language and emergent literacy skills. Early childhood teachers can provide high-quality shared book reading experiences using extratextual utterances (reading beyond the story text) to maximise these learning outcomes. We report on the development and psychometric properties of the ‘Emergent Literacy and Language Early Childhood Checklist for Teachers’ (ELLECCT) tool, a comprehensive observational checklist designed to document early childhood teachers’ extratextual oral language and emergent literacy strategies during shared book reading. The ELLECCT measures teachers’ dialogic reading prompts, vocabulary promotion strategies, responsive statements, print knowledge and phonological awareness. The ELLECCT also contains a rating scale examining paralinguistic and nonverbal strategies used by early childhood teachers to support engagement during shared book reading interactions. The psychometric properties of the ELLECCT were measured in a four-phase process. Content validity was tested using the Content Validity Index and a three-round Delphi process was used to measure face validity. Both intra-rater and inter-rater reliability were evaluated from a sample of 32 shared book reading observations. The study findings provide preliminary evidence for the psychometric properties of the ELLECCT, such that it is judged as suitable for evaluation of early childhood teachers’ use of extratextual and paralinguistic strategies while engaged in shared book reading. We describe the ELLECCT’s potential application in both classroom coaching and training, and as a research tool, to support early childhood teachers’ skill-development during shared book reading.

This study investigates the relationship between early childhood (EC) and early years' primary school (EYPS) teachers' phonological awareness (PA) assessment practices, self-reported PA knowledge and actual PA knowledge. Method: A survey design was employed whereby 102 registered Australian EC and EYPS teachers responded to questions regarding PA assessment practices, selfreported PA knowledge and actual PA knowledge. Results: The results showed: a) more than 80% of teachers use PA assessments, with EYPS teachers conducting frequent assessments and EC teachers conducting rare-to-occasional assessments; b) overestimation of self-reported PA knowledge; c) low levels of actual PA knowledge; and d) high usage of observations and professional judgement as assessment methods despite limited own PA knowledge. Implications: Increasing EC and EYPS teachers' knowledge of PA and improving their self-appraisal skills is critical for high-quality teacher PA assessment practices, and it illustrates the need for robust pre- and in-service teacher training.

Providing high-quality literacy instruction in early childhood may positively affect the long-term outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Previous research has shown that educators are generally lacking in their own phonological awareness knowledge and skills which could negatively impact the provision of effective instruction in code-focused early literacy skills. The purposes of this pilot study were to examine the effects of differing dosages of professional development in phonological awareness on early childhood educators' (ECEs) own phonological awareness skills and instructional practices, and to examine the effects on child outcomes. The comparison group consisted of 10 ECEs who were receiving professional development in emergent literacy and a sample of 59 children from their classrooms. The intervention group was composed of 10 similar ECEs who were in the same general professional development program but received an increased dosage of training focused on phonological awareness, and a sample of 53 children from their classrooms. Results showed that ECEs in the intervention group exhibited significantly greater improvements in their own phonological awareness skills and the quality of their instructional practices than the comparison group of ECEs. In addition, children in the intervention classrooms exhibited significantly larger gains on phonological awareness skills and upper-case alphabet knowledge. The results suggest that providing increased dosages of professional development focused on code-focused early literacy skills benefits both the ECEs and children in their classrooms. Implications of the current study and directions for future research are discussed.

Abstract
 
 The study identified the scientific play-learn activities practiced in early childhood education centres in Delta state and investigated the academic qualifications of the early childhood educators. It also assessed the scientific play-learn skills of the early childhood educators and examined the relationship between early childhood educators’ qualifications and scientific play-learn activities facilitation skills in the study area. These were with a view to providing succinct information about early childhood educators’ competence in facilitating scientific play-learn activities in early childhood centres in the State. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised all early childhood educators in the State. The sample for the study consisted of 360 early childhood educators drawn from the three senatorial districts in the state using multistage sampling procedure. One self-designed instrument titled ‘‘Early Childhood Educators’ Competence in Science Play-learn Activities Questionnaire’’ (ECECSPAQ) was used for data collection. The data collected were analysed using frequency count, percentage, and regression analysis. The results of the study showed that 29.5% of early childhood educators in all the centres practised gravity, 22.3% practised motion, 16.4% practised electricity, 46.4% practised sound, and 24.2% practised air and wind. The results further showed that 16.1 % of the early childhood educators had senior school certificate, 11.4% had ND certificate, 20.6% had TC11 and NCE, 14.4% had HND, 4.7% had certificate in Nursery and Primary education while 10.5% also had certificate in science areas. The results also showed that early childhood educators possessed very low level of scientific play-learn skills (21.90%). The results finally showed a significant relationship of early childhood educators’ qualifications on scientific play-learn activities facilitation skills (F = 2.547, p < 0.05). The study concluded that early childhood educators possessed low competence in embarking on rich scientific play-learn activities necessary to promote science learning in children.

The present study examined the roles of phonological and morphological awareness in Korean elementary school students’ vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. A total of 98 Korean sixth-grade students participated in this study and took phonological awareness (i.e., rhyme and phoneme awareness), morphological awareness (i.e., compounding, inflectional, and derivational awareness), vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension tests. The results revealed that phonological and morphological awareness predicted 10% and 4% of the total variance in vocabulary knowledge, respectively, and, 11.4% and 25% of the total variance in reading comprehension after controlling for vocabulary knowledge. Among the three types of morphological awareness, inflectional awareness was the strongest predictor explaining the variances in vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, whereas derivational awareness did not explain any variance in either outcome. Such findings indicate that, for the Korean sixth-graders, the role of phonological and morphological awareness in their English vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension overlap, but morphological awareness benefits their text-level comprehension more than their phonological awareness. Several pedagogical implications are also discussed.

In the rapidly evolving digital age, building children's life skills through creative play has become a crucial and popular technique in early childhood education. As a result, we propose employing digital puzzles to encourage creative play in early childhood education. Playing creatively with a digital puzzle can significantly improve children's life skills. They must assemble puzzle pieces to create the desired image pattern. According to various research and publications, creative play with digital puzzles can promote life skills in early infancy. We specifically look at the challenges of doing a literature review on improving life skills in early childhood education. Life skills in literature are divided into four sections based on the following themes: (1) the new concept of early childhood education, (2) integrating life skills in early childhood education with play and media, (3) encouraging creative play through digital puzzles, and (4) digital puzzles for life skills in early childhood classrooms: a case study in Indonesia. The article introduces each of the four themes with a contemporary anecdote and then presents a literary consensus. The article concludes with changes to improve life skills in early childhood education through creative play and digital riddles. Digital puzzles, as a form of creative play, help young children build life skills that will make them happier and more resilient in the face of daily challenges. Young children can grow into adults capable of creatively overcoming daily problems.

Teachers' Sense of Efficacy: An Important Factor in School Improvement