Thesis+3

flat Running head: //Improving fluency with phonics//
 * Aaron**

**Teaching Systematic Phonics to Improve Reading Fluency at Early Age in Aguascalientes** Aaron Alejandro Eudave Rodriguez. Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes February 15, 2012

Teaching phonics along a mixture of approaches can prove useful to improve not only fluency but also comprehension of texts. (do abstracts need citations also?) **Implementing the Use of Phonics to improve Reading Fluency of Early Age Foreign Language** **Learners.**
 * Abstract**

Becoming a fluent reader has been and still is a struggle for foreign language learners and that’s why teaching methods have been developed to improve phonological awareness. Lonigan (2004), mentions that phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge are among the key early childhood precursors of later reading. Allington (1983) also expresses, fluent reading can no longer be considered a neglected area of reading development because it complements learner’s knowledge of the foreign language to achieve. And it is considered by McGuiness (1998) as one of the most important language skills children should learn to handle first because this skill proves useful to develop a great amount of sub-skills (e.g. spelling, pronunciation, fluency, comprehension, etc.).. Early age learners of a foreign language tend to have problems with phological awareness therefore leading to further reading fluency problems. The purpose of this research is to question and demonstrate that the phonics method can help teachers improve reading fluency of foreign language learners. Johnston and Watson (2005, 1997) state further investigations have demonstrated that teaching phonemes to students can help develop this skill successfully. Because English is not consistent with the connection between letters and sounds, teachers have the necessity to recognize and know the phonemes and graphemes of the phonetic alphabet and how the phonic method integrates with other methods.

**Foreign language learners and Phonics** **Developing reading fluency.** For foreign language learners the development reading skills, such as reading fluency Tends to be a problem since it is quite a challenge to achieve phonological awareness. Developing reading fluency is important because it provides a link between word reading and text comprehension as discussed by Beverly J, and Trezak (2010). Today, most of the approaches used to teach a foreign language to early age population are mostly based on communication and competences, giving the students a “whole language” approach, meaning by this that classes are based on the comprehension of ideas and tasks. But according to the findings of the national reading panel (2000), balanced an effective reading instruction must contain five essential components: 1) phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Furthermore a complex language such as English requires students to understand the connection between the phonemes of the language and the graphemes of the script. **Teaching with phonics.** In order to comprehend where phonics comes from we must mention more about the IPA. The official group of sounds is known as the International Phonetic Alphabet, first published in 1888 by the //Association Phonétique Internationale// (International Phonetic Association). It was formed by a group of French language teachers and the main founder was called Paul Édouard Passy. The aim of the organization is to devise a system for transcribing the sounds of speech which was independent of any particular language and applicable to all languages. It was until 1847 that a phonetic script for English was created by Isaac Pitman and Henry Ellis and was used as a model for the IPA now used in the phonics method. Phonics consists on teaching students to develop their reading fluency by understanding the relationship between letters and sounds by enouncing words in their simplest form, knowing this information allows children to recognize familiar words accurately and automatically. Kuhn and Stahl (2003) mention it is important to identify effective approaches for developing reading fluency as part of the wider literacy curriculum. Phonics counts with official sound transcriptions for each letter of the alphabet of the desired language being in this way an effective method to improve reading fluency. Handful of studies that examine fluency development in small group or classroom contexts The reading wars as mentioned by Jones (1953) prove that phonics has always been considered as a method of teaching how to read for early age learners. Instruction in phonics functions better in small groups of early age due to the complex syllable structure contained in the English language. As stated by Rose J. (2006) ideally, phonics instruction should begin at the age of five approximately to develop positive attitudes towards literacy and it must be monitored, therefore the emphasis of working with small groups. **Phonics and its integration with other methods.** Phonic has proven to improve the intake but not the quality of the intake. What is needed is to find an exact strategy, an approach that fits both the necessities of comprehension and phonological competence. The ELT world is filled with many manners of teaching, with many methods that can easily be adapted to teaching phonics and also whole language. There is one method that was founded in the outbreak of World War II, this event heightened the need for Americans to become orally proficient in the languages of their allies and enemies alike. To this end, bits and pieces of the Direct Method were appropriated in order to form and support this new method, the "Army Method," which came to be known in the 1950s as the Audio-lingual Method **PARAGRAPH 2** **PARAGRAPH 3**. **The audio-lingual method** The Audio-lingual method is the product of three historical circumstances. For its views on language, audio-lingualism drew on the work of American linguists such as Leonard Bloomfield. At the same time, behaviourist psychologists such as B.F. Skinner were forming the belief that all behavior (including language) was learnt through repetition and positive or negative reinforcement. And as mentioned before the third factor that enabled the birth of the Audio-lingual method was the outbreak of World War II and its necessity to provide soldiers with at least basic verbal communication skills. The Audio-lingual Method was based on linguistic and psychological theory and one of its main areas was the descriptive analysis of languages. and according to the audio-lingual method and its description. There is a chance that the phonics method can get along with it. Here are some of the main characteristics of this method 1. Dependence on mimicry and memorization of set phrases 2. Teaching structural patterns by means of repetitive drills 3. No grammatical explanation 4. Learning vocabulary in context 5. Use of tapes and visual aids 6. Focus on pronunciation 7. Immediate reinforcement of correct responses By now we should know that the phonics method does not require much of a grammatical explanation because it focuses mostly in enhancing or improving the students speaking ability or reading ability when it may come to pronunciation and/or fluency, above displayed we can see the list of certain characteristics regarding the Audio-lingual method, which appears to adapt to the necessities that the phonic method has to achieve its effectiveness when it comes to being taught. The phonics method can not only be taught to children but also to adults or teens, even though the LAD by Chomsky or the Natural approach by Krashen seems to be against it. In the first characteristic shown above we see that the Audio-lingual method has a dependence on mimicry and memorization of set phrases. This can be adapted to the phonics method by having the memorization of phonetic symbols instead of a set of phrases. and for memorization to take place, we would give it a little push with what seems to be the second characteristic of the Audio-lingual method of teaching English which mentions that students learn by a group of strategies called repetition or drills. These strategies are in fact pretty old but keep functioning throughout years. Starting since 1986 with Charles Fries, the director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan and later on Fries reinforced the theory with the help of Skinner and its behaviorism theory behind him. One characteristic that both the Audio-lingual method and the phonics method share is that there is no grammatical explanation. The Audio-lingual method focuses more on teaching students vocabulary, as its name mentions it tends to relate more to tasks/activities that behold listening or speaking tasks in context. When we talk about context it appears that we go along with teaching in a covert manner. This approach can either by-pass or complement the development of explicit knowledge of L2 by directly developing students’ implicit knowledge, Ellis (2001). Covert techniques include guided inductive learning. It is believed that the cognitive effort of inductive learning integrates the memory for L2 grammar more deeply into students’ long-term memory, while the visual and tactile processing of information lays down additional memories for that information. Both the covert Approach and the Audio-lingual method now seemed to be linked through the use of context and this strategy of using context goes well with the phonics method. You can explain the sounds relating to real life situations. Other characteristics of the Audio- lingual method are those of focusing on pronunciation, the use of visual teaching aids, and immediate reinforcement of correct responses. All the characteristics seem blend with the Phonics method and it’s quite clear that Teaching is about not being afraid to Innovate or trying new things. It is now proven that even though the Phonics method is not approved in its totality by studies previously done to test the efficiency of this method and by other methods, principles and/or approaches (e.g. the Grammar method, Natural Approach, principles of language acquisition) that we can blend this method with other that are similar or can complement each other like the Audio-lingual method, which has proved extremely worthy to test along with Phonics. and as stated in the beginning the objective is not to change but to enhance the intake of certain language skills like speaking, listening and reading and more specifically certain aspects of these language skills such as pronunciation and fluency. **Phonic limitations** Arguments against phonics mention that while it speeds up the rate that children can read words, it does not aid their comprehension of what the word means and this was established by The Rose review which was triggered by a seven- year study of the teaching of phonics to 300 children in Clackmannanshire in Scotland. The research put the children up to three years ahead in reading, but did not show a significant improvement in comprehension of words. Today’s students are very different from those of previous generations as Kruse, Oblinger, and Tapscott ( 2004) mention, yet our system of education remains based on a traditional model. Surely, as the student population evolves, so should our schools. Times change and technology advances, resulting in the fact that the traditional style, which was very effective in its time, is no longer adequate for today’s (and tomorrow’s) students. Today’s children are accustomed to a fast-paced world. The proliferation of television, mobile phones and the Internet has contributed and many people now have little tolerance for things or experiences that take time. Children reflect this trend and concentration can easily lapse when mental stimulation is inadequate. Implicitly what has been said is that Phonics can be a better option because it does not request the learner to learn as many rules as the grammar method o teaching by chunks. Phonics can result more easy to digest if we use the appropriate strategies to teach it. **Research questions** What age-span is the most appropriate to develop reading fluency? How does the Phonics method improve reading fluency? **Method (Approx. 500 words)** **Participants** The participants of the investigation are children, foreign language learners, of private schools or institutes. Two schools being considered are the Colegio Bosques and the WCW located in Colinas del Rio, both of these schools are located in the state of Aguascalientes. The participants are of ages ranging from 8 to 11 years old. The participants were selected because they are within the first stages of reading development and since they are in small groups it is believed the observation of the reading fluency development will be greater because you can monitor more easily. The participants also count with more English language knowledge Than that which can be found in public schools **Instruments** One instrument that will be carried out is a Questionnaire for teachers who work in the institutes or schools and give the English subject. The questionnaire is focuses on retrieving information regarding teaching styles and strategies used to improve reading fluency in children **Procedure** **Research Design** The investigation will be based on qualitative aspects, such as the results obtained from implementing the phonics method; I am interested on knowing how to improve reading fluency of foreign language learners with phonics **Results and Discussion** The results are the findings of your research. The discussion is your conclusion of your findings. Make sure you have a good mix between results and discussion – not too much of one while sacrificing the other. Provide visuals when doing so makes it easier to understand the data (e.g., graphs, tables, etc.). **References** BBC (2011). //New phonics method 'gets results'//. Retrieved on December 11th, 2011. From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/education/6731899.stm Bowman M (2005). //Whole language. What it is, what it isn’t//. School of professional studies in business and education. Harris M. (Oct, 2008). //Phonics and Early Reading//. Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) ITT programmes: Primary Birmingham City University Jones V, Jun J, Martin P ( n.d) //Future Schools and How Technology can be used to support Millennial and Generation-Z Students.// Griffith University. Mompean A (2005). //Taking Advantage of Phonetic Symbols in the FL Classroom//. University ofMurcia Nagaraj G (2005). //English Language Teaching, Approaches Methods Techniques//. p. 79-81. 6th ed. Orient Longman Private limited. Polly Curtis (Dec, 2005) //Schools to adopt 'phonics' style of teaching reading//. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/ Weaver C, Gillmeister L, and Vento G.(1996). //Creating Support for Effective Literacy Education//. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Wilson H (2005). //Testing// //the Covert Method of Grammar Teaching: A Pilot Study// Alliant International University. **Appendix A** **Appendix B** **Appendix C** **Feedback**