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    How and why does phonics and comprehension skill instruction impact on spelling, reading and self-efficacy for struggling adolescent learners? : a case-study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Education (Educational Psychology) at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Nelson, Melanie
    The ability to read and write is important to learning; there is a reciprocal relationship between reading and cognitive development, and academic achievement. Adolescents who experience difficulties in spelling and reading have been found to display avoidance behaviour, and low self-efficacy, or over inflated self-efficacy that is incongruent to capability. This case study investigated how and why spelling, reading, comprehension and self-efficacy for four struggling adolescent spellers and readers was impacted by a phonological based and comprehension skills intervention. The intervention implemented was Agility with Sound. The children received eight weeks of intervention aimed at improving their spelling, word decoding and comprehension. Pre and post-intervention measures of spelling, decoding, word decoding, and comprehension were taken. Measures of pre and post-intervention self-efficacy, to investigate the influences of phonic knowledge and comprehension skill development on self-efficacy, were also taken. Infield observations and post-intervention student interviews were used to provide an in-depth investigation. There were meaningful increases in word decoding and spelling. Participants reported phonological-based instruction simplified and reduced the ambiguity of word spellings and decoding. The impact on self-efficacy was that judgements were recalibrated to more accurate judgements of capability; although the adolescent learners reported their improved skill knowledge increased their belief they could improve their spelling and reading comprehension overtime. Struggling adolescent children do benefit from explicit phonics instruction. Time constraints reduced the opportunity for the consolidation of skills which impacted on comprehension development for two students, and self-efficacy growth.
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    The effectiveness of a teacher aide-instructed beginning reading intervention with an emphasis on phonological processing : a thesis presented in partial of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Special Education) at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2001) Ryder, Janice Frankland
    This study had several aims; first, to examine the phonological awareness skills of 6 and 7-year-old children; second, to identify students who appear to be at risk for difficulty in acquiring reading skills; third, to ascertain whether a teacher aide-instructed reading programme, which included systematic training in phonological processing strategies and letter-sound relationships, would be effective in enhancing the literary skills of those children. Twenty-four out of 64 7-year-olds were identified as scoring the lowest on a test of context-free word recognition. They were then given a battery of tests that measured skills in phoneme awareness, decoding skills, reading connected-text and reading comprehension. The 24 children were then matched on the basis of his or her raw scores on a context-free word recognition test. Twelve children received an intervention under teacher aide instruction, while 12 children received no intervention. After 24 weeks on the programme, the intervention and control children were tested using the same pretest battery. Follow-up testing was also conducted after two years using the context-free word recognition test and a test of reading accuracy. Results suggested that the teacher aide-instructed intervention programme was a particularly effective procedure for those children deficient in phoneme awareness, decoding ability and context-free word recognition skills, and that improvements in those skills led to improvements in overall reading. Teacher aide assistance in reading for those children identified as at risk may not be including direct, systematic instruction of letter-sound relationships and phonological processing skills; the skills which children need in order to become successful readers. This issue is discussed, as well as appropriate identification of children at risk, the use of teacher aides in instructional settings, and educational implications when planning intervention programmes in general.
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    Whole language and phonics : which instructional practices are most effective in teaching at-risk students to read? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Senior, Tamara Ann
    A disproportionately large number of New Zealand students fail to learn to read. Results of recent international studies demonstrate that the gap between New Zealand’s highest- and lowest-achieving readers is wider than most other top-performing countries. Despite research showing the crucial role of explicit phonological-based instruction for children at risk of reading failure, the New Zealand education system continues to emphasise whole language teaching methods at the expense of explicit phonological instruction. Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds are at high risk of reading failure and are over-represented among New Zealand’s under-achieving readers. The current study investigated the extent to which teachers of beginning readers in low socioeconomic communities placed an emphasis on explicit phonological-based instruction. The relationship between teacher emphasis on phonological instruction and student progress in reading-related skills was also examined. Results demonstrated a significant relationship between teacher emphasis on phonological-based instruction and student progress in word reading whereby students receiving explicit phonological-based literacy instruction made superior progress in word reading skills over children receiving implicit phonological-based instruction. Moreover, analysis of standard deviation in class word reading scores over time demonstrated that a strong emphasis on explicit phonological instruction was associated with a reduction in class variation of word reading scores, while minimal emphasis on explicit phonological instruction was associated with increasing variability of class word reading scores. Correlation results indicated a relationship between word reading skills and phonological ability that strengthened over time. The study findings support previous research demonstrating that phonological awareness and decoding skills play a crucial role in the development of word reading ability and that explicit phonological-based instruction can attenuate differences in word reading development. Implications for teachers and policy makers are described.
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    Can phonics instruction and big book shared reading in combination work better than on their own? : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Albany Campus, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2011) Tse, Laura Lo-Ming
    The present study is an experimental study, and the purpose was to make an empirical comparison between three ways of teaching: phonics instruction, big book shared reading, and combining phonics and big book. The study involved 96 Year 2 children from three primary schools in South Auckland. Children were taught in small groups of four according to different reading ability levels (“at”, “below”, and “well-below”) after being randomly assigned into one of four conditions: phonics only (P), big book only (BB), a combination of phonics and big book (PBB), and a treatment control (C). The researcher met with the groups once a week for 30 minutes, from May to November. Children completed pre- and post-assessments of word reading, passage reading, reading comprehension, spelling, pseudoword decoding, phonemic awareness, receptive vocabulary, and math. Results from a 3-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the phonics and big book combined group outperformed the other two reading groups, and also the treatment control group in word reading, reading comprehension, decoding pseudowords, and phonemic awareness. The phonics only group outperformed the big book only group in decoding and phonemic awareness. The three ability groups (“at”, “below”, and “well-below”) responded similarly on norm-referenced tests to the different approaches used in this study. The intervention did not advantage one ability group over the other. Sub-sections of the word reading, phonemic awareness, and decoding tests were also analysed. In the word reading test, results showed that the combined group outperformed the other three groups in reading short, regular one-syllable words, and short, one-syllable, slightly irregular words. In the phonemic awareness test, the combined group outperformed the other groups in segmentation, blending, and deleting the first phoneme. In basic decoding skills, the combined group outperformed the other three groups in ability to decode consonant-vowel-consonant (cvc) pseudowords. A further analysis of weekly phonics quizzes given during the 12-week training period showed that the combined group performed better than the other three groups, and that the phonics group performed better than the shared book group.The findings of the present study suggest that a combination of phonics and big book shared reading is more effective way to teach reading to 6-year-olds than providing them with only phonics instruction, or only shared book experience.