A study on the effects of phonics instruction on the decoding and encoding performances of junior high school EFL students in Taiwan Advisor: 鍾榮富教授 Author:

A study on the effects of phonics instruction on the

decoding and encoding performances of junior high

school EFL students in TaiwanAdvisor: 鍾榮富教授

Author:吳佩真 Presenter:鍾玫君 NA1C0021

Free powerpoint template: www.brainybetty.com 2

Introduction

The primary goal of this study is to investigate the effects of phonics instruction on the decoding and encoding abilities of students who had English-learning experience before beginning their formal English education. Also, it examines whether or not female or male students have better decoding and encoding abilities.


Potentially influential factors such as length of English –learning experience and nationality of the students’ phonics instructor. The relationship between students’ decoding and encoding abilities and the sound patterns familiar to the students.


Purposes of the study

This study is to investigate the effectiveness of phonics instruction though oral and written test.

Which phonics patterns are the students most familiar with?

The relationship between students’ oral and written performances and their proficiency levels.( background information, learning experiences, gender, the nationality of students’ phonics teachers.)


Significance of the study

This study can provide English teachers with a future reference in pronunciation teaching.

Results from students’ oral and written tests can provide suggestions for practitioners in Taiwan.

The findings would help teachers have a better understanding of phonics teaching.


Research Questions1. Do the subject’s genders show significant effects on their spoken

and written performance?

2. Do the periods of the previous English learning experience significantly influence students’ spoken and written performance?

3. Does the nationality of students’ phonics teachers affect students’ spoken and written performance?

4. Do Chinese EFL students have better idea about English stress after having received phonics instruction?

5. Do students decode multi-syllables as well as monosyllables after having received phonics instruction?

6. Do students’ performances in the oral test correlate to those of the written test?

7. Which phonics patterns are Chinese EFL students more familiar with?


Limitations of the study

The limited number of participation students may affect the result.

Self-reported questionnaire

Only 23 phonics patterns of vowel letters were employed in oral and written test.


Literature Review

The problems in English Orthography A review of phonics instruction in the U.S The traditional approaches The constructivist approaches The approach integrating the concept of

“Phonological awareness” Relevant studies in spelling instruction The role of phonics in Taiwan’s EFL

enviroment


MethodologySubjects : sixty first-grade students in Yang-ming

Junior high school two classes with

sixty students (table 1) Instruments: (1) Questionnaire (Appendix B)

(2) The oral and written testing

material (208)(materials:64 less familiar words ,including 40 multi-syllabic ( Appendix G)

(Twenty –three phonics patterns reference) The four types of vowel patterns

(3) The written dictation testing (69 monosyllables were adopted) T

Data analysis: SPSS T-test / ANOVA


Figure 1 Procedures for conducting the study• Designing the questionnaire of Subjects’ Background information and English learning

experience ( Appendix B) (table 1)

• Designing the oral production and written testing material (materials:64 less familiar words ,including 40 mulit-syllabic ( Appendix G)

• Sampling and administering the questionnaire

• Conducting the tape-recording of the oral production test

64 itemsPre-test( Appendix F) post-test (Appendix G)

• Conducting the written dictation test• 69items (Appendix I)

• Classifying and scoring the data

• Dividing subjects according to the test scores and the English leaning experience• (HGP15),(IGP29),(LGP16)

• Computing the scores of the oral and written test results

• Data analysis


Findings

1. Significant differences between the oral and written tests were not found between male and female students.

2. There were no significant between the oral and written tests among subjects who learned English for different periods of time.

3. Oral and written test were not reflected on subjects whose phonics teacher from different countries.

4. Only the HGP subjects were found to have significantly higher accuracy frequency for the stressed vowels of the multi-syllabic items in the oral pre-test.

5. The percentage of accuracy in reading mono-syllabic words was higher than multi-syllabic in all group.

• .


6. Significant correlation was found between the oral and written test tests for the IPG and HPG.

7. All groups were found to have better performance when they decoded the words of single vowel letters and vowel digraphs. They performed better when they encoded the words of diphthongs and r-colored vowels.


Suggestions for further research More subjects can be included in future in

investigation

Adding more sound patterns of vowels and consonants to the tests.

Only monosyllables were adopted in the written test. Future research can add some other multi-syllables to the written test.

Future studies should be emphasize how to improve students’ decoding and encoding abilities, and found out their weaknesses in both oral and written tests.

Documents

A study on the effects of phonics instruction on the decoding and encoding performances of junior high school EFL students in Taiwan Advisor: 鍾榮富教授 Author: