Abstract:

The purpose of the present work was to create a model that fosters phonological awareness in first and second grade of elementary school children, which allows them to develop the necessary phonological awareness strategies in order to acquire the Reading and writing skills, which are very important in all people’s early education. A total of 16 boys and 4 girls from first and second grade of a public elementary school in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, were chosen for the investigation. In the initial stage, two tests were applied; the Phonological Awareness Assessment test (ECOFON), which is an oral test applied to children from 7 to 11 years old, and the Children Neuropsychological Assessment test (ENI), designed for children between 5 and 16 years old. In the present study, reading and writing dimensions were applied in order to know the participants’ level and to relate it with their phonological awareness level. With this information, a diagnosis of phonological awareness skill trails was done. Experimental and control groups were arranged according to the level of phonological awareness, reading and writing skills which both tests revealed. The experimental group was treated with a foster model of phonological awareness, which consisted of an intervention program arranged in 14 sessions: two of lexical awareness, six of syllable awareness, and six of phonemic awareness. After that, another round of the ECOFON and ENI tests was applied, and the levels of phonological, reading and writing awareness were analyzed and compared in both groups. The hypothesis test was performed using a Wilcoxon test. The results show the effectiveness of the phonologic awareness intervention program and confirm the relation of phonological awareness as a predictor of Reading and writing skills. Finally, the discussion, recommendations and suggestions regarding the investigation were provided.

Keywords:

Phonological awareness, reading, writing, elementary school.