School-based Curriculum Action Research Series The 21st century marks the development of an information or knowledge society with

fast-changing needs and environment. In order to prepare our younger generation for their future needs, schools, through constant endeavours in search of excellence, have to provide students with different learning opportunities and experiences. In this respect, the school curriculum should best be aligned with the social development as well as the students’ interest.

Since 1998, the School-based Curriculum Development (Primary) Section (SBCDP) has

been collaborating with school teachers in curriculum development in various Key Learning Areas. Building on the strengths and successful experiences accumulated over the years, the Section has initiated action researches jointly with teachers, aiming at empowering teachers to make informed decisions on curriculum research and development. Why Do We Promote School-based Curriculum Action Research? Collaborative school-based curriculum action research aims to:

enable teachers to enhance quality learning and teaching through knowledge generated and constructed in the process of critical and systematic inquiry into different learning and teaching issues;

develop teachers' competence in curriculum development and research literacy as well as their sense of curriculum ownership;

develop schools into learning organizations through collaborative team work within schools and professional sharing in school networks.

How Do We Conduct Collaborative School-based Curriculum Action Research? In the course of school-based curriculum development, teachers’ critical reflections will help them identify issues worth addressing in the form of an action research. The following steps illustrate the basic cycle in action research: 1. Examine critically learning- or teaching-related issues worth researching into 2. Define the research focus and review literature for current theories and practice 3. Develop action plans or intervention strategies 4. Implement action plans in contexts

5. Collect evidence and reflect on effectiveness of actions 6. Draw conclusions and use feedback to improve learning and teaching 7. Start a new cycle if necessary

As teachers progress through this spiral cycle, they improve their teaching through continual reflection and move closer to the solution of the identified problems. Taking the role as facilitator, Curriculum Development Officers from the SBCDP Section work as partners with teachers, rendering professional support throughout the research cycle, assisting them in reflecting and conceptualizing tacit knowledge embedded in their practice. How Can These Reports Be Used?

This series of action research reports portrays the participating teachers' educational beliefs and philosophy, and the developmental pathway undertaken to improve the school curriculum. The curriculum design, intervention strategies, action plans, research tools and instruments, as well as the findings and recommendations may be valuable references for teachers who intend to launch school-based curriculum development and/or collaborative action research in their schools. We sincerely hope that this series can serve as a platform to stimulate professional dialogue in curriculum research and development, and to spark off a research culture in primary schools in Hong Kong.

For comments and inquiries on the series, please contact Mr WUN Chi Wa, Ankey Senior Curriculum Development Officer School-based Curriculum Development (Primary) Section Phone : (852)27620174 Fax : (852)2877 7954 Email : cwwun@ed.gov.hk

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CONTENT

Page

A. Background 1

B. Literature Review 4

C. The Developmental Process 9

D. The Research Process 21

E. Findings 23

F. Discussion 34

G. Conclusion 37

References

1

A. Background

I. Introduction

We are P1 English teachers of Tai Po Old Market Public School (PM). Having taught

English for some years, we found that our P1 students had great problems in reading, both in

pronouncing words and reading aloud. This had been the greatest obstacle for students to

learn English effectively. We wanted to explore this issue, and phonics teaching was our

starting point. To find more evidence on students’ learning and teacher development, we

conducted a collaborative action research with SBCD(P) during the school year 2000-2001.

This was an entirely new attempt to us and we kept learning, reflecting and improving

throughout the whole process. In the end, we have become more sensitive to our students’

needs and learnt that it is most important to equip students the essential phonics skills so that

they can learn on their own.

II. Students’ problems in learning English:

Students did not have the skills to read and decode sounds.

Many students had problems in dictation.

Students lacked confidence in reading and learning the language.

III. Students’ needs:

Students needed to master more effective ways of sounding out words and working

out the spelling.

They should have more exposure to sounds and more reading materials.

They needed to build upon what they knew in order to develop awareness of

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letter-sound relationship.

They should develop more confidence in reading.

IV. Our planned actions:

To introduce the teaching of phonics to our P1 students and help them master

phonics skills as early as possible

To expose our students to rich reading materials and enhance their confidence in

reading

V. Our worries:

i. Student level

Most students had no prior knowledge of phonics.

Our students had very limited vocabulary and inadequate language environment.

Our students were very diversified in their needs and learning styles.

ii. Teacher level

Phonics teaching was still very new to us; we lacked the knowledge, training and

experience in teaching phonics.

We had limited resources available.

We were not clear about the role phonics should play in our existing curriculum.

We tended to confuse phonics and phonetics

VI. Our objectives

This research aims to find out:

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Whether the learning of phonics can enhance students’ competence and

confidence in decoding sounds and reading

How teachers can develop effective strategies in planning and teaching phonics

Our expected outcomes:

Students’ increased competence and confidence in sounding out words and

reading

Teachers’ increased knowledge and experience in the teaching of phonics

** To address the above-mentioned needs and worries, we studied literature on phonics for a

more thorough understanding, including its advantages and different approaches. We were

clearer about the distinction between phonics and phonetics as well as the role of phonics in

our curriculum. Considering our students’ needs, we decided on our approach and designed

our school-based curriculum incorporating phonics as part of the whole curriculum.

Throughout the development process, we explored and tried out different teaching strategies

with the use of all available resources and made changes whenever necessary. To collect

evidence on students’ learning, we conducted tests, interviews and class observations. All

such evidence informed us of how far students increased their competence and confidence in

reading and how effective our teaching was.

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B. Literature Review

I. Literature review

i. Definition of phonics

Phonics (graphophonics or graphonics) is the study of speech sounds that are

related to reading (Miller 2000). It is often identified with decoding, `break the

code’.

Phonics refers to instruction in the sound-letter relationship used in reading and

writing. (Miller 2000)

Phonics is not phonetics. While phonics aims at building students’ basic

letter-sound relationships and teaching them ways to pronounce words, phonetics is

used to help students acquire ways of writing down pronunciation and applying the

International Phonetic Alphabet in working out the correct pronunciation of words.

It is important to help students develop phonological awareness, which refers to

an awareness of the constituent sounds of written words in learning to read and

spell. It includes the knowledge of phonemes, onsets and rimes as well as syllables.

In the minds of many educators, phonics can be referred to `as a method or program

of teaching reading’ (Strickland 1998). Teachers can help children learn about the

relationships between letters and sounds in order to read well.

So, phonics is used to develop children’s familiarity with the spellings and

sound-letter relationship of frequent words and syllables. Many reading specialists

believe that some competency in phonics is necessary to ensure a child’s adequate

success in reading in early years.

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ii. Advantages and disadvantages of certain phonics programs

Advantages

Phonics skills ‘help learners to gain confidence and competence’, particularly

in areas like pronunciation, spelling and reading. (CDC Syllabus for English

Language 1997:75)

Reading specialists have also stated that children who learn phonics are more

independent in decoding words and they may be better spellers (Miller

2000). They achieve higher reading test scores than those children who are not

exposed to such a program (Adams 1990).

Phonics programs are always helpful to children with learning disabilities

and other special needs (Miller 2000).

Disadvantages

Certain phonics programs focus on word pronunciation and not on

understanding. Children may be trained as `word-callers’ who can

pronounce words very effectively but has little comprehension of what he or

she reads (Miller 2000).

Learner differences also cause a lot of problems. For those children who do

not have good auditory discrimination, the ability to hear the likenesses and

differences in sounds, the phonics program may be very ineffective (Miller

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2000).

Some systematic phonics programs are dull, repetitive and uninteresting for

children (Miller 2000). So, it really depends on how teachers use suitable

materials and approaches in order to cater for the needs of their students and

help students achieve effective learning.

iii. Different approaches to phonics teaching

Despite the recognition of the importance of teaching phonics, there is always

debate over the approaches of teaching phonics.

systematic phonics approach vs whole language approach

synthetic approach vs analytic approach

great emphasis is put on graphophonic analysis only

phonic elements and rules are taught only in the context of words, sentences, or passages as needed for effective decoding in whole language settings

individual phonemes (sounds) are blended to form a word such as `cuh-a-tuh’ being blended to form the word `cat’ (Miller 2000)

Children begin with a whole word and break it down into parts, such as the words `car/pet’ and `w/all’

phonic elements can be taught in portions of words such as onsets (consonants, consonant blends, or consonant digraphs) and rimes (word families)

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part-to-whole phonics instruction vs whole-to-part phonics instruction

To Dombey & Moustafa (1999), the part-to-whole phonics instruction is ineffective.

Such simplistic approaches `present reading as essentially a decoding process, which

consists of learning a system of letter-sound relationships, translating symbols on the

page into sounds, and synthesizing or blending the sounds together into words’. Instead,

the whole-to-part phonics teaching is proposed: `children are more likely to begin with

a repertoire of known words and proceed from wholes to parts’. Phonics learning should

be related to other aspects of learning to read and must be a part of learning to read.

Adams (1990) further reinforces the point that `children need practice in seeing and

understanding decodable words in real reading situations and with connected text’ and

phonics instruction should be `part of a reading program that provides ample practice in

reading and writing’. Phonics instruction through this approach is still explicit,

systematic and extensive.

Since phonics learning is dependent on experience of reading, there are important

classroom implications. According to Stahl (1992), teachers should:

build on a child’s rich concepts about print functions;

build on a foundation of phonological awareness;

parts of the words are taught before the story is read by children

letter-phoneme correspondences are taught

parts of the words are taught after the story has been read to, with and by children

letter-onset, letter-rime and letter-syllable correspondences are taught

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integrate phonics into a total reading program;

focus on reading words, not learning rules;

include onsets and rimes etc.

The most important thing is teachers must build on the solid foundations of what

children already know and give them space to see patterns and draw inferences. It

is hoped that this whole-to-part approach to phonics encourages children to become

more autonomous learners and be more confident.

In this sense, phonics is a means to an end, not an end in itself. So, in this project,

we:

adopted a whole-to-part approach and put phonics as a meaningful part in a total

reading program;

adopted the analytic approach with onset-rime concept in decoding a word;

considered our children’s previous knowledge, their reading experiences from

textbooks and big books or small readers as a whole integratively;

gave students ample opportunities to internalize phonics formation through using

the skills taught.

II Our considerations:

We hoped to make phonics a meaningful and integrated part in our English

Language curriculum, with ample opportunities for students to learn, apply and connect

with other areas of learning.

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The teaching of phonics must build on what students already know. We did not want

to give students extra burden with many new words. We wanted to use familiar words

and give students ample space to help them see patterns and draw analogy.

We hoped phonics could help students solve learning problems. Students should be

able to learn individual sounds, decode & blend words, read aloud, spell and start

writing. They should be equipped with the skills to learn new words and read with

confidence and interest.

We hoped to make good use of all existing resources as input and provide as many

opportunities for students to apply phonics as possible.

C. The Development Process

I. Planning our curriculum

i. Why:

Integration -------- We planned to integrate phonics into our English Language

curriculum, connecting it with all the teaching resources and various skills so

that phonics is a meaningful tool for students to solve their learning problems.

Differences between our students and native speakers ------ Unlike the native

speakers, our students’ repertoire of words was not very big and their language

environment was limited. Most overseas phonics packages might not be suitable

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for our students as they contain difficult words and exercises which generate

extra learning burden.

Application ----- We stressed the importance of helping students to use phonics

as a tool to learn. The teaching of phonics skills and providing opportunities for

students to apply them was most essential.

ii. How:

Connecting the resources ------ We examined the textbooks and tried to

include interesting storybooks and big books for enrichment and reinforcement

of what students had been learning. All resources were connected either in their

language focuses or themes. Skills were also integrated as far as possible.

Deciding on the sounds to be taught ---- We decided to start the teaching of

sounds based on the words from the textbook since these were the words

students knew. It was easier for them to make analogy when they knew them

already.

We started with simpler consonants and the sounds chosen were `g’, `b’, `m’, `n’,

`d’, `f’, `s’, `sh’, `t’ and `c’.

Designing our teaching materials ---- Since we did not adopt any package,

we made use of and adapted the existing resources available when designing our

own phonics worksheets for each sound. These worksheets were compiled into a

sound book. We asked students to contribute their own words with the same

sound in their sound books.

Using other resources ----- We added many other resources for enrichment,

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reinforcement and application of phonics skills. They included songs, CD-Roms,

big books and small readers for the teaching and practice of different sounds.

Students had chances to see words and sounds in meaningful contexts; and they

could practise the sounds taught in the related units. Students were invited to

read stories together and individually.

Using multisensory approach ----- We made sure that students could hear, see,

write and say the sounds whenever the opportunities arose. We used some

gestures and actions to go with the sounds to help students remember them better.

Besides a lot of songs and actions / miming, we had activities like `name trees’,

making sound box to gather words of the same sounds etc to enlarge students’

repertoire of words and reinforce their ability of making analogy.

iii. What:

Resources used:

Textbook

We used New Welcome to English Bk1 as our course book. It was the core of

our curriculum. Since we agreed that students need practice in seeing and

understanding decodable words in real reading situations and with connected

text (Adams 1990), we chose active vocabulary from the textbook as the

starting point of phonics teaching.

Sound Books

After teaching each sound, students were asked to find more words with the

same sound and write them down in the sound book. Besides they were

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encouraged to use the words to make sentences and share with the class. This

helped to cultivate self-learning habits and reinforce learning from each other.

Students were able to draw analogy between sounds and words they knew and

their confidence was boosted during the sharing session.

Songs

All students enjoyed singing very much. The songs helped to engage students

with the sounds they were learning. They could remember the sounds better

and they had the chance to practise the sounds they had learnt in a more lively

way.

CD-Roms

Students were attracted by the interesting animations. They were exposed to

authentic materials with interesting contexts. Students could take part in the

interactive games. There were also ample opportunities for students to join in

and read aloud together.

Teachers could also prepare the lessons and check the pronunciation with the

help of the CD-Roms conveniently. Both teachers and students were exposed

to the clear sounds and recitation on the CD-Roms and this resulted in

students’ better mastery of the sounds.

Big Book Shared reading

Big books with attractive pictures and enlarged prints could appeal to all

students. Students could have the chance to apply phonics skills to say the

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words they did not know. Students were invited to read stories together and

individually. They had chances to see words and sounds in meaningful

contexts and they enjoyed reading very much. Besides, we taught basic

reading skills during the process of shared reading.

Small Readers

Students needed some real and interesting reading materials that they could

bring home for sharing with parents and consolidation. We chose a few readers

for each module to reinforce the learning of language items and stimulate

students’ ideas. Students’ attitude and affective development were also

considered. Students were expected to read the small readers more intensively

and fluently. They were also encouraged to use the language and ideas they

had learnt from the small readers in writing and project work.

In selecting big books and small readers, we considered the following

questions:

Were they interesting?

Did they match with the themes we were covering?

Did they help to reinforce students’ learning of the language items?

Did they provide chances for practicing phonics skills?

Were there any stimulating ideas?

Was it possible for students to transfer what they had learnt in writing or

project work?

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Sound Box

To facilitate learning from each other, we gathered words of the same sounds

from students and put them in the sound box. Students were invited to share

their own words with the whole class. This enhanced their sense of ownership

and achievement. Students were also exposed to words they did not know and

they learned more words as a result.

II. Changes in planning and practice:

Adjustment needed

As the teaching of phonics was a new teaching experience for all of us, we needed more

time for preparation and the actual activities. So, teaching was slowed down in the first term.

We could only finish teaching 7 sounds. We had to adjust our teaching plan and the last 3

sounds in our plan (t, sh, s) had to be taught in the second term.

Changes in teaching focus --- emphasis on phonics skills and application

After the first term and based on the data collected, we had discerned the following

development in our students:

Students had mastered a certain number of consonants (7 altogether) in the

first term and they had much exposure to sounds and words through shared

reading activities.

They were used to our teaching style and they enjoyed the learning of phonics

very much.

Students were eager to learn phonics and willing to read new words. Most of

them were progressing very well and the post-test results showed that their

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confidence level was higher.

Students still had problem in blending sounds and sounding out new

words.

We thought that we could go faster and be more ambitious in the second term. We

also wanted to help students blend sounds. So, besides continuing with the teaching of

more consonants, we tried to include the teaching of onsets and rimes.

Together with the 3 sounds `t’, `s’ and `sh’ we did not cover in the first term, we

added some other sounds `h’, `p’, `l’, `r’, `j’, `k’, `w’ and `v’. Very common rimes

including `at’, `all’, `in’, `an’ and `et’ were taught. We also started introducing the

concept of syllables. We helped students divide the words into parts based on the sound

components and used clapping to help students identify the number of syllables for

simple words. Students were given even more chances in reading aloud. So, there was

more emphasis on the teaching of phonics skills and application, rather than just on

the sounds themselves. It was hoped that students could try to sound out words by

blending sounds and apply phonics in reading aloud.

First term Second term

Teaching focuses:

Start with easier consonants:

`g’, `b’, `m’, `n’, `d’, `f’ and `c’

More emphasis on phonics skills and application

*more consonants:

`s’, `sh’, `t’, `h’, `p’, `l’, `r’, `j’, `k’, `w’ and `v’

*add rimes:

`at’, `all’, `in’, `an’ and `et’

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*syllabification

Mainly on reading

More reading aloud & writing

Resources used:

Textbook, sound books, songs, CD-Roms, big books, small readers, sound box

III. Putting our plans into practice:

We had three modules in the first term as well as the second term. For better

illustration, we took ‘Animals’ and ‘Me and My friends’ as an example. Students were

requested to do a project on ‘Myself’ as an end product.

When we taught these two modules, we planned to cover around 8 onsets and 3 rimes.

Besides integrating the teaching of phonics in the English lessons whenever the

opportunities arose, we also spent a whole lesson on phonics teaching occasionally,

particularly during the oral lessons. So, when we were teaching words from the

textbooks or big books and came across words with sounds we were teaching, we would

seize the chance and help students work out the sound using appropriate phonics skills.

We found it a challenging task as it depended on teachers’ awareness and the time

available. As for lessons on phonics, we tried to use stories related to the themes and

teach phonics in context.

i. How we planned a lesson

What to teach

We wanted to teach the rime “all” in the module `Me and my friends’. The

students had learnt some consonant sounds ( t, w, f, h, m, b, sm) and some had

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acquired basic skill in blending sounds into words. But many students had

confusing concepts about onsets and rimes. We hoped we could reinforce our

students’ concepts with more examples and interesting activities.

Our preparation

We agreed that storytelling was one of the effective ways to attract our

students. Through the use of stories, we could make phonics teaching more

contextualized. It was difficult to find a suitable story to match our teaching

targets. So we decided to create a new story.

In the story, we used words ending with the rime “all” e.g. t/all, w/all, f/all,

b/all and the rimes were all printed in red. We also prepared picture cards and

sentence strips for the games. We designed activities to involve our students in

storytelling.

The story:

The cat climbs up the tall wall.

Look out! Rat. Do not fall.

The cat climbs up the tall wall.

Look out! Cat. Do not fall.

The dog climbs up the tall wall.

Look out! Dog. Do not fall.

ii. What we did in class

There were some episodes of our lesson on

1. teaching and sharing during the process

2. students’ activities in which they had to sort out words

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3. students’ activities in constructing words in groups and matching them with the

appropriate picture cards

Follow-up

After the group work, each student chose some words they had learnt and try to make

some funny/silly sentences. This was their assignment at home.

Evaluation

Students showed tremendous interest in the lesson and they were fond of the

characters. Their concept of onset-rime was reinforced. They showed better

understanding of onset-rime as revealed in the activity and the sentences they

made after the lesson.

Students were able to develop the story further and they liked to create the

ending of the story together with the teacher. The following was one example:

Here comes a little girl. She is playing with a ball.

The dog wants to catch the ball.

Look out! Dog. Do not fall.

Can the dog catch the ball?…… Yes. / No.

Students showed very good attempt in making the sentences. These were some

examples:

The tree is tall.

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I have small eyes.

I like playing basketball.

The tall boy is in the park playing the ball.

(The tall boy is playing the ball in the park.)

The small ball is on the wall

The small cat all day play.

(The small cat plays all day.)

When we were preparing the lesson, we doubted whether it was worth

spending so much time making the picture cards. During the lesson, we found

the picture cards very useful in helping students understand the words. We

concluded that some teaching aids were necessary although preparing them

was very time-consuming.

We had peer observation for this lesson. The other teachers and our

headmistress joined the class as observers. They helped in observing students’

reactions and learning. They also made comments and suggestions on

improving the teaching. It was a very useful exercise.

The teacher’s own evaluation on the lesson:

Students’ learning:

It was a very enjoyable lesson for all of us. The students were

very attentive and they participated actively, particularly in

constructing the story. Some of them were eager to read the

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story in front of the class. They could read the sentences

clearly but I still felt that they read too softly. Maybe I should

provide them with more reading opportunities in class so that

they would become more confident.

Teaching:

I still had too much control over the activities and all the input.

Judging from the students’ performance, I thought their own

contribution should be encouraged more. It would be much

better if I elicited words from them throughout the process and

made use of their contribution in the activity as well. This

would add challenge and a sense of ownership on the students’

part.

Collaboration:

I was very grateful to my headmistress, colleagues and the

CDO for their positive comments. They all confirmed what I

have done was on the right track. Their suggestions for

improvement also helped me see more possibilities and switch

to see students’ needs more. However, sharing was still

inadequate. I thought we could learn more if we watched the

recording of the lesson together and discussed in greater detail

students’ learning and how teaching could further enhance it.

Students’ work

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Reading was integrated with writing. We provided students with the opportunities to

apply what they had learnt from the textbook and other resources like big books and

small readers in their projects. The students showed great interest and effort in writing.

Their work was very impressive, full of interesting ideas and creative presentations.

Although the work did not reflect students’ learning in phonics, we found it an

unintended outcome of our new curriculum. We teachers had a great sense of

achievement as well.

D. The Research Process

I. Data collection methods

This is a qualitative research aiming at developing insights and implications from

data concerning students’ change in competence and confidence in reading. We also

explored ways of designing systematic, contextual and meaningful phonics instruction

and tried out different teaching methods to enhance students’ reading competence and

confidence. Views from the teachers, the students and the parents were collected for

better triangulation. For this research, all four classes in Primary 1 consisting of 130

students were involved.

II. Instruments used:

i. Pre-test and post-test (first term)

This was on students’ mastery of sounds and their confidence in sounding out words.

The pre-test was conducted at the beginning of the first term to find out how much

students knew and their confidence level. This method was supplemented by

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qualitative data from teacher observation during the test. The test was adapted and

simplified from the EI Paso Phonics Survey (Ekwall, 1986) which was an informal

device for assessing phonics. The same test was conducted again towards the end of

the term to measure students’ change in performance and confidence level.

ii. Pre-test and post-test (second term)

The design was the same as the tests in phase 1, with the sounds changed to those

taught in the second term.

iii. Interview + phonics skills test

This was conducted with a focus group (3 students of different standards from each

class) towards the end of the second term to gather more details about students’

learning of sounds, their learning experience in English and their confidence in

reading. The objective of the interviews was to find out how different groups of

students learnt, why and how well they were learning. Students’ metacognitive

knowledge of how they worked out the sounds and the reasons behind was explored

as well.

iv. Class observations

All along, we conducted observations during the teaching process to check and note

down students’ progress and their problems. We also evaluated our instructional

strategies. A checklist was used to highlight the observation focuses and facilitate

recording in class.

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E. Findings

I. Students’ competence and confidence in sounding out words and reading

i. Pre-tests / post-tests

Major findings(1st term):

Students improved their knowledge of sounds tremendously in the post-test.

Students performed better in sounds like `b+up’ and `g+up’ but they were poor

in sounding out `n+up’ and `c+am’.

Most students were nervous when taking the pre-test. They were unwilling to

try and make guesses. There was great improvement students’ confidence in

the post-test.

Class differences were very big, with two classes much better than the other

two.

One class made very good progress in the post-test.

Major findings (2nd term):

Students’ performance in both the pre-test and post-test was greatly improved

when compared with those in the first term.

Students’ learning of sounds and confidence level were much enhanced. Most

of the students were eager to try in the last post-test.

Class differences were not as big as before.

One class had made very good progress, particularly when compared with the

first term post-test.

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Reflection on the tests

The teaching of phonics was really effective in helping students learn the

sounds and develop confidence in sounding out words.

Students in general were able to apply the skills to read new words better and

they were more willing to make guesses.

We had no time to probe into the class differences and the reasons behind. In

our sharing, we came up with the following views:

Teachers’ attitude in teaching phonics might have some impact on

students’ risk-taking and confidence. When we were more positive and

encouraging, always letting students try and learn from mistakes, the

students were more willing to try.

Since the tests were conducted by four teachers altogether, it was difficult

to ensure objectivity and consistency in assessment. Different teachers

might conduct the tests with a different attitude and different

expectations.

ii. Interview with the focus group

Students’ performance in phonics

Some findings from the interview:

All students had very good performance in print awareness. In general,

students had no problem in reading the letter names and saying the sounds.

Students performed well in recognizing the rhyming pairs.

Students were weaker in analytic phonics related to the `word families’

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concept (matching).

Students were particularly weak in applying skills and sounding out words

(transfer) with different onset variation. Only the brighter students were able

to transfer their knowledge and phonics skills to sound out words.

Six students were able to explain their choices and verbalize the reasons for

their choice.

Four students demonstrated a clear concept of `onset-rime’ and made the right

application.

There was great variation among students in their concept of rhymes and most

students failed to show good understanding.

There was variation among students in their confidence level. While four of

the students made all correct attempts in sounding out words with onset

variation (transfer), some did not try to sound out words at all and they

showed no confidence in making attempts. Most students had to be

encouraged from time to time.

There was a big gap among the students in syllabification. Teachers had not

started teaching this part and so most students failed to manage this part well.

Students’ voice:

`I like English because of the activities, games and the fun I can get from

them.’

`I enjoy the learning of phonics and I like the activities related to it.’

`I do not like English because I have to tackle too many words/vocabulary.’

`I do not find learning phonics difficult and I think this can help me in

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dictation.’

Reflection

Students were all aware of the difference between letter names and sounds. It

showed that the teaching of letter names and sounds was very successful and

the great majority of the students had no problems in these parts.

It was further confirmed that more emphasis should be put on the application

of phonics skills. Most students had great problems in applying phonics skills

in reading new words. We should help students to sound out words and

verbalize their thinking process, rather than just teach individual sounds.

Students’ confidence and risk-taking attitude were major factors affecting their

attempt in sounding out words. We had to think of different ways to help them,

particularly the average or weaker ones. Students needed encouragement all

the time.

The performance of students in syllables showed that teaching was essential to

build up students’ concept and confidence. When students were asked

something they had not learnt before, they did have great problems in making

any attempts.

iii. Class observations

Findings:

All students enjoyed the activities in phonics and shared reading sessions.

A few bright students could learn phonics skills and apply them very quickly.

However, most students had problems in sounding out words. Many were

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unwilling to take risks.

After a term’s teaching and encouragement, students showed some

improvement in their confidence. It was important to have an encouraging

class atmosphere.

Reflection:

We did not have time to do the observations and we did not know how to write

down useful information.

The observation checklist was not too useful for making meaningful records of

our teaching and students’ learning. We seldom used it. We needed to work out

a better way for the observations and recording.

The focuses of class observations were not clear enough.

II. Teachers’ reflection on the development process

i. Complexity of phonics learning

Students’ contribution of words provided us with information of how well they

understood and applied the learning of sounds. They could start drawing analogy

between the sounds taught and the words they had learnt before. For instance, for

the sound `g’, many students gave familiar words like `pig’, `dog’, `gun’, `goat’,

demonstrating that they could start associating the sounds with the words they knew.

However, some students gave words like `sing’ and mixed up `g’ with `ng’. Other

students gave words like `orange’ or `Gigi’ (the soft sound). So, their contribution

of words helped us understand the complexity of phonics teaching and we began to

see learning more from the students’ perspective. To address students’ problems, we

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tried to clarify the sounds in class again, noting at the same time that complications

and exceptions could be dealt with later when students were more mature.

Otherwise, students would be confused.

ii. Students’ achievements and problems

As observed in the lessons and the post-test, students’ performance in phonics was

generally improved. Students began to know the relationship between letters and

sounds. They all knew that each letter had a name and a sound and they could well

remember the sounds. They showed improvement in sounding out words, reading

aloud and demonstrated greater confidence. They were all interested in learning

phonics and the related activities. As reflected from the sound books and students’

contributions, students could follow the teaching of phonics quite well. They

enjoyed the work and some even drew pictures to illustrate the words. We used

sound games for assessment and students demonstrated their ability in listening and

discriminating the sounds.

At the same time, we found that knowing the sounds was not enough. From the

interviews, we observed that many students still lacked the skills in blending

sounds. We needed to think of better ways to help our students.

iii. Complexity of teaching strategies

Recalling the various strategies that we have adopted, we failed to identify a

particular strategy that was most useful. Instead, we have learnt the following

points on teaching strategies:

29

Attraction

We have to use activities and materials which appeal to our students. The

multisensory approach with the use of gestures, songs, games and other

activities involving students is proved to be very attractive. Storybooks

are also things that all children enjoy.

Variation

We see that every method has its attractions but we cannot stick to one

method all the time. Most students like singing songs and shared reading

and we can have these activities very often. However, different students

have different responses; one method may appeal to one group of

students but not to the other. Besides, no matter how attractive one

method is, we cannot keep using it. For instance, our students were very

excited when they first read the sound stories. But after a few lessons, the

students had got used to the presentation and they lost interest in them. So,

it is more important to have a variety of activities and adjust to our

students’ needs from time to time.

Ownership

It is very effective if we use our students’ own work and contributions in

our teaching. This helps our students to have a sense of ownership in

learning and they are proud of themselves.

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Application

Providing students ample opportunities to apply what they have learnt is

very important to help students put what they have learnt in practice.

Their learning is reinforced and their confidence is boosted when they see

how things actually work in reality.

III. Teachers’ learning and evaluation of the research methodology

i. Pre-tests / post-tests

Functions

The tests were useful as we got information on our students’ problems, their learning and

feedback on our teaching.

We could understand our students’ standard better and knew where to start.

The post-test results helped to confirm students’ learning and effectiveness of our teaching.

We had a sense of achievement when we saw students’ progress in the post-tests.

As we made the post-test part of the examination, we succeeded in matching assessment with

learning/teaching. In the past, we always failed to test what students had learnt. However, with

this post-test, we had built in the teaching-learning-assessment cycle. We could also get useful

feedback on our teaching through the results.

Problems

The tests were very long and conducting the tests was very time-consuming.

We were all nervous at the beginning and made our students nervous too in the first test. The

lack of experience in conducting the tests had affected the students’ performance.

Our learning

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We learned from our experience. We became wiser in the process. We improved our attitude

and were more relaxed. We also made improvement in the procedure when we conducted the

tests the second time.

We had clearer objectives of using the instruments and could make a better judgement as to

what method should be used.

As we extended the research to P2, we changed our methodology. For P2, we evaluated

students’ learning through observations and did not conduct the pre-tests.

Comparing the tests and the interview: teachers’ involvement and collaboration

with Curriculum Development Officer (CDO)

Since we conducted the tests, we could get more information on the students’ learning and

problems, even individual student’s performance. Teachers’ interaction with students during

the tests was very important and we could have better understanding of the students’ learning.

The interview was conducted by the external agent (CDO & RO from SBCD(P)) and its

impact on us was not so great. We teachers did not have direct interaction with the students.

However, the data served as useful feedback on teaching and provided information on future

planning.

With an external agent conducting the interview, the data obtained could be complimentary to

other findings and a more objective view could be concluded. This was a useful way in

triangulating the different data.

We needed external assistance in data recording, data processing and analysis as we lacked

time and the techniques in doing these in detail. Collaboration with SBCD(P) was necessary

particularly in these areas.

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ii. Class observations

Problems

We failed to have useful and adequate records of our observations.

We did not have clear targets and objectives in mind.

We did not have the culture and training in writing the teachers’ journals.

We focused too much on teaching but not on students’ learning in our observations. We also

failed to probe into students’ learning and the reasons behind in the process.

There were many practical problems: big class size, class discipline, lack of space and time

etc.

Suggestions

We should be more focused in our observations. Rather than observing the whole class like

what we have done, it is better to observe a few target students.

We need to change our perceptions of learning/teaching. It is important to shift our focus from

teaching to learning. We should learn to observe students’ learning, their response and the

reasons behind.

We have to change our culture and learn how to write down reflections in a more meaningful

way.

We should try to open up our class and invite other colleagues to observe our teaching. Peer

observations can be a useful way to widen our horizon and sharpen our reflection. Colleagues

can also help each other out in observing students and making records.

We can make use of meetings and discussion sessions to facilitate our sharing and recording

of our observations.

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IV. Teachers’ reflection on collaboration among colleagues and with CDO

i. Among colleagues:

What we treasured:

`We enjoyed working together and all colleagues have been really supportive.

We shared our work very efficiently and we worked well as a team.’

How we felt:

`However, our sharing was not deep enough. There were the practical

problems of time and workload. We also had psychological burden. We rarely

had peer observation and watched each other teaching. It would have been

much better if we had visited each other’s class and shared our teaching as

well as observed students’ learning.’

ii. With CDO:

What we treasured:

`We felt both the pressure and pleasure working together, and pleasure was

definitely the more prominent part. With the ideas, resources and experiences

that she has brought to us, we have widened our horizon. At the beginning,

we all had doubts and worries. We have been using the same old teaching

method for so many years and we were happy with it. It was not easy

changing our old habits and shifting our paradigm. However, through her, we

could see how the big world outside was changing, what the others were

doing and what could be done. She also helped us to draw connections

34

between theory and practice, among different resources and activities. We

had clearer targets. We were willing to try and test new ways. In the end, we

have gained a lot and more importantly, our students are learning better.’

How we felt

- ` However, we felt that our relationship was not close enough. We still found it a

great pressure to invite her to our class. So, she seldom joined our lessons and

she failed to have interaction with our children. Looking back, we thought she

could be involved more in our teaching and our collaboration could be much

closer.’

V. The headmistress’s voice

Teachers are growing

Students are learning

F. Discussion

I. Importance of phonics teaching to young children

The research findings indicated that students were all aware of the difference

between letter names and sounds. The great majority of the students performed

very well in these parts. So, the teaching of letter names and sounds has been very

successful.

35

It is clear to see that we need to teach students to say the sounds and count the

syllables. The research findings have confirmed the importance of teaching. So,

phonics teaching helps the students to start seeing the relationship between letters

and sounds and provides a foundation for them to develop further.

II. Importance of developing students’ risk-taking attitude in language learning

The key to success in learning and applying phonics is the willingness to take risks.

Unlike the study of textbooks, students need to apply phonics skills and decode

new words in phonics learning. Whether students are willing to take risks and

learn by trial and error is a crucial factor in affecting their learning of phonics

skills.

We teachers have to think of different ways to help the students, particularly the

average and weaker ones, to develop the risk-taking attitude. It is really important

to use various ways to motivate and involve the students, for instance,

We have to be positive and create an encouraging class atmosphere for

students to take risks.

We always give students a sense of achievement and help students appreciate

each other’s attempts.

The class can learn by trial and error and students need not worry about

making mistakes.

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III. Importance of phonics skills and application

The interview findings demonstrated that students still had problem in applying the

phonics skills (like blending and sounding out new words) although they knew the

sounds well.

Students performed better in more passive skills like identifying rhyming pairs and

matching word families. However, they had the least confidence when they needed

to use the more active skills of transferring and working out the sounds of new

words.

During class observations, we found that the brighter students could derive the

rules quickly and work out the sounds or the number of syllables on their own.

However, the great majority of the students failed to do so. So, most students need

to be taught the actual sounds, the concept and the skills very explicitly.

To make the correct attempt, students need to have very clear concept of

`onset-rime’. That is, we should place more emphasis on application of phonics

skills, helping students to sound out words and their thinking process, rather than

on the teaching of individual sounds. Students need to have ample opportunities to

try blending words and sounding out new words. They should also be helped to

find their own methods in doing that and verbalizing them so that phonics is a

meaningful skill to them.

As we see that students’ application of phonics skills and reading aloud are still

37

inadequate and they cannot read effectively, we need to provide more reading

experiences to our students through the use of big books, electronic books and

small readers and help students apply phonics in reading.

It is not possible to teach all sounds in one year and students’ learning has to be

reinforced and developed from year to year. It is the awareness and skills which

matter, not the mastery of individual sounds. If students can acquire the basic skills

and apply them, they are able to learn on their own and teachers do not need to

teach everything. It is most important for us to teach students the skills to learn so

that they can learn on their own in the end.

G . Conclusion

Looking back, we have to admit that there are lots of limitations in this research. For

instance, it is difficult for us to compare the use of a package and our own designed

materials since we have not used any package before. We have failed to collect sufficient

evidence on our students’ learning since we lacked the time and experience in observing

and recording our students’ progress. But we did manage to develop our own

school-based curriculum to suit our students’ needs and find some positive impacts on

both teaching and learning.

We would like to conclude with reflection on our change:

`This collaborative action research has been a very challenging and illuminating

38

experience to all of us. We started off to explore the teaching of phonics. At the

beginning, we focused a lot on teaching and exploring different learning resources.

These were our major concerns. However, throughout the process, we began to

shift from our teaching to students’ learning. Rather than focusing on what we

teachers need, we have turned to see things more from our students’ perspective.

We keep asking what our students like more, what can stimulate their interest and

enhance their learning better. We also begin to see into their difficulties and needs.

We have therefore explored different strategies like shared reading, singings songs

and games to motivate our students. To make learning more coherent, we have

tried to integrate different things as far as possible and let students apply what

they have learnt. With these changes in our teaching, English lessons become

much more lively and meaningful. While seeing students enjoying the lessons

tremendously, we teachers also experience that teaching English can be so much

fun.

Teaching phonics is really a platform for us to reconsider students’ needs and our

professional growth. The research findings have informed us of our achievement,

the inadequacies and shed light on the development we need further in our

teaching. There is still so much to learn and so much to explore …….. ’

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References Cheyney, W. and Cohen, E. J. (1999). Focus on Phonics: Assessment and Instruction. U.S.A.: Wright Group. The Curriculum Development Council (1997). Syllabuses for Primary Schools: English Language (Primary 1-6). Hong Kong: The Education Department. Dombey, H. et al. (1998). Whole to Part Phonics. London: Centre for Language in Primary Education. Harrison , C. (1996). "Methods of Teaching Reading: Key Issues in Research and Implications for Practice". Interchange, no. 39:1-11. Lloyd, S. (1994) (2nd ed.). The Phonics Handbook: a handbook for teaching reading, writing and spelling. Chigwell: Jolly Learning Ltd. Miller, W. (2000). Strategies for Developing Emergent literacy. Boston: Mcgraw Hill Higher Education. SchifferDanoff, V. (1997). Pocket Charts for Emergent Readers. New York: Scholastic Professional Books. Strickland, D. S. (1998). Teaching Phonics Today: A Primer for Educators. Newark: International Reading Association. Websites Curtis, J. (1997). "Phonics vs. Whole Language: Which is Better?" Retrieved from

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<http://www.mycinnamontoast.com/reading2.htm>

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