Abstract

GEERTSEMA, Salomé  and  LE ROUX, Mia. Learners with English as additional language: Support for phonological awareness fall-outs. Tydskr. geesteswet. [online]. 2014, vol.54, n.1, pp.96-110. ISSN 2224-7912.

PURPOSE: The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of an auditory perceptual training programme on children within a traditional articulation therapy framework. As part of this larger purpose, this study identified perceptual vowel outcomes for English Additional Language (EAL) learners, as well as a preliminary impact on these learners' articulation of English vowels, their receptive and expressive language abilities and their reading and spelling abilities. METHOD: Fourteen six- to seven-year-old EAL learners were randomly assigned to two conditions. Both the control and treatment groups were initially assessed with a repeated baseline assessment, and again after treatment eight months later. Auditory perceptual skills, specifically word discrimination (including vowel and consonant discrimination), phonological segmentation and blending, number memory and sentence memory, were measured by means of the Test of Auditory-Perceptual Skills Third Edition (TAPS-3). Children's growth in receptive language was also assessed using measures derived from the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language Third Edition (TACL-3). The number of vowel production errors on the Goldman-Fristoe Test for Articulation was measured before and after treatment. The control group received no treatment; the treatment group received auditory perceptual training (grapheme-phoneme coupling and vowel discrimination) which included production training and written exercises (phoneme-grapheme coupling). RESULTS: The framework of teaching English vowels through traditional auditory perceptual and production training proved useful for phonological awareness of vowels, literacy teaching and articulation by the EAL learners. CONCLUSIONS: Results concluded that improved academic outcomes should be possible if the teaching of English vowels to EAL learners by EFL speech-language therapists is implemented. Improved auditory perception, articulator production and general language abilities culminate in improved academic outcomes.

Keywords : phonological awareness; auditory perception; traditional articulation therapy; English Additional Language (EAL) learners; English First Language (EFL) learners; literacy outcomes.

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