Effects of a Kindergarten Phonological Awareness Intervention on Grade One Reading Achievement Among Spanish-Speaking Children from low-income families

Authors

  • María Elsa Porta Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
  • Gloria Ramirez Thompson Rivers University
  • David Dickinson Vanderbilt University Peabody College

Keywords:

early intervention, phonological awareness, Spanish-speaking children, spelling, reading.

Abstract

There is little knowledge about the effects of kindergarten Spanish phonological awareness interventions on literacy outcomes of grade one children from vulnerable environments. To fill this gap, this study evaluates the effects of a kindergarten phonological awareness intervention on grade one literacy skills in Spanish speaking children (N = 178) from low-income neighborhoods in Argentina. The three-month program delivered at the beginning of kindergarten included 34 lessons focused on phoneme segmentation, categorization, and blending, and letter-sound knowledge. Using a pretest-posttest comparison-group design, measures of phonological awareness, word reading, and spelling were collected before the intervention, immediately after the intervention, and one year later when children were finishing grade one. In addition, reading comprehension was examined at the end of grade one. Results reveal that the intervention had a significant effect on phonological awareness skills, letter-sound knowledge, word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension. These findings suggest that a systematic, phonological awareness intervention program delivered during kindergarten to native speakers of Spanish has a positive impact on their grade one literacy outcomes.

Author Biography

María Elsa Porta, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

Dr. María E. Porta is a Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Argentina). She carried out four projects assessing and the effects of linguistic intervention programs on reading achievement among Spanish speaking children from low-income homes

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Published

2021-08-17

How to Cite

Porta, M. E., Ramirez, G., & Dickinson, D. (2021). Effects of a Kindergarten Phonological Awareness Intervention on Grade One Reading Achievement Among Spanish-Speaking Children from low-income families. Revista Signos. Estudios De Lingüística, 54(106). Retrieved from https://revistasignos.cl/index.php/signos/article/view/495

Issue

Vol. 54 No. 106 (2021): August

Section

Articles

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