Phonological Awareness Training for Struggling Readers in Grade 1 French Immersion

This longitudinal study analysed the effectiveness of phonological awareness (PA) instruction on the reading development of struggling Grade 1 readers enrolled in an early French immersion (FI) program in Southern Ontario. To date, there have been no published studies of PA interventions for FI students who are considered to be at risk for later reading problems. The findings indicate that a phonologically-based intervention can effectively address PA deficits and facilitate reading acquisition for FI students from diverse linguistic backgrounds who are struggling to learn to read in French.Approximately 100 children with varied language backgrounds participated in the study during each school year. A new cohort was added each year for a period of three consecutive years. At-risk readers from each of the three cohorts were identified on the basis of their performance on English word reading and/or English PA measures that were administered. Pre-test measures were administered in November, and immediate post-test measures were administered in April. Delayed post-testing was conducted in February of the following two school years to assess the durability of treatment effects.Small groups of 3-4 struggling readers from intact classes were randomly assigned to experimental and control conditions in each of the three consecutive years. For 18 weeks, the treatment group was provided with English PA training in combination with letter-sound correspondence instruction, and the control group received English instruction designed to increase vocabulary development. At the conclusion of the intervention phase of the study, immediate post-testing indicated that the treatment group was closing the achievement gap in comparison to the typically developing readers on both English and French measures of PA and measures of French word reading. At this time point, there was still a significant difference between the control group's performance on these same measures and that of the typically developing readers. Delayed post-testing results indicated that the treatment group significantly outperformed the control group on French measures of elision, word reading, and word reading fluency.Ph.D