Phonological awareness and speech perception in noise : skills of English second language learners in Grade 1

Abstract

Purpose Low literacy achievement of English second language (EL2) learners due to insufficient language development is a concern. Investigating foundational phonological awareness (PA) and speech perception in noise skills is important to inform evidence-based support during literacy acquisition. For this purpose, the study described the PA and speech perception in noise skills of South African Grade 1, EL2 participants, learning in an English first language (EL1) educational context. Method Twenty-five EL1 participants provided normative results for the matched 25 EL2 participants investigated from the Tshwane District. Quantitative data was collected using the Phonological Awareness Test – 2 (PAT-2) and the South African English DIN Test for between-group comparisons. Questionnaires were provided to parents and teachers to obtain demographic and background information. Results and discussion The EL2 learners presented with PA skills significantly below that of EL1 learners. Although the speech perception in noise skills of the EL2 learners were within the normative range for their age, their scores remained significantly lower than the EL1 learners. Conclusions The findings support inclusion of explicit PA instruction for rhyming, segmentation, isolation, deletion, substitution, and blending for EL2 literacy acquisition. Developing speech perception in noise skills is necessary to facilitate PA and phoneme-grapheme knowledge. This enables decoding for early EL2 literacy acquisition.