Abstract:
BACKGROUND : Literacy achievement of learners is a concern in many developing countries,
particularly for English second language (EL2) learners with inadequate language development.
It is important to investigate foundational phonological awareness (PA), as well as speech
perception skills to guide the development of effective intervention for EL2 learners to facilitate
optimal literacy acquisition.
OBJECTIVES : The study aimed to describe the PA and speech perception in noise skills of South
African Grade 1, EL2 participants, learning in an English first language (EL1) context, to
inform evidence-based support during literacy acquisition for EL2 learners.
METHOD : A cross-sectional, descriptive design was employed. Twenty-five EL1 participants
provided normative results for the Phonological Awareness Test – 2 and South African English
Digits-in-Noise Test, enabling between-group comparisons with 25 matched EL2 participants
for quantitative data analysis. Demographic and background information was obtained using
parental questionnaires.
RESULTS : The EL2 learners presented with PA skills below those of EL1 learners in all subtests.
Though the speech perception in noise skills of EL2 learners were within the normative range
for their age, their skills are also lower in comparison to EL1 learners.
CONCLUSION : The findings support the 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 phonemegrapheme
knowledge. This can enable decoding for early EL2 literacy acquisition.
