The impact of phonemic awareness and phonics instructions on the reading skills of learners with reading difficulties

This study aimed to investigate the impact of phonemic awareness instruction and phonics instruction on the reading skills of children with reading difficulties. A factorial design in a quantitative approach was employed in the study. A stratified random sampling technique was used to sample thirty (30) respondents from a population of fifty (50) students. A questionnaire was used to collect data and the analysis was done using descriptive statistics to summarize the data, including measures of central tendency and variability. Inferential statistics, including a t-test and a two-way ANOVA, were used to test hypotheses and determine the significance of any differences between the two groups in the study and other effect size measures. The results revealed a statistically significant interaction effect, indicating that the combined use of explicit phonemic awareness and phonics instruction had a significant impact on reading achievement. It was concluded that both approaches to teaching reading have a positive impact on learners’ reading skills and thus, teachers should incorporate them in teaching reading to learners with reading difficulties.

Keywords: Explicit phonemic awareness instruction, Implicit phonemic awareness instruction, Explicit phonics instruction, Implicit phonics instruction, Reading difficulties, Reading skills.