The Phase Two intervention process

The aim of this study has been to evaluate the Implementation of the Teaching Handwriting, Reading and Spelling Skills (THRASS) programme with an Intermediate Phase deaf Gauteng learner using the spoken language approach. The first phase of the study involved the pre-test stage during which the research participant’s literacy proficiency levels were evaluated, and a diagnostic error analysis was performed after each test. The implementation of the THRASS programme over a period of a school year, together with the observations, fieldnotes and recordings, has formed the bedrock of phase two data collection, analysis and interpretation of findings.

The implementation of the THRASS programme with the research participant, Sally, took place at two different levels. Firstly, THRASS was taught at class or group level for 30 minutes three times per week. During these lessons a collaborative, differentiated co-teaching strategy was employed whereby, as the class educator was facilitating the THRASS lessons, the researcher was facilitating the research participant by interacting with her face-to-face. The raison d’etre behind this was to offer Sally direct, intense re-instructional support in order to facilitate her ability to make full use of her speech reading skills, coupled with her residual hearing complimented with the aid of cochlear implants. Additionally, the researcher used the strategy of teaching Sally Cued Speech (see section 2.3.1.3 for a discussion on Cued Speech) together with the corresponding IPA symbols (see Table 2.3 for IPA vowel sounds and symbols) to help her disambiguate the phonemes and words being taught during each lesson.

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Additional one-on-one support sessions also took place for 45 minutes three times per week after school hours. Whatever was covered in each class session was reinforced during the subsequent individual lesson. However, these lessons were structured differently because the researcher took on the primary role of educator in order to facilitate the research participant, Sally, as she interacted with the Phoneme Machine (see section 3.1 for a discussion on the Phoneme Machine) which incorporates the Cued Speech option and the IPA symbols. The research participant was then given additional written resource material so that she could implement and practice what she had just been taught with regard to Cued Speech, IPA symbols, phonemes, word recognition of high frequency words, and word analysis and synthesis. The THRASSIT, SOUND-IT-OUT and SING-A-LONG software (see section 3.1 for a discussion on THRASS resources) was also used to reinforce teaching and learning. During the collaborative co-teaching lessons the class teacher took on the role of gathering observational data for the purposes of discussion.

The Phases and Stages of the THRASS programme were taught in a systematic integrated, holistic manner and adapted to suit the range of needs and abilities of the Intermediate Phase group of learners. A full discussion on the Teaching Handwriting, Reading and Spelling Skills Programme (THRASS), together with the available resources, was handled in chapter three of this report. However, it is pertinent to briefly reflect on the skills that were covered during the implementation of this programme and the additional resources that were utilised:

 Every lesson began with familiarising learners with the geography or landmarks, pictures, keywords, and the associated consonant and vowel phonemes and graphemes of the THRASS Picturechart, Wordchart and Graphemechart together with the corresponding IPA chart symbols. Wall charts and desk charts were used in conjunction with the Raps and Sequence CD. Songs were introduced in stages using the Sing-A-Long Book. Learners engaged in multi-sensory learning wherever possible. (See section 3.1 and 3.2 for a discussion on the THRASS programme)

 The charts were used to explore cross-curricular themes and subject areas in order to scaffold lexical development and facilitate environmental application. Language elements or parts of speech such as compound words, different categories of nouns and verbs, adjectives, adverbs, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, rhyme, alliteration, phrases, sentences and story development were investigated. The critical elements of listening and speaking - which underscore the development of systematic phonics instruction, reading and writing acquisition - were emphasised. (See section 3.2.3 for a discussion on Phase One of THRASS)

 Consonant and vowel graphs, digraphs, trigraphs and quadgraphs, collectively known as graphemes, were explored and discussed. Dictionaries and a variety of print media were

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used to build up word lists associated with the phonemes and the corresponding graphemes on the chart. (See section 3.2.1 for an overview of THRASS).

 The weekly spelling word lists were taught by referring to the phonemes and graphemes on the THRASS charts that made up each word. Explicit teaching relating to the phonological aspects of the words took place. The spelling lists consisted of groups of words or word families that reflected the same orthographic patterns (e.g. ‘hair’, fairy’, ‘staircase’, ‘despair’, ‘airbag’). These words were used in phrases, sentences and stories to scaffold vocabulary development. Learners were encouraged to suggest more words to expand each list.

 Analysis (breaking up words into constituent phonemes to facilitate spelling) and synthesis (blending individual phonemes from left to right to create words when reading) formed an important part of each lesson. Learners were facilitated in identifying words by segmenting these words into individual phonemes; identifying graphemes and then identifying syllables in order to ‘chunk’ words according to the phoneme sequence in words (See section 3.2.4 and 3.2.5 for a discussion on Phase Two and Three of THRASS).

 Deletion and substitution manipulation activities were also investigated in order to explore phoneme sequences in words. For example, the word ‘ball’ on the chart was changed to ‘call’, ‘fall’, ‘gall’, ‘hall’ ‘mall’, ‘tall’ and ‘wall’ by substitution in order to reinforce onset and rhyme (b-all, c-all etc.) whereas the word ‘hand’ was changed to ‘had’ or ‘and’ by deletion.

 The 500 high frequency base words in Phase Four, Stage 10 (T10) were taught progressively and sequentially in an integrated manner as a whole-word approach by using a variety of resources. (See section 3.2.6 for a discussion on Phase Four of THRASS).

 Although the 44 phonemes (24 consonants and 20 vowels) on the charts, together with some of the songs, were revised in every lesson, intense focus was applied to specific rows of consonants and vowels and their corresponding songs over the three terms. Thus, 8 consonant phoneme boxes were dealt with extensively in each term; 7 vowel phoneme boxes were explored in detail in terms one and two; and the last six vowel boxes were studied intensely in term three.

 The THRASS dictionaries were initially used to build up a database of words for each phoneme box. However, the researcher felt it was necessary to develop an alternative word bank book because the THRASS dictionary filled up too quickly and did not allow sufficient space for the exploration of each word. This redesigned book contained a copy of each song, the words from the THRASS dictionary as well as the many cross- curricular lists of words explored over the months. These words were analysed into parts

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(individual phonemes) and then synthesised by ‘chunking’ the words into syllables. Dictionaries were used to find the meanings of unfamiliar words and to record the corresponding IPA symbols in order to facilitate pronunciation. (Refer to appendix I).

 Various resources such as magazines, text books, workbooks and worksheets were used in the class lessons to reinforce concepts taught and to support the learners in the application thereof. This addressed the need for authentic reading experience. Skills such as listening, speaking, reading, viewing, writing, thinking, reasoning and the elements of language structure were contextualised in an integrated manner.

 An additional resource was used during the one-on-one support sessions with the research participant. The MacMillan English Focus on Texts series was chosen, as each narrative was accompanied by activities which reflected all elements of the language arts. Twelve units per term were covered.

 The Phoneme Machine together with the IPA symbols, cued speech posters, a pronunciation dictionary and the Cued Speech option on the Phoneme Machine with video clips, were used extensively in the one-on-one support sessions.