Research question 1b

Table 4.3 lists the results of the analysis of how phonics is taught in the six textbooks.

Table 4.3 How phonics is taught in each of the textbooks

Items HE JE HD NW E ML GS Direct teaching of sound-letter relationships       Teaching framework       Level of progression      

Regular word building activities (assembling sounds to make words)

  /    

Regular spelling practice (segmenting sounds and writing down the letters)

     

Regular use of chants or rhymes

     

Percentage of Phonically regular words selected for practicing the rules

48% 75% 41% 76% 64% 61%

As shown in table 4.3, all the textbooks endorse direct teaching of sound-letter relationships, use chants or rhymes to reinforce learners’ phonics knowledge and skill and, except for NWE, adopt a similar teaching framework. However, although all the textbooks endorse direct teaching of phonics, four of the six textbooks also incorporate the teaching of rime units. Especially in NWE, phonics is predominately taught through the use of rime units. According to advocates of large unit theories, children’s phonological awareness at syllable or rime level is more readily available and can serve as a basis for learners to make inferences for a more fine-grained letter to sound correspondence when they enter a more advanced level (Goswami & Bryant, 1990). The fact that the majority of the textbooks use rime units to practice sound-letter links at the early stage of phonics teaching may suggest that the textbook compilers were conscious of the potential difficulties young learners may face processing English at phoneme level. However, as the rime units are introduced

immediately after the teaching of the sounds of A to Z in all four textbooks, it is more likely that rime units are used as a basis for initial word building practice. In other words, they are used to prepare learners for assembling sounds at phoneme level at a later stage.

With the exception of NEW, a similar teaching framework was found amongst all the textbooks (listed in table 4.4). In these textbooks phonics teaching starts with the sound of a-z followed by the consolidation of the vowel and consonant phonemes or vice versa, long vowel phonemes and consonant

clusters or vice versa, then other vowel phonemes and/or other consonants. It is not clear what criteria were involved in the sequencing of the rules to be taught; however, as reflected in the framework list, it is evident that the textbooks placed strong emphasis on the distinction between similar consonant phonemes by grouping them together (e.g. b/p, d/t, g/k, v/f, z/s, m/n). In general, although differing in the sound-letter links included in the curriculum, the framework of most of the textbooks follows the general direction of that in the UK NLS framework.

4.4 Teaching framework of the textbooks

HE  a-z

 Consonants (b, p, d, t, g, c/ck, q, k, f, v, s, z, m, n, l, r)

 VC rime: short vowel phonemes (an, at, ed, en, ig, in, ot, ock, ...)  Long vowel phonemes (a_e, ai, ay, e_e, ea, ee, i_e, igh...)

 Consonant clusters (sh, ch, tch, th, th, wh, ph, ck, ng, nk, bl, gl,..)  Other vowel phonemes (ar, er, ir, ur, or, oo, oo, oi, oy, ou, ow)  soft c, soft g, -le

JE  a-z

 Short vowel phonemes (a,e,i.o.u)

 Consonants (b, p, d, t, g, k, v, f, z, s, m, n, r, l)  Consonants clusters (sh, ch, ng, nk, wh, ph, th, th)

 Long vowel phonemes (a_e, ay, ai, ee, ea, i_e, ie, oa, o_e, u_e...)  Consonant clusters- blends (bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, sk,  R-controlled vowels (ar, ar, er, er, or, or, ir, ur, ar, er, or, ir, ur)

 Other vowel phonemes (au, aw, oo, oo, ou, ow, oi, oy)

 Soft c, soft g

 Silent letters (k, w, gh, l, b)

HD  a-z

 Short vowel phonemes (a,e,i.o.u)

 Consonants (t, d, m, n, c, g, p, b, sh, s, f, v, l, r, wh, w, sh, ch)

 Short & Long vowel phonemes (a_e, a, i_e, i, o_e, o, u_e, u)

 Consonant clusters (sm, sp, j, ch, gr, gl, pr, br, bl, pl)

 Long vowel phonemes (a_e, ai, ay, ee, ea, i_e, ie, y, o_e, oa...)

 R-controlled vowels (ir, ur, er, or) NWE  a-z

 VC rime: long vowel phonemes a,e,i (ake, -ate, -eve, -ete, -e...)

 Consonant cluster (th, -th)

 VC rime: long vowel phonemes , o, u (-ow, -oat. –ue, -uit)

 Consonant cluster (ch, -sh, -ck)

 VC rime: V-o (ook, -ool, -oon, -ow, -ouse, -oi, -oil)

 Vowel phonemes (-y, -y, -aw, -au )

 VC rime: C-r (ir, -ur, -ar, -ar, -ore, -ork, -orn, -er, -or, -air, -ear)  VCC rime: C-l ( ell, elt, -alk, -all, -ill, -old)

 VC rim: V-i (-ind, -ine)

ML  a-z

 Consonants (p, b, t, d, c, g, s, z, f, v,r ,l )  Vowels (a, e, i, o, u)

 VC rime (-at, -ad, -am, -an, -ed, -et, -en, -im, -id, -ig, -ox...)

 Consonant cluster (ng, ck, ch, sh, th, th)

 Long vowel phonemes (a_e, ai, ay, ee, e_e, ea, i_e, ie, oa...)  Consonant cluster-blends (br, dr, fr, pr, tr, gr, bl, cl, fl, pl, ....)  R-Controlled vowels (ar, er, ir, or, ur)

GS  a-z

 VC rime: V-short vowel phonemes (at, ad, -et, -ox, -ot, -it, -ig...)

 Long vowel phonemes (a_e, ai, ay, o_e, oa, ow, i_e, ie, y, ea...)

 Consonant cluster (sh, ch, th, th)

 Other Vowel phonemes (oo, oo, ow, ou, oi, oy)

Negative results

On the negative side, there is no perceptible level of progression with the practice of decoding or encoding skill in all six textbooks, neither do any of them have regular word building and spelling activities. The fact that most of the textbooks use rime units for practicing word building at the initial stage should suggest that textbook writers were aware of the importance of phonically regular words for practicing sound-letter links. However, not all the words that the textbooks selected to demonstrate the rules are phonically regular for the learners. NWE and JE had the highest percentage of phonically regular words in the phonics section (76% & 75%) and HD the lowest (41%). However, NWE had a relatively high percentage of phonically regular words mainly because of the use of rime

units throughout the phonics section. In general, all the textbooks follow the procedure of introducing sound-letter correspondences, practicing saying words that contain the rules, and then practicing a chant. Initially, all the textbooks focus predominately on the identification of sounds at the initial position but whenever possible, all of them also provide words that contain the correspondences at the initial, medial and final position. However, in terms of progression, the

identification of phonemes in different positions is introduced simultaneously and the words used to illustrate the rules do not exhibit particular structure and are of various lengths even at the initial stage of phonics teaching. To a certain extent, the provision of phonically regular words to illustrate phonics rules can provide learners with word building practice. However, although all the textbooks

consciously choose shorter words to illustrate the rules, the statistics show that they could not all be sounded out with the phonics rules learners have learned. Except for HD, which has a ‘Let’s sound out’ section designed specifically to engage learners in sounding out phonically regular CVC words in various combinations, no other textbooks focused specifically on this aspect of phonics teaching. Even with HD, however, the section stopped at Book 4 and stayed at the level of CVC words.

There is an obvious absence of spelling practice in the phonics section of all six textbooks. Throughout the series, all the spelling practice remains at the ‘fill in the missing letter’ level in all six textbooks and their associated workbooks. Learners are required to choose amongst a list of relational units to complete words that

have parts missing by either looking at the picture clues or listening to the

teacher/CD. There appears to be more focus on learners’ ability to associate the pictures (meaning) to the example words than the ability to spell the words independently. However, as revealed in the workbooks, learners are required to spell the vocabulary of the main lesson, which often bears little relationship to the phonics rules taught.

General discussion

The results of the textbook analysis show that phonics teaching in Taiwan differs in several aspects from that reflected in the UK NLS framework, specifically with respect to level of progression and the amount of word building and spelling practice. Although the NLS framework has been shown to work, what works for EL1 learners may not necessarily work for EFL learners as fundamental differences exist between these two groups. For instance, the NLS framework is designed for learners who start at the

reception year (age 4). As Taiwanese EFL learners are typically older (age 8-9) when the official phonics teaching starts, it is not clear whether EFL learners require the same systematic progression to acquire phonics knowledge and skill. Nonetheless, as EFL learning involves the acquisition of a completely new language, a step by step guidance may prove equally beneficial to Taiwanese EFL learners.

The fact that most of the textbooks placed strong emphasis on learners’ ability to differentiate similar consonant phonemes (b/p, f/v, etc.) indicates that other considerations may be involved in the design of the framework. It may be that phonics is viewed as a pathway to the acquisition of English sounds and hence facilitating learners’ awareness of similar English consonant phonemes constitutes a major part of the phonics program. However, as the Chinese phonetic symbols (ZYFH) share the same sounds as many of the English consonant phonemes (see Appendix 1.2) it is questionable whether

Taiwanese learners require special focus on these distinctions. On the other hand, as the Chinese language does not make a distinction between long and short vowel phonemes, this aspect of English phonemes may require more emphasis. None of the textbooks, however, make the ability to distinguish between similar vowel phonemes a focus for practice. It is possible that the fundamental differences between the sound systems of the two languages and learners’ existing knowledge of sounds and their abilities to distinguish them have not been considered in the process of designing the textbooks. Sociocultural theorists emphasize the importance of taking into account what learners already know both cognitively and socially when making pedagogical decisions (Cole, 1996; Rogoff, 1990 & 2003). A consideration of the resources young Taiwanese learners bring into the English classroom may indeed allow the creation of teaching materials that better suits the learners’ needs as well as a more effective and efficient use of limited class time.

Nonetheless, the efficacy of any program cannot be judged without taking into account the curriculum objectives. In the UK NLS framework, the objectives of phonics teaching are set as: ‘Phonic knowledge and skills should be taught and practised to a level where decoding and spelling using

phoneme–grapheme representations become habitual and operate at the level of ‘tacit knowledge’. To ensure that the national targets are met, the selection of the rules, the level of progression and decoding and encoding activities were all carefully planned and researched. Both the knowledge and skill aspects of phonics teaching receive equal attention. The design of its phonics program clearly reflects the underlying objectives.

Similar to the NLS framework, the attainment indicators set in the Taiwanese official curriculum guidelines state that learners should possess phonics knowledge and should ‘make attempts’ to sound out and spell words using phonics rules. The MoE does not specify the level of achievement in their application of phonics skill. However, as learners need phonics knowledge as well as skill to be able to ‘attempt’ at sounding out and spelling words, the application of phonics knowledge should constitute an essential part of a phonics program. Although all the textbooks provide a framework for teaching, the absence of regular word building and systematic practice of encoding skill means that the teaching stays predominantly at the knowledge level. In other words, learners may acquire phonics knowledge but without much practice of the associated skill of segmenting and assembling the phonemes. It is true

that many of the words the textbooks provided to illustrate the rules were phonically regular, however, to a certain extent, efficacy depends on whether learners were encouraged to make attempts to sound out the words

independently. The teaching procedures presented in the teacher’s guides for all six textbooks place teachers at the centre of instruction. Teachers are expected to introduce the sound-letter correspondences and then read out the example words for learners to repeat. Such a procedure may not necessarily involve any processing demand on the learners. Consequently, learners might not have a chance to develop their phonological processing skill at phoneme level. However, even if learners are given opportunities to sound out words independently, they may be handicapped by the significant proportion of phonically irregular words used to illustrate the rules. It is evident that the decision of the selection of words did not consider learner independence. What the result reflects is a culturally influenced view of young learners and self-teaching. In Taiwan, it is generally believed that young learners are

incapable of self-teaching. They are characterized as dependent and passive. Thus, all the knowledge the learners need to learn is taught explicitly and repeatedly reviewed in the classroom where independence is neither required nor nurtured. The teacher’s role as authority is greatly emphasized and this structures the teaching events and practices. Drawing on the notion that cognitive development arises as the consequence of socially and historically directed activity (Vygosky, 1978), invitably this view of young learners and self-teaching limits learners’ opportunity to apply learned phonics knowledge

in and outside the classroom independently and affects the efficacy of phonics instruction.

It has to be said, however, that the teacher’s guides might not necessarily reflect actual classroom implementation by the teacher. The structure of the phonics program, nonetheless, may still have an impact on the general direction of phonics teaching. Any phonics programs designed for Taiwanese EFL learners needs to take into account the fundamental differences between EL1 and EFL learners as well as EFL learners’ knowledge repertoire acquired through L1 learning. Phonics teaching may well be a pathway to the

acquisition of English phonology; nonetheless, it is also important to consider the nature of English orthography as well as the ultimate aim of phonics instruction. Textbook compilers may need to examine the efficacy of phonics programs in other countries if informed decisions are to be made on how best to achieve the teaching objectives.