The current research aimed to examine the effects of the balanced reading program including reading game activities on improvement in reading phonological awareness and reading attitude of kindergarten children. This program is based on the balanced a...
The current research aimed to examine the effects of the balanced reading program including reading game activities on improvement in reading phonological awareness and reading attitude of kindergarten children. This program is based on the balanced approach to literacy.
This program was designed to improve reading, Phonological awareness and Reading attitude through a balanced approach to literacy in which children participated in activities such as reading story books and discussing about the stories and many games related with phonological awareness and phonics.
Participants of the research were selected from a kindergarten in Y city, Gyung-gi Do. They were recommended by their teacher as subjects who need enhancement of reading. The subjects were necessary to be prepared to begin an elementary curriculum since it was near the end of an academic year. Twelve children without intellectual disabilities were selected based on the K-WPPSI score. These children were assigned to an experimental group and a control group (six children each) matching in terms of pre-test scores, gender and grade.
The reading test, the phonological awareness test, and the reading attitude test were conducted before and after the program to examine the effects of the program. The tests were individually administered by a qualified examiner in person.
The data of the research were processed using SPSS 12.0. To examine the hypotheses, ANCOVAs were conducted on word recognition scores, reading comprehension scores, phonological awareness scores, and reading attitude scores using pretest scores as covariate variables.
The results were as follows:
First, there was a significant effect of the program on the word recognition of kindergarten children.
Second, the program showed significant effects on reading comprehension of kindergarten children.
Third, There was no significant effects in phonological awareness of kindergarten children.
Fourth, there was a significant effect of the balanced reading program on the Reading attitude kindergarten children.
To sum up, the program demonstrated that it can improve reading, phonological awareness and reading attitude. This program had a significant meaning that it provided kindergarten children who needed enhancement of reading with early intervention.