ABSTRACT

Phonemic awareness serves as the foundation of all reading endeavors. Children

lacking phonemic awareness will have difficulty in learning how to read.

The purpose of this study was to assess the reading readiness of Grade Two

pupils of Rotonda Elementary School through their mastery of the phonemic awareness

skills. Fifty-five respondents were examined using the tool designed by the researcher.

Individual results were gathered to derive the mean scores of six phonemic awareness

tasks and the accumulated mean scores.

Through the data gathered, it was found out that all six phonemic awareness

tasks are on Developing level. It was also discovered that approximately 38 percent of

the respondents are on Proficient level while 47 percent are on Developing level and 15

percent are on Beginning level. Moreover, it was concluded that the overall mastery

level of the respondents, based on the accumulated mean scores of six phonemic

awareness tasks, is on Developing level.

The results of the study indicated that the Grade Two pupils have the knowledge

of the phonemic awareness skills but they exhibit confusion on some crucial sounds

which make them commit wrong answers at some points.

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 READING READINESS OF GRADE TWO PUPILS BASED ON PHONEMIC

AWARENESS SKILLS ASSESSMENT

INTRODUCTION

The advent of the K to 12 program has brought major entities in the Philippine

education. Necessary structural innovation was made especially in the contents taught

inside the classroom.

One of the major issues concerning K to 12, as a curriculum, is the use of mother

tongue as the medium of instruction in the primary level which is far different from the

previous curriculum. English language is introduced in grade one but only limited to

listening. In grade two, English phonemes and phonics are already taught to prepare

grade two pupils to grade three. Thus, focus in honing phonemic awareness should be

materialized in this stage.

Sousa (2005): “Phonemic awareness is a subdivision of phonological awareness

and refers to the understanding that words are made up of individual sounds

(phonemes) and that these sounds can be manipulated to create new words.”

Phonemic Awareness is one of the strongest predictors of early reading success.

While there are multiple skills to be learned before reading can take place, phonemic

awareness is the building block for acquiring the other skills of reading. Phonemic

awareness helps children understand the sounds in speech and to use the knowledge

of speech sounds to decode words (Hill, 2012).

As the School Reading Coordinator and a graduate school student majoring in

Reading, the researcher seeks to find out the readiness of grade two pupils as to how

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their phonemic awareness skills are developed. Also, the researcher sees the

significance of the results since it will be utilized to craft a remediation or enhancement

program.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This research seeks to measure the phonemic awareness skills of Grade Two

pupils as basis of their reading readiness. Specifically, the study sought to answer the

following questions:

1. What are the levels of phonemic awareness skills of Grade Two pupils in

terms of:

A. Phoneme Isolation;

B. Phoneme Identification;

C. Phoneme Categorization;

D. Phoneme Blending;

E. Phoneme Segmentation; and

F. Phoneme Manipulation

 Phoneme Deletion

 Phoneme Addition

 Phoneme Substitution

2. How many pupils belong to Proficient, Developing, Beginning, and

Inexperienced levels?

3. What is the overall phonemic awareness skills mastery level of Grade Two

pupils?

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SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

This study is limited at measuring the reading readiness of Grade Two pupils

through their phonemic awareness skills in terms of phoneme isolation, phoneme

identification, phoneme categorization, phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, and

phoneme manipulation.

The study will be conducted at Rotonda Elementary School. The total population

of 55 pupils enrolled in Grade Two will serve as the respondents of the study. They will

undergo phonemic awareness skills assessment using the phonemic awareness skills

assessment tool designed by the researcher himself adapting the concepts from the

phonemic awareness skills assessment of Wiley Blevins and phoneme segmentation

test of Hallie Kay Yopp.

The study will be conducted at the last quarter of S.Y. 2014 – 2015 since it will

assess the mastery level in phonemic awareness of Grade Two pupils.

To determine the overall reading readiness of the respondents, the individual

results will be consolidated and be compared to the benchmark designed by the

researcher.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The result of this study will provide the school administrators and teachers

necessary information about the reading readiness of Grade Two pupils in order for

them to generate remediation and enhancement programs to be used during the

conduct of Summer Reading Program 2015.

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REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

According to Yopp (1992), as cited by Hill (2012), in order to benefit from formal

reading instruction youngsters must have a certain level of phonemic awareness.

Therefore, if students do not have successful reading skills by first grade, they are not

likely to reach reading success in their later years.

In a study conducted by Ball (1991), results indicated that phoneme awareness

instruction, combined with instruction connecting the phonemic segments to alphabets,

significantly improved the early reading and spelling skills of the children in the

phonemic awareness group.

A study comparing whole language and traditional reading instruction cited by

Griffith & Olson (2004) shows children who began first grade high in phonemic

awareness did well regardless of the kind of reading instruction they received.

National Reading Panel (2002) found, on the basis of 52 studies, that phonemic

awareness instruction conferred a clear learning benefit to children. The panel

concluded that phonemic awareness and phonics both should be taught and that it is

important to carefully coordinate the teaching of these skills to ensure that students may

have maximum progress in reading (Shanahan, 2005).

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CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Phonemic Awareness Skills

Reading Readiness Level
 Phoneme Isolation
 Phoneme Identification  Proficient
 Phoneme  Developing
Categorization  Beginning
 Phoneme Blending  Inexperienced
 Phoneme
Segmentation
 Phoneme Manipulation

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METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH DESIGN

This study will utilize the descriptive design. It intends to measure and analyze

the Grade Two pupils’ level of phonemic awareness skills in terms of six tasks:

phoneme isolation, phoneme identification, phoneme categorization, phoneme blending,

phoneme segmentation, and phoneme manipulation. The overall mastery level will be

determined through the sum of the means of six phonemic awareness tasks. It will also

provide descriptions of the mastery level of each task and the overall reading readiness.

RESEARCH LOCALE

This study will be administered at Rotonda Elementary School. The locale was

chosen since the researcher is a teacher and the Reading Coordinator of the school.

RESEARCH RESPONDENTS

The respondents of this study will be the 55 pupils of Grade Two of Rotonda

Elementary School S.Y. 2014 – 2015.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

This study will utilize the Phonemic Awareness Skills Assessment tool adapted

from the assessment tools of Wiley Blevins and Hallie Kay Yopp and the benchmarks of

result which were designed by the researcher and were duly validated by Ms. Mervie Y.

Seblos, Division English/Reading Coordinator, and Ms. Prima A. Roullo, EPS I,

PSA/SPED/PSE.

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DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUE

The data to be utilized in this study will be gathered though testing using the tool

designed by the researcher.

DATA GATHERING SCHEDULE

Activity Persons Involved Expected Results

1. Testing Teachers, pupils Copy of all worksheets

answered by the
respondents

2. Summarizing and Researcher Copy of summarized and

Presenting data presented date

3. Analysis and Researcher Copy of analyzed and

Interpretation of Data interpreted data

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DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION

Data collection was done through testing using the tool designed by the

researcher. The tool tested the phonemic awareness skills of the respondents through

the six (6) phonemic awareness tasks: phoneme isolation, phoneme identification,

phoneme categorization, phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, and phoneme

manipulation.

Necessary results of the assessment were noted based on the research

questions: What are the levels of phonemic awareness skills of Grade Two pupils in

terms of the six phonemic awareness tasks? and What is the level of reading readiness

of Grade Two pupils based on their phonemic awareness skills?

Figure 1. Mean Scores of Grade Two Pupils in Six Phonemic Awareness

Tasks

6.00
4.64
4.40 4.22 4.25
5.00 4.02
3.84
4.00
Mean Score

3.00

2.00

1.00

0.00

Phonemic Awareness Tasks

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 The results presented in the graph are the mean scores of Grade Two pupils in

the six phonemic awareness tasks. Based on the benchmark on the mean scores of

phonemic awareness skills assessment (Appendix C), it signifies that the mean score in

each PA task is on Developing level since the entire mean scores fall between 3.00 and

4.99. This implies that, if given items on the six phonemic awareness tasks, the Grade

Two pupils exhibit knowledge of the skill in every task but show uncertainty in some

areas that is why they commit mistakes at some points.

It is notable that the respondents gained the highest mean score of 4.64 in

phoneme identification. This means that they are more likely to score the highest in

items that require identification of the common sound in a given set of words. On the

other hand, the Grade Two pupils scored the lowest in phoneme segmentation wherein

they got 3.84. This indicates that they found difficulty in identifying the number of

sounds in a given word.

Figure 2. Mastery Level of Grade Two Pupils

50

40
Number of Pupils

26
30 21

20
8

10 0

0
Proficient Developing Beginning Inexperienced
Mastery Level

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 Figure 2 gives detailed information about the individual phonemic awareness

skills mastery level of Grade Two pupils.

The graph shows that most of the Grade Two pupils belong to Developing level

wherein 26 pupils or approximately 38 percent of the total population scored 19 to 27

points based on the benchmark of total scores. This indicates that most of the Grade

Two pupils exhibit knowledge of the different phonemic awareness skills but show

uncertainties in some areas especially on crucial vowel sounds.

Also, 21 pupils or approximately 47 percent of the population have proficient

mastery level of phonemic awareness skills. These pupils scored between 28 and 36

on the benchmark of total score. This implies that 21 Grade Two pupils have fully

mastered the skills in all phonemic awareness tasks. Phonemic awareness tests will be

easily answered by these pupils since they have developed listening skills and have

mature understanding of the individual sound in each word.

Apparently, 8 pupils belong to Beginning level. These pupils gained a total score

between 10 and 18. This means that these pupils find difficulty in recognizing the

different each sound in a given word giving them a slow catch up on the different

phonemic awareness tasks. If given tests that require the same skills, these pupils are

projected to get low scores since their skills in listening and identifying each sound in

the word they hear are not fully developed.

While there are no pupils who belong to Inexperienced level, focus should be

given to those pupils have not fully developed keen listening skills to help them cope

with the skill required in every task.

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Figure 3. Summary of Mean Scores

Phonemic
Awareness Phoneme Phoneme Phoneme Phoneme Phoneme Phoneme
TOTAL
Task Isolation Identification Categorization Blending Segmentation Manipulation

Mean
Score 4.40 4.64 4.22 4.02 3.84 4.25 25.37

The data presented by the table show that the mean scores of the respondents

gained a total score of 25.37. Based on the benchmark of total scores (Appendix C), the

overall mastery level or the reading readiness of Grade Two pupils is on Developing

level since it falls between 19 and 27. This indicates that the respondents already have

the knowledge on the six phonemic awareness skills but they have a weak awareness

of some crucial sounds.

Since the total mean score is 25.37 or approximately 70.47 percent of the total

number of items, it can also be noted that, if given a test which requires the same set of

skills, the Grade Two pupils are more likely to get 70 to 71 percent of the items

correctly. This implies that the respondents have not fully developed their listening skills

making them commit mistakes in some crucial parts of the test.

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CONCLUSION

Phonemic awareness is the understanding that speech is composed of series of

individual sounds. Phonemic awareness tasks demand that children analyze or

manipulate the units of speech rather than focus on meaning (Yopp, 1992).

This study was made to assess the mastery level of phonemic awareness skills

of Grade two pupils in terms of the six phonemic awareness tasks.

After collecting the data from the tests given, it was found out that the mean

scores of 55 respondents in all phonemic awareness tasks corresponded to Developing

level. Furthermore, based on the data gathered, approximately 38 percent of the Grade

Two pupils are proficient in all phonemic awareness tasks while 47 percent are have the

mastery level of Developing and 15 percent belong to the Beginning level.

The study presented the overall result based on the accumulated mean scores

and it was concluded that the reading readiness of Grade Two pupils is on the

Developing level.

RECOMMENDATION

Based on the findings of this study, there are a few particular recommendations

can be made.

First, an intensive remedial program on improving the awareness of

individual sound and listening skills should be devised and be employed during the

Summer Reading Program 2015 by the teachers for those who belong on Beginning

and in-depth activities on crucial sounds like vowels should be given to Grade Two

pupils who belong on Developing level. Also it will be effective to teach and give them

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exercises on rhyming, oddity tasks, and manipulating sounds, and sentence stories.

Grade Two pupils who are on Proficient level should be given complex activities on

sounds and be introduced to phonics through synthetic phonics approach.

Second, involve parents of incoming Grade Two and Grade Three pupils during

the Summer Reading Program. They should be given a separate class about phonics

and some strategies in teaching their children how to read.

Third, to the other researchers, a phonemic awareness skills workbook focusing

on the six phonemic awareness tasks should be designed. A follow-up research to

identify the factors that affect the phonemic awareness skills mastery level of Grade is

also recommended.

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 REFERENCES

Ball, E. (1991, November 17). Retrieved February 5, 2015, from

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/747731?sid=21105787911653&uid=3738

176&uid=2&uid=4

Blevins, W. (2008, March 10). Phonemic Awareness Assessment. Retrieved January 9,

2015, from http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/ScholasticU/pdfs/Phonemic

Awareness Assessment.pdf

Griffith, P., & Olson, M. (2004, November 12). Phonemic Awareness Helps Beginning

Readers Break the Code. Retrieved February 5, 2015, from http://www-

tc.pbs.org/teacherline/courses/rdla155/pdfs/c2s2_4phonawhelps.pdf

Hill, C. (2012, August 3). A Content Analysis of Phonemic Awareness: Effective

Strategies and Approaches for Children with Special Needs. Retrieved

February 2, 2015, from

https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=bgsu1336844727&disposition

=inline

Shanahan, T. (2005, August 1). Phonemic Awareness and Phonics. Retrieved February

5, 2015, from https://www.mheonline.com/_treasures/pdf/timothy_shanahan.pdf

Sousa, D. A. (2005). How the brain learns to read. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Retrieved February 5, 2015, from http://www.region10.org/interactive-dyslexia-

handbook/chapter-2/

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Yopp, H. (1992, May 9). Developing Phonemic Awareness in Young Children. Retrieved

February 9, 2015, from

http://www.uwosh.edu/coehs/WFORT/documents/Reading 305 Yopp Phonemic

Awareness.pdf

Yopp, H. (1995, October 15). Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation. Retrieved

January 18, 2015, from http://www.proliteracy.org/downloads/proliteracy_us-

conference-on-adult-literacy-uscal-regionals_yopp-singer.pdf

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