Efeitos da instrução fônica no desempenho em leitura e escrita de crianças de 1º, 2º e 3º anos com dificuldades na compreensão do princípio alfabético na alfabetização inicial

Abstract

Cognitive sciences provide knowledge of how learning how to read and write in an alphabetical system, in which letters represent sounds of the spoken language, evidencing how human brain processes reading and writing based on graphophonemic correspondences. Thus, the explicit teaching of the alphabetic code becomes fundamental, enhancing the awareness of thinking and intentionally manipulating spoken language sounds, as well as the development of the alphabetic principle comprehension. Effective phonics-based programs can prevent the negative consequences of early and persistent difficulties in reading and writing. This study aims to investigate the effects of explicit phonics instruction on the reading and writing performance of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade children with difficulties understanding the alphabetic principle in early literacy. Among the specific objectives, we sought to verify whether the children in the intervention group would advance in the development of alphabetic knowledge and would benefit from twenty-two sessions of phonics instruction, for understanding the alphabetic principle and learning to read and write; to compare the reading and writing performance of the groups that participated in the interventions with the groups that attended regular classes; to measure the effect sizes of the phonics instruction intervention that reflected the magnitude of differences in performance between students in the intervention and comparison groups; and to verify the extent to which phonological and phonemic awareness and knowledge of letters correlated and explained performance in reading and writing measures. This is a quasi-experimental study with a three-stage design, pre-test, intervention, and post-test, with random assignment of participants to the intervention and comparison groups. Forty-eight 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students, mean age 7 years, 5 months, who attended a public school in São Paulo, participated in the research. Twenty-two phonics instruction intervention sessions were conducted with groups of eight students per school year. The assessment instruments for reading, writing, letter knowledge and phonological skills were the same used in the pre and post-test. Data analysis procedure included statistical tests that allowed intra-group and inter-group comparisons. The results showed statistically significant effects of explicit phonics instruction for the groups of students who participated in the interventions compared to the students in the group who attended the regular classroom. The results showed statistically significant effects of explicit phonics instruction for the groups of students who attended the intervention sessions compared to the students in the group who attended the regular classroom. Children in the intervention groups developed an understanding of the alphabetic principle, benefited from phonic instruction for reading and writing skills, and advanced from the pre-alphabetic phases to a predominance in the complete and consolidated alphabetic phases. The findings also revealed that there was significant growth measures of phonological skills abilities and a strong correlation was evidenced between phonemic awareness with reading and writing. The results suggest that the phonics instruction intervention was effective in overcoming difficulties in learning to read and write