ABSTRACT
This study aimed at investigating the impact of phonological awareness to the English literacy. To achieve this aim, the researcher used the total population of 174 Grade 6 pupils of Sta. Rita Elementary School during the academic year 2018-2019. This study made use of the inferential method of research which utilized research- made questionnaire as primary data gathering technique. The collect data were analyzed and treated statistically through the use of Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results of the regression analysis indicate that the two (2) variables of phonological awareness affect pupils’ English literacy to a various extent as shown by the non- zero coefficients. Results of the regression that the predictor variables of phoneme segmentation and phoneme blending are significant because their p- value is 0.000. Putting these variables together will cause significant effect on students’ grades. The adjusted R square of 0.593 plus the F- value of 124.810 are also highly significant at 0.05 levels likewise dictates to reject the null hypothesis. The study recommended that the school principal and the teachers call a meeting with the parents and discuss with them that the level of phonological awareness affects the English literacy of the pupils so that certain activities may be discussed.
INTRODUCTION
Knowledge of phonology is a large ability that involves the recognition and manipulation of oral language units, sections such as words, syllables, and beginnings and rimes. Children with phonological awareness can recognize and render oral rhymes, can clap out a word's number of syllables, and can recognize words with the same initial sounds as 'money' and 'mother.' Phonological awareness is described by Yopp & Yopp (2014) as "... sensitivity to language's sound structure." It calls for the ability to turn one's focus to sounds in spoken language while turning away from their context momentarily. Students realize that speech is made up of words; words can be split into syllables and beginning rhymes; syllables and beginning rhymes can be split into persons. Mody (2013) reminds teachers that it is not immediately apparent to listeners how speech is constructed as it "...is a highly complex signal composed of coarticulated segments, with acoustic information for each segment (consonant or vowel) overlapping extensively with neighboring segment information." By distinguishing and controlling, an appreciation of the segmental essence of speech is achieved.
It has been observed by the researcher that phonological awareness is an important determiner of success in learning to read and spell. For most children, strong readers have strong phonological awareness, and poor readers have poor phonological awareness skills. In the nursery and kindergarten years, phonological comprehension abilities also closely predict how well a child can read in the school years. In reality, initiatives to develop phonological awareness skills contribute to dramatically improved reading skills. The teaching of phonological knowledge improves reading and spelling skills, but the opposite is also true: the teaching of literacy improves phonological skills. In the nursery and kindergarten years, phonological comprehension abilities also closely predict how well a child can read in the school years. In reality, initiatives to develop phonological awareness skills contribute to dramatically improved reading skills. The teaching of phonological knowledge improves reading and spelling skills, but the opposite is also true: the teaching of literacy improves phonological skills. Over time, the relationship between phonological consciousness and reading abilities shifts. Both stages of phonological comprehension (syllable, onset-rhyme, and phoneme) lead to the ability to read by second grade in Kindergarten. However, phoneme-level skills play a stronger role beyond the second grade. The last decade has led to a rising consensus on the set of skills that serve as the basis for the ability to read and write (Dickinson & Neuman, 2016). Kids need a rich language and intellectual knowledge base, a large and deep vocabulary, and verbal thinking abilities to understand messages communicated via print to become a competent reader. Children must also acquire code-related skills, an understanding that spoken words consist of smaller speech components (phonological awareness); the definition that letters represent these sounds (the alphabetical principle), the many systematic correspondences between sounds and spellings, and a vocabulary of highly recognizable words that can be easily and automatically recognized. (McCardle & Chhabra, 2014).
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