The effectiveness of phonics in students’ English vocabulary reading in primary ESL class

The present study evaluated the effects of Read Write Inc. Phonics, which is a program based on synthetic phonics, on first grade students’ English vocabulary reading in Hong Kong context, and discussed implications of teaching phonics to primary students. The study adopted a single case study involving a pre- and post-test design. Students were asked to read 20 pseudowords, including 61 sounds in total in each test. Paired-samples t-tests were used to compare students’ performance before and after the phonics instruction. The results showed a significant increase in vocabulary reading accuracy from pre-test (M = 11.1, SD = 9.9) to post-test (M = 38.6, SD = 8.69) and thus suggested a significantly large, positive effect of synthetic phonics instruction on vocabulary reading (d = 2.90). The researcher further noted that teachers should also pay attention to the development of students’ three skills, namely, blending, decoding and analogy skills when teaching phonics to primary students.