Impact of explicit phonological awareness instruction on spelling knowledge, orthographic processing skills, and reading speed and accuracy of adult Arab ESL learner

This quantitative study investigated potential effects of providing explicit phonological instruction on international students' spelling knowledge, orthographic processing skills, and reading speed and comprehension. In addition, the study compared Arab participants to their non-Arab peers in four particular aspects: gains, interaction, performance and differences between the two groups before and after the treatment. The phonological instruction consisted of five groups of the English sounds, six groups of blends, five phonetic skills, and two decoding skills. The phonological instruction was carried out during the reading class time and delivered for a month. A total of 53 ESL international students participated in the study. Analyses employed three different grouping criteria: one whole group (n = 53), two main groups: Arab (n = 38) and non-Arab (n = 15), and three main groups: foundation (only Arab n = 4), beginner (Arab n = 27 + non-Arab n = 8) and low intermediate (Arab n = 7 + non-Arab n = 7). All participants took pretests in spelling, pseudowords (nonsense words), and reading speed and comprehension, went through the phonological instruction treatment, and took posttests in the same skills. The spelling and pseudoword pre and posttests were identical across all participants in all proficiency levels. However, reading speed and comprehension pre and posttests were identical in each proficiency level but different across all proficiency levels. Due to an unexpected change in the study design, all participants were exposed to the phonological instruction treatment and there was no control group. Consequently, the study could not provide a direct evidence for the impact of the phonological instruction treatment on the target skills. Nevertheless, in the first aspect where the study analyzed gain scores of participants in the target skills, findings from this study revealed that all participants (n = 53) scored in the posttests significantly higher than the pretests in both spelling and pseudoword. However, when separating participants into two groups: Arab and non-Arab, findings showed that the Arab group increased significantly in both spelling and pseudoword whereas the non-Arab group increased significantly only in spelling but not in pseudoword. Further, while each group of Arab and non-Arab participants in the beginner level did not significantly increase in reading speed, each group of Arab and non-Arab students in the low intermediate level significantly increased in the posttest. Moreover, each group of Arab and non-Arab participants in both beginner and low intermediate levels did not significantly increase in the comprehension posttests. In the second aspect, the study examined differences in performance between the two groups of participants in the target skills. Findings showed that differences found in the way the two groups changed over time in the gain scores of all target skills were not statistically significant. In the third aspect, the study compared Arab to non-Arab participants based on their gain scores in the target skills. In spelling, findings showed that none of the two groups outperformed the other because both groups significantly increased in spelling. In pseudoword however, findings suggested that Arab participants outperformed their non-Arab peers because only Arab students significantly increased in their pseudoword gains scores. In reading speed, because none of the two groups in the beginner level significantly increased in their gain scores, findings suggested that none of two groups outperformed the other. Similarly, findings suggested that none of the two groups in the low intermediate level outperformed each other because both groups significantly increased in reading speed. The Arab and non-Arab groups in both the beginner and the low intermediate levels did not significantly increase in the comprehension gain scores, therefore, findings suggested that none of the groups in either proficiency level outperformed the other. In the fourth aspect, the study analyzed differences in the pre-existing knowledge between Arab and non-Arab groups in the target skills according to their mean scores in the pretests. Findings suggested that while spelling background knowledge of the non-Arab group is substantially significantly richer than the spelling background knowledge of the Arab group, the two groups did not significantly differ in their background knowledge in English orthographic conventions. Furthermore, findings exhibited that non-Arab participants in the beginner level were reading with a significantly higher rate in the pretest than their Arab counterparts. On the other hand, findings revealed that there were no significant differences between low intermediate Arab and non-Arab groups in their reading speed prior to the phonological instruction. In comprehension, findings showed that the non-Arab group in both beginner and low intermediate levels scored significantly higher than their Arab peers in the pretest.