Date of Award

1997

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Education Honours

School

School of Education

Faculty

Faculty of Education

First Supervisor

Peter Cole

Abstract

A single subject design was used to investigate the effectiveness of the Fernald method as an instructional technique for teaching phoneme-grapheme correspondence rules. Participants were tour primary grade children with learning difficulties in reading. Intervention training focussed on teaching phoneme-grapheme correspondence rules through the implementation of an adapted version of the Fernald method. The two dependent variables were word recognition and fluency rates. The design of the study allowed analysis of maintenance and generalisation of the relevant variables. Results demonstrated an increase in word recognition skills and fluency rates by all four children with learning difficulties. Maintenance of these gains occurred in two children, while the other two children experienced a slight decrease in their word recognition and fluency rates during the two week follow-up probes. The results of this study clearly support the numerous research papers summarised by Adams (1990). Motivation was not measured in this study, but appeared to have a significant influence in the children's results. The classroom implications of these findings are further discussed in the following chapters of this study.

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