Early Literacy Programme for Struggling Readers

Vaish, V. (2014). Whole language versus code-based skills and interactional patterns in Singapore’s early literacy program. Cambridge Journal of Education, 44(2), 199-215.

Background

The whole language approach (e.g., immersion in authentic reading activities) and the code-based skills approach (e.g., explicit teaching of phonics) are the two main instructional approaches to early literacy intervention for struggling readers. Of interest to the author is the nature of the pedagogy driven by the two approaches in Singapore’s Learning Support Programme (LSP), an early intervention programme for struggling readers.

Aims

The aim of the study was to investigate the allocation of whole language and code-based skills instruction in the different developmental stages of learning (i.e., Tiers 1, 2, and 3) of the LSP. Children typically entered Tier 1 at age six and exited after Tier 3 at age eight. The author also sought to explore changes in student-teacher interactional patterns across the three tiers.

Sample

Five teachers, who were LSP coordinators, and 45 students, ages ranging from sixto eight years, were involved in this study.  The participants involvedwere from five Singapore primary schools.

Method

Thirty-eight lessons were observed across the five teachers. These lessons were video-recorded and transcribed. The data were then coded for the type of instructional approaches and its related interactional patterns.

Findings

Qualitative findings revealed a strong emphasis on code-based skills instruction in the initial stage of learning (Tier 1). However, there was an increase in focus on whole-language instruction in the later stages of learning, from 13.6% in Tier 2 to 58% in Tier 3.

Interactional patterns were found to be increasingly diverse as students moved through the different stages of learning. However two patterns of interaction, choral recitation and lecture, were dominant throughout.  Compared to the prevalent use of choral recitation in the code-based skills approach, a wider distribution of interactional patterns (i.e., lecture, whole class elicitation, choral recitation) was observed in the whole language approach.

Implications

Although code-based skills instruction seemed to dominate the programme, the author concluded that the LSP, in its entirety, adopted a balanced approach to literacy since a stronger emphasis was placed on the whole language approach in the later stages of learning. However, the author proposed the need to move away from the observed linear approach in which whole language was available only when students became more proficient in phonics.A balanced approach to literacy within each tier of learning might be more effective in helping students become fluent readers.

Original article retrieved from Taylor & Francis Online.