Phonemic awareness of English second language learners.
BACKGROUND
The PA skills of phonological blending and segmentation and auditory word discrimination relate directly to literacy and may be weak in English second language (EL2) learners. In South Africa, literacy skills have been found to be poor in especially EL2 learners.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of vowel perception and production intervention on phonemic awareness (PA) and literacy skills of Setswana first language (L1) learners. These learners are English second language (EL2) learners in Grade 3.


METHODS
The present study employed a quasi-experimental, pre-test-post-test design.


RESULTS
The findings of low-literacy skill levels concurred with previous investigations. However, post-test results of intervention in PA seemed to improve the literacy skills of EL2 learners.


CONCLUSIONS
PA skills should be a crucial part of the literacy curriculum in South Africa.
Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, University of Pretoria. mia.leroux@up.ac.za.
Maria
M
Le Roux
Salome
S
Geertsema
Heila
H
Jordaan
Danie
D
Prinsloo
D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D000067010:Literacy; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D013019:South Africa; D013060:Speech; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D013068:Speech Production Measurement