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FOCUSED LANGUAGE ASSISTANCE IN READING (FLAIR) program

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FOCUSED LANGUAGE ASSISTANCE IN READING (FLAIR) program

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This resource focuses on providing kindergarten 2 (K2) students with focused language assistance in order to provide them with a strong oral-aural foundation in the English language so that they will be able to develop early reading skills. It is vital for children to be able to read and understand language at an early age, as well as manipulate it in an expressive manner (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998) (as cited from Niklas et al., 2016). Reading has been strongly linked to academic achievement since reading is incorporated into every subject at higher grade levels (Caron & Ponder, 2014) (as cited from Leahy & Fitzpatrick, 2017).

Furthermore, this pertains to Nurturing Early Learners (NEL) learning goal three, reading with comprehension and enjoyment(Ministry Of Education Republic of Singapore, 2013), which is supported by bottom down theory (Pardede, 2008). The Para educational professional teaches the K2 students on speaking and reading fluently, particularly on phonological skills. Research clearly indicates that phonological skills are crucial to early learning (Anthony & Francis, 2005; Scanlon & Vellutino, 1996) as cited from Fellowes & Oakley, 2014b, p. 188). With good phonological skills, children are able to improve in decoding words and increase bank of sight words, hence resulting in reading fluently (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014b, p. 335).

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Phonemic awareness as a prerequisite to reading

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Phonemic awareness as a prerequisite to reading

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This resource provides an understanding of phonemic awareness in reading and a strategy to teach and reinforce a child's phonemic awareness (Reading Rocket, 2020). And this relates to Nurturing Early Learners (NEL)'s language and literacy, reading (Ministry Of Education Republic of Singapore, 2013), which is supported by the graphophonics cueing systems  (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014b, p. 188).  The teachers emphasize letters in shared reading and encourage the students to connect what they see and hear (Hughes, 2007).
Phonemic awareness is fundamental to the success of future readers (Carruth & Bustos, 2019, p. 56). It can be defined as the study of English sounds (Pullen & Lloyd, 2007)(as cited in Carruth & Bustos, 2019, p. 56).  Phonemic awareness encompasses the basics of awareness of words, as well as the manipulation of sounds and the deletion of sounds (Carruth & Bustos, 2019, p. 56).  A student who has been taught phonemic awareness is able to distinguish certain parts of a word as well as blend certain sounds together to create a word (Chapman, 2003).
It is important that students develop these skills in order to learn to spell and decode words (Booker, 2013).

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Why is Phonemic Awareness the Key to Learning to Read?

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Picture from (London BVE, 2007), game idea from Chapman, 2021.

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Fun alliteration sentences while travelling

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Fun alliteration sentences while travelling

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In this resource, children are encouraged to make fun alliteration sentences with an object they encountered on their journey. Alliteration (onset level) is a skill that pupils should develop during early childhood and primary school that is correlated with Phonological awareness. Developing this skill is strongly correlated with later reading and spelling success (Victoria State Government, 2020.).

Furthermore, this relates to Reading and viewing under Australian Curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), n.d.), which is supported by Jean Piaget’s theory. The theory of Jean Piaget proposes that children construct meaning through interaction with their environment. A child's interaction with the environment contributes to an individual's learning (Mooney, 2000, p.61) (as cited in Mielonen & Paterson, 2009). Parents playing games with children while travelling provides children with an opportunity to further enhance their phonological awareness (onset level). It is a useful level of analysis for children, as it serves to facilitate their reading by analogy. The concept of word families, or words that have a phonogram in common, allows the child to read (for example, if I can read "dog", I will be able to read "log" easily) and to spell. (Adams, 1990) (as cited in Fellowes & Oakley, 2014a, p. 216).

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Joint writing word form during meal time

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Joint writing word form during meal time

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The resource presents a word-formation activity that parents can carry out with their children during mealtime. With the dishes prepared for mealtime, the parent and the child will form a word together. Through this activity, children experience joint activity with their parents through scaffolding, to improve the children's emergent writing development (Aram 2002; Aram and Levin 2002; Burns and Casbergue 1992; Yang and Noel 2006) (as cited in Neumann & Neumann, 2010).
Moreover, this relates to Australian Curriculum Reading and Viewing, Phonological awareness (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), n.d.) which is supported by NEL Language and Literacy Framework, 2013, where the two skills of reading and writing are interconnected. The skills of reading and writing are based on knowledge of phonemic structure, orthographic structure, semantic structure, and syntactic structure-all of these elements are prevalent in both tasks. Due to conceptual similarities, it has been proposed that reading and writing should be taught concurrently, as one will inform and support the other (Tierney & Pearson, 1983; Fitzgerald & Shanahan, 2000) (as cited in Moran & Billen, 2014). These skills are crucial for early literacy development.

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The resource provides parents with a word comprehension activity that can be carried out with their children at home. In this activity, the child will draw a picture and parents will guess the word from it. The acquisition of reading skills involves the development of several cognitive skills (Müller & Richter, 2013; Perfetti, 2001; Richter & Christmann, 2009) (as cited in Knoepke et al., 2014). Thus, reading comprehension is one factor that contributes to a proficient reader in the future, as without understanding, reading becomes meaningless and pointless activity (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014b, p. 295).

Furthermore, this relates to NEL's Language and literacy learning goal 3, reading with understanding and with enjoyment (Ministry Of Education Republic of Singapore, 2013), which is supported by Pefetti's verbal efficiency hypothesis (1985) (Knoepke et al., 2014). Based on Pefetti's verbal efficiency hypothesis (1985) and Perfetti and Hart's Hypothesis of lexical quality (2002, 2001; Perfetti's concepts on decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension triangles in 2010), skillful reading comprehension depends upon the ability to represent word forms and meanings accurately and to retrieve them rapidly and efficiently (Knoepke et al., 2014). Hence, word recognition is important in becoming an efficient reader.