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JCPSLP
Volume 18, Number 2 2016
87
(Gillon, 2004; Gillon & Dodd, 1995; Phillips, Clancy-
Menchetti, & Lonigan, 2008).
•
Developing an on-line task or module (including a quiz) to
help students consolidate their phonological awareness
skills. Completing this module and passing the quiz can be
made compulsory, either as a hurdle task or an assessment
task. Research clearly suggests that assessment tasks
influence student learning (Biggs & Tang, 2011).
New cohorts of students will be surveyed at the outset
of their training courses at the start of 2015 and following
their first semester of training to determine the effects of
these proposed changes to their course work on students’
phonological awareness skills. In addition, current students’
performance will be re-surveyed on a yearly basis to
determine progress over time as a result of their regular
coursework and educational/clinical placements.
Gillon, & McNeill, 2015, for a review), suggested changes
include:
•
From the outset, providing students with an explanation
of the importance of phonological (including phonemic)
awareness to their future professional practice (Griffith
University Learning and Teaching principle 3). This will help
make the learning activity more accessible/understandable
and will help build a realistic expectation of what the
course’s learning objectives, teaching and learning activities,
and assessment tasks may entail (Myers & Nulty, 2009).
•
Embedding a learning activity on explicit teaching of
phonological awareness (at phoneme level) in one of the
tutorials. Explicit teaching of phonological awareness
has been found to be the most effective method for
promoting phonological awareness in preschool children
and in children with language and/or reading difficulties
Appendix: Survey questions (Carroll et al., 2012)
Instructions: This section involves questions regarding your knowledge of language structure. These questions require
you to think about your responses. Give it your best shot!
How many SYLLABLES in each of the following words?
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
>7
animal
caution
hastily
catalyst
revolution
crustacean
invincible
inconceivable
stealthily
fortunate
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
flag
scone
rust
clump
change
straight
chemist
hiccup
thought
instrument
How many SOUNDS (not letters) in each of the following words?
ie
i
r
w
ee
k
kr
h
other
bride
whim
scream
queen
thrive
What is the SECOND sound (not letter) in each of the following words?
g
f
p
h
oa
e
other
laugh
though
giraffe
crisp
arrange
What is the LAST SOUND (not letter) in the following words?