JCPSLP Vol 18 no 2 July 2016

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

(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.

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

How many SOUNDS (not letters) in each of the following words?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

flag scone rust clump

change straight chemist hiccup thought instrument

What is the SECOND sound (not letter) in each of the following words?

ie

i

r

w

ee

k

kr

h

other

bride whim scream queen thrive

What is the LAST SOUND (not letter) in the following words?

g

f

p

h

oa

e

other

laugh though giraffe crisp arrange

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JCPSLP Volume 18, Number 2 2016

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