The Effect of Computer-Based Scaffolding on Phonemic Awareness of Young EFL Learners

Phonemic awareness is a set of skills that help learners learn to isolate, blend, segment or manipulate the sounds or morphemes in words. A number of experimental studies revealed a strong and positive relationship between phonemic awareness and the development of reading skills (Stahl & Murray, ۱۹۹۴; Ehri, Nunes, Willows, Schuster, Yaghoub-Zadeh, & Shanhan, ۲۰۰۱). However, there are few studies that focus on the effectiveness of different instructions in teaching phonemic awareness. In addition to the traditional classroom-based instruction, more attention should be paid to the ways in which such instructions can be supported to help second or foreign language learners in learning phonemic awareness. According to Vygotsky (۱۹۷۸), one way to support learners in the process of language learning is through scaffolding. Computer-based scaffolding that is the result of combining technology with phonemic awareness instruction requires more empirical investigations. The presenters will demonstrate the effect of two methods on the learning of phonemic awareness. ۸۰ young learners of English will be assigned to two classes. One class will use the traditional teacher-fronted methods of instruction. The other group will use an interactive whiteboard called Miro board. It provides many interactive features, which English teachers can implement in their classes both online and offline. Phoneme Awareness Assessment (Blevins, ۱۹۹۸) will be used as the pretest and posttest to measure the contribution of each method to the learners' understanding of phonemic awareness. The analysis of data through t-test will indicate the significant role of computer-based scaffolding in learning phonemic awareness. The findings highlight the importance of this type of scaffolding. Based on my findings, I will recommend teachers use Miro as a supplement to instruction. All in all, participants will walk away from this workshop with the effective ways to integrate technology into the instruction to increase learners' phonemic awareness.