Explicit phonological awareness instruction in three rural Northern Territory preschools

Phonological Awareness is an important skill set that supports later reading proficiency. This paper reports on a preschool oral language and phonological awareness project developed as a research and practice collaboration between three rural primary schools and a regional university. This research used the Phonological Awareness Skills Test to assess and monitor preschool (3–5-year-old) participants’ Standard Australian English phonological awareness skills. The test includes sixteen subtests with six questions for each subtest to assess the subskills that make up the overarching ‘umbrella’ concept of phonological awareness. This paper investigates whether explicit preschool classroom-based phonological awareness teaching and small group literacy activities had a significant effect on the phonological awareness skills of the 110 rural preschool children who participated in this study. On average, the improvement in students’ phonological awareness skills as measured by the test was statistically significant at the whole cohort, and individual school levels. Two participating schools experienced a very large effect size, and one school experienced a moderate effect size. These results affirm the positive impact that explicit phonological awareness instruction and associated activities can have on rural students’ phonological awareness skill development. Furthermore, based on this finding, we call for education policy makers to ensure rural preschool educators across Australia have access to the professional development and resources necessary to implement this evidenced-based approach to teaching foundational language and literacy skills beyond these three rural Northern Territory schools.