Phonological Competence of Kindergarten Learners in Leyte Division of Eastern Visayas Region, Philippines
Abstract
The thrust of this study was to determine the phonological competence of kindergarten learners of school year 2017-2018. Specifically, it sought to find out the profile of the learners; the profile of teachers; ascertain the phonological competence of the learners in terms of phonological awareness and pronunciation difficulty of the learners; and identify the problems met by the Kindergarten teachers. This study utilized the descriptive-survey method using quantitative and qualitative research design to describe the set of the data collected. After thorough analysis of the gathered data, it was revealed that most of the profile of learners in terms of parents’ educational qualification were High School Graduate.
The profile of Kindergarten teachers belonged to young age who were 20-30 years old. With regards to educational qualification, Kindergarten teachers obtained only a Certificate of Academic Requirements (CAR) in Masteral Program. None of them were Masteral degree holders, have attended trainings on Early Childhood in District level only. On the other hand, in terms of reading materials available at home learners have books at home. For audio-visual materials available at home, TV was rank 1, only 22 of the Kindergarten learners have laptops at home.
Further, the skill on naming upper case and lower case letters got the highest weighted mean of 2.40 interpreted as “Moderately Aware”. However, skill on distinguishing words that rhyme got the lowest weighted mean of 1.20 interpreted as “Not Aware”. The skill on differentiating and reading correctly the short /i/ and /e/ words (pin-pen, tin-ten etc.) got the highest weighted mean of 4.68 interpreted as “Very Much Difficult”. While, the skill on reading of words with short /e/ sound in CVC pattern (e.g. pen, men) got the lowest weighted mean of 3.41 interpreted as “Highly Difficult”. Majority of the skills in pronunciation were considered as “Highly Difficult”.
On the problems met by the teacher, it was revealed that on absence or lack of instructional materials and inadequate facilities and equipment were interpreted as “Always a Problem” with mean values of 4.34, and 4.28, respectively. While, item on utilization of children in livelihood activities got the lowest weighted mean of 1.15 interpreted as “Not a Problem at All”.
After thorough analysis of the results based on the findings of the study, the researchers hereby conclude that the phonological awareness of Kindergarten learners was considered as “Moderately Aware” with average weighted mean of 1.94. Therefore, there is a need to design instructional materials for phonological skills development.
Key words: Kindergarten learners; Phonological awareness; Phonological competence; Phonological skills
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