Measures
The PPVT-R and the WRMT Word Identification Subtest were used
for subject selection (see Subjects for criteria). The PPVT-R is a measure of
receptive vocabulary and the WRMT Word Identification Subtest is a measure
of reading which consists of word lists selected from a sample of
basal readers.
In addition to the PPVT-R and WRMT, a phoneme segmentation test
and a test of letter name and sound knowledge were administered to all
children prior to the training. The phoneme segmentation test (adapted
from Liberman et al. 1974) was developed to be used both as a pretest and
posttest to assess student progress in segmenting abilities after direct instruction.
The phoneme segmentation test consists of 34 randomly arranged
one-, two-, and three-segment items (see Table II). The segmenting
test was preceded by a sound counting control task and four phoneme
segmentation training sequences. The sound counting task was used to
insure that poor performance on the segmenting task was not due to an
inability to count sounds (Treiman 1976). The training sequences provide
modeling and corrective feedback in segmenting one-, two-, and threephoneme
items. The administration of the phoneme segmentation test
requires the child to indicate the number of segments (from one to three)
in the stimulus item by moving disks on a card (see Figure 2). The internal
reliability of the test measured .91 using the Spearman-Brown split-half
analysis.
Letter name and sound knowledge was assessed both before and after
the intervention using the same informal task. Each of the 26 letters of
the alphabet was written on a card and presented in random order. Children
were asked to name each letter and to give the sound of each letter.
The order of presentation was identical for each child.
The phonetically regular word list was used as a posttest only measure.
Children were presented 21 phonetically regular words, one word
per card (see Table III). The words on the list were selected from the pool
of real words generated by the nine graphemes taught during the letter
name/sound instruction provided to the children in the phoneme awareness
condition and the language activities condition (control group I).