Michael Zen

ALT Blog Post Preschool Instruction in Letter Names and Sounds: What Does the Research Say? While the importance of alphabet knowledge in early reading is largely undisputed, methods for teaching letter names and letter sounds vary widely across classrooms. Roberts et al. (2019) investigated the effects of contextualized and decontextualized alphabet instruction on learning outcomes and student engagement levels for preschool students.

ALT What is Contextualized and Decontextualized Instruction? Contextualized approaches to alphabet instruction integrate letters and letter-sound learning into authentic and meaning-focused activities, such as read-alouds or creative writing activities. In contrast, decontextualized approaches present letters and letter-sounds in isolation. Typically, students are explicitly taught the individual names and sounds each letter represents in a predetermined instructional sequence, utilizing specialized instructional tools such as letter cards or tiles.

ALT What Did the Researchers Find? Both students exposed to contextualized instruction and those receiving decontextualized instruction made statistically significant gains in alphabet knowledge. However, they also determined that students who received decontextualized instruction demonstrated consistently and significantly better outcomes in both letter-sound identification and phonemic awareness. Furthermore, the researchers found that student engagement scores were 27% higher for those receiving decontextualized instruction than they were for those receiving contextualized instruction.

ALT Finally, the researchers did not find any significant differences between monolingual and multilingual students with regards to letter learning, phonemic awareness, or engagement. Rather, they discovered that the same method of explicit, decontextualized instruction was most effective for both groups of children. What Are the Limitations of This Paper? While the participants in this study demonstrated significant gains overall, approximately one-third of students learned fewer than three letter sounds or letter names. Therefore, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about the comparative effectiveness of the two instructional approaches. The researchers note that, as previous evidence has suggested, decoding skills can be quite difficult to learn, further emphasizing the need for long-term, high-quality instruction.

ALT What are key aspects of handwriting legibility? Although there are varying degrees of what might be considered “legible” depending on the scorer, we recommend focusing on a few key aspects of students’ letter formation to support overall legibility (Feder & Majnemer, 2007; Datchuk, 2015).

ALT Size Appropriate letter size can be determined by using lined paper as a guide. For beginning writers, consider using paper with a dotted midline to support students’ development of both lower and uppercase letters. Spacing Letters or words that are too close together or spread apart will affect legibility. When assessing spacing, consider the ease of readability.

ALT Shape and Direction Shape and direction refer to letter formation accuracy. This may include letters that are not fully formed (e.g., a lowercase “e” that appears as a “c”) or reversals (e.g., a lowercase “d” in the place of a lowercase “b”). Generally, if the letter is accurate enough to be read easily, it can be considered legible.