Effectiveness of Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (TELL) Tools for Phonics Instruction: Implications for Very Young Learners

Phonics, as a teaching method, helps the learners to establish a connection between graphemes and phonemes. Moreover, it also improves their reading and pronunciation skills alongside spelling and vocabulary. In this context, the current study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of using technology-enhanced language learning (TELL) tools as a supplementary resource to teach systematic synthetic phonics to a government school's KG- Grade 1 learners. For this purpose, 60 Grade KG-1 primary-level learners were selected through one group pretest-posttest design. After conducting the pretest, learners were taught phonics skills, that is A-Z letter-sound correspondence, blending, and segmenting of CVC words through digital tools for 27 weeks. Afterwards, a posttest was administered. The statistical analysis of pretest and posttest revealed a significant improvement in learning all three aspects of phonics instruction as the dependent paired sample t-test affirmed rather significant results, that is, p = 0.000 for all three categories. Furthermore, the analysis of gender, age, and interest variables exhibited the TELL intervention's positive impact on all the participants. Hence, TELL tools are proposed as supplementary materials for phonics instruction in government schools of Pakistan at the primary level to help the learners and teachers.