INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR ACCURACY AND FLUENCY: DEVELOPING SYLLABLE COMBINATION SKILLS FOR WORD FORMATION IN PRESCHOOL

Abstract

This abstract addresses the issue of accuracy and fluency in syllable combination and word formation among preschool children, specifically in class 02AT of the Pedro Mendes Riberio Municipal Early Childhood Education Center (CMEI) in Teresina, the capital of Piauí. The overall objective of the dissertation is to identify intervention strategies that can improve these linguistic skills in the children in this class, who are at the uncorresponding syllabic level. The study is grounded in various theoretical approaches related to language development, including innatist, constructivist, social interactionist, cognitive, and fundamentalist perspectives. Furthermore, it also incorporates theories of early literacy, emphasizing the development of phonological awareness, knowledge of the alphabetic system, accuracy in syllable combination, and fluency in word reading. To achieve its objective, the research considers different teaching methods, such as the phonics, constructivist, and multisensory methods. These methods are distinct pedagogical approaches that aim to improve language and reading learning in children. The intervention strategies proposed in the research are based on these different approaches, encompassing both the phonics approach, which focuses on the relationship between letters and sounds, and the constructivist approach, which promotes the active construction of knowledge by children. Furthermore, the multisensory approach, which involves multiple senses in the learning process, is also incorporated. According to Vygotsky (1978), language acquisition occurs through social interaction. In his sociocultural theory, Vygotsky emphasizes that children learn language through interactions with more experienced adults, such as parents, educators, and other fluent speakers. These interactions provide children with linguistic models and opportunities to practice and improve their language skills. Jean Piaget (1970) believes that language acquisition is related to cognitive development. He proposed that children construct their understanding of language through the assimilation and accommodation of new linguistic information. As children interact with their linguistic environment, they assimilate new words, structures, and linguistic concepts into their existing mental schemas and adjust their schemas to accommodate these new experiences. This constructivist perspective on language acquisition highlights the importance of context and social interaction for linguistic development. Children learn language by engaging in real-life communicative situations, in which they use language to express their needs, share information, and relate to others. The constructivist approach to language acquisition emphasizes that children are active in constructing their linguistic knowledge and that this process occurs gradually and continuously over time. They build their vocabulary, grammatical understanding, and communication skills through practical experiences, social interactions, and reflection on language in real-life contexts. Constructivist theory understands the development of phonological awareness as a gradual process in which children develop the ability to identify, manipulate, and segment speech sounds. According to this perspective, phonological awareness is seen as a skill that develops over time, through interaction with spoken language and practical experience with speech sounds. According to Piaget (1970), phonological awareness emerges as children interact with language and begin to realize that words are composed of individual sounds. They learn to segment words into smaller sound units, such as syllables and phonemes, and to manipulate these sounds to form new words. This process of building phonological awareness occurs gradually, as children explore language and its sound structures. Another relevant constructivist theorist in this context is Lev Vygotsky, who emphasizes the importance of social interactions and the mediation of more experienced adults in the development of phonological awareness. Vygotsky (1978) argues that children internalize the structures and patterns of language through interactions with more competent speakers. These interactions provide children with linguistic models and opportunities to practice and hone their skills in segmenting and manipulating speech sounds. Several studies support the relationship between the development of phonological awareness and reading and writing skills. Studies show that children with greater phonological awareness tend to perform better in learning to read and write (Anthony & Francis, 2005; Melby-Lervåg & Lervåg, 2011). For example, research by Adams (1990) demonstrated that phonological awareness is a strong predictor initial success in reading. Constructivism values the integration of knowledge of the alphabetic system into children's written language construction process, recognizing the importance of understanding the relationships between letters and sounds, word formation, and their application in reading. According to this approach, children actively construct their knowledge of the alphabetic system through interactions with their environment, experimentation, and reflection on written language. According to constructivist theory, children gradually learn to associate letters with corresponding sounds, developing phonological knowledge that contributes to the comprehension and production of written language. They explore the alphabetic system, identifying patterns, relating sounds and symbols, and applying these connections to reading and writing words. The research adopts a quantitative methodological approach and is based on a case study. This methodological approach allowed us to collect specific data on the 02AT class at CMEI Pedro Mendes Ribeiro, observing the children's progress in terms of accuracy and fluency in combining syllables and forming words over time.