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Abstract

This study investigated the efficacy of an instructional training module focused on alphabetic principle, more specifically, the speech sounds of English on letter-sound knowledge of preservice teachers enrolled in elementary or special education teacher certification programs. In addition, this study examined preservice teachers' ability to apply and generalize their letter-sound knowledge. The training module, a video tutorial and online study guide, was completed in 2 to 6 hours over one week by preservice teachers. Following instruction, preservice teachers increased oral and written letter-sound correspondence knowledge as well as their ability to apply this knowledge to tasks requiring letter-sound analysis. Statistically significant increases were not observed on tasks requiring preservice teachers to generalize their knowledge to analyzing child letter-sound production errors. The instructional training module described in this study provides an efficient and effective model for delivering language structure content to preservice teachers but might be even further enhanced with provision of additional opportunities for practice.

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Language Structure Knowledge of Preservice Teachers: Connecting Speech to Print

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