SEL 3326: Extended Study
Attached to
SEL 3012: Low-educated Language Acquisition and Literacy
Is There Reason in the
Rhyme?
Is Rhyme an Effective Tool for Creating Accessible and Engaging
Fiction Books for ESOL A0 Level Adult Learners?
by
Louise Shepperd
A81006883
Word Count: 5,144
I confirm that this piece of work contains no plagiarised material and that I
have read and understood the section on Plagiarism in the School Style Guide
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Is There Reason in the Rhyme?
Is Rhyme an Effective Tool for Creating Accessible and Engaging Fiction Books for ESOL
A0 Level Adult Learners?
1. Introduction
In a previous study looking at developing fiction books for low-literate immigrant adults, a
question arose about the role of rhyme (Shepperd 2011). When writing good fiction for lowliterate language learners, a tension exists between the story’s content and linguistic
accessibility (Shepperd 2011). It is important that these books are engaging and compelling
for an adult audience, to encourage the idea of reading for pleasure. Studies show that the
amount one reads influences second language proficiency (Krashen 1989), therefore when
learning a second language (L2) it is also important to read outside of class (Rodrigo et al.
2007). A problem that arises in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classrooms
is that the language learnt in the lesson is often not practiced at home. However, writing
better books for low-literate adults could encourage students to read outside of class and
provide such practice (Young-Scholten & Maguire 2008).
Engaging content is important and, when it comes to vocabulary, one way to offer something
different from word lists. However, such resources are needed for adult learners with low oral
proficiency and little to no literacy (A0 level), who need any text to be highly linguistically
accessible (Young-Scholten & Maguire 2008). This is where the tension starts to become
apparent, as accessibility calls for simple morpho-syntax, vocabulary and phonology. To
demonstrate the process, here is an example of text simplification from the fiction book
written for this study:
Pronoun
Passive
Pronoun
Complex Vocabulary
She is awakened from her brief day dream by the ringing telephone.
Polysyllabic Prepositional Consonant
Cluster
phrase
Prepositional
Phrase
After simplification:
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The phone rings.
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(See appendix 7)
When going through the process of text simplification many creative writing devices must be
sacrificed for accessibility. How can quality fiction be written at an appropriate level of
accessibility for A0 level learners?
Of prime consideration is phonological awareness, which is key in the acquisition of literacy
(e.g. Geudens & Sandra 2002; Goswami & Bryant 1990; Verhoeven et al. 2002) and
phonemic awareness is particularly important when using an alphabetic writing system (e.g.
Cardoso-Martins 1995; Elbro & Pallesen 2002; Loureiro et al. 2004). A stumbling block for
learners of the English writing system is its opaque orthography, which often displays one-tomany phoneme-grapheme correspondences instead of one-to-one correspondence (Yoon et al.
2002). For example, the word thought is made up of seven graphemes but only three
phonemes, [Өɔːt], and when the letter t is removed from the written form the remaining word
is not pronounced as [Өɔː] but completely changes [ðoʊ].
Phonemes, onsets and rimes are all subsyllabic phonological units, but unlike phonemes,
awareness of onsets and rimes exists instinctively, that is, prior to any formal instruction
(Kirtley et al. 1989; Loureiro et al. 2004). Alliteration and rhyme are the manipulation of
onsets and rimes and are well known poetic devices, used for readers’ enjoyment language
and engagement with stories. When it comes to working with English orthography, rhyme
has also been shown to aid phonological development and literacy acquisition (Yoon et al.
2002). Can the use of rhyme in low literate fiction not only bridge the gap between preliterate and literate phonological awareness but also ease the tension between quality of
content and accessibility?
1.1 Aim
This essay has three aims, firstly, to find out how aware A0 learners are of rimes in written
English. Secondly, to find out whether rhyme helps them when decoding English
orthography. Thirdly, to find out whether rhyme is an effective device in ESOL fiction by
encouraging phonological awareness as well as reading for pleasure.
2. Low literate adults’ reading development
2.1 Importance of phonological awareness in literacy acquisition
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Phonological awareness refers to the “awareness of the sounds that make up the words we
hear and speak” (Cardoso-Martins 1995: 1) and this includes phonemic awareness, which is
the ability to identify individual phonemes in a word (Verhoeven et al. 2002). There is a
strong relationship between phonological awareness and literacy acquisition, with many
studies supporting the idea that level of phonological awareness directly impacts reading
ability (Cardoso-Martins 1995; Elbro & Pallesen 2002; Geudens & Sandra 2002; Goswami &
Bryant 1990; Verhoeven et al. 2002).
Phonemic awareness is key in an alphabetic writing system because alphabetic letters
represent phonemes (Geudens & Sandra 2002). Phonemes are not always represented
perfectly, particularly in English (see above), but this sensitivity enables reading by
grapheme-phoneme correspondences (Cardoso-Martins 1995). Elbro & Pallesen (2002:19)
also show that any “experience with written language boosts the development of
phonological awareness.” Along with experience, explicit instruction in phonemic awareness
plays an in important role in successful literacy acquisition (Cardoso-Martins 1995). Loureiro
et al. (2004) study of pre-school children and illiterate adults shows both groups of
participants improve dramatically in phonemic awareness with instruction. This shows that
phonemic awareness does not arise spontaneously, unlike rime and onset awareness.
2.2 Issues surrounding LESSLA1 and English orthography
Writing systems can generally be divided into pictographic/logographic (e.g. Chinese),
syllabic (e.g. Japanese) and alphabetic (e.g. most European languages). A widely held view is
that different writing systems vary in how difficult they are to learn, but Verhoeven et al.
(2002:4) argue that “…all systems represent spoken language at one level or another and that
readers activate speech codes during the decoding process.” For example, even though
alphabetic systems have a small number of symbols to learn, when compared to the
thousands of symbols in logographic and syllabic systems, they are still difficult as phonemes
are hard to perceive (Verhoeven et al. 2002).
Alphabetic writing systems can then be divided according to the depth or transparency of
their orthography. An orthography where one phoneme maps onto one grapheme is
orthographically transparent or shallow (e.g. Italian, Finnish) (Elbro & Pallesen 2002). An
orthography where one phoneme maps onto many graphemes, or vice versa, is
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orthographically opaque or deep (e.g. English). The Orthographic Depth Hypothesis (Katz &
Frost 1992) argues that words with a more shallow orthography encourage phonological
processing, whereas this is more difficult in deep orthographies, which encourage visualorthographic processing.
However, even though English does not have one-to-one mappings for phonemes and
graphemes, the system is not completely irregular and there are other ways to phonologically
overcome phoneme-grapheme inconsistencies (Pacton et al. 2002). Yoon et al. (2002) suggest
that because English orthography lacks transparency, the use of phonological units larger
than phonemes is encouraged in reading, for example rime units. Treiman et al. (1995) also
emphasize that fact that orthography and phonology are most consistent at the level of the
orthographic rime, making this useful for decoding. Sensitivity to linguistic structure is
therefore essential in mastering English orthography, due to its opaque nature (Burt &
Butterworth 1996).
2.3 Qualities of rhyme in literacy acquisition
As noted above, awareness of rimes (e.g. -at in hat) and onsets (e.g. h- in hat) appears to be
instinctive in both children and adults prior to literacy instruction (Young-Scholten & Strom
2006). Yoon et al.’s (2002: 159) study of subsyllabic awareness in the reading of English and
Korean (alphabetic system) children found that “children at the early stages of reading
instruction come equipped with phonological knowledge of onsets and rimes onto which
orthographic recognition units are then mapped.” They also found onset-rime structures are
particularly important in providing a structure that is accessible to children before they can
access phonemes. This is supported by Kirtley et al.’s (1989) study of preschool children,
which showed that children naturally divided syllables into onset and rimes and were only
able to isolate single phonemes when they coincided with the onset.
Not only do pre-literate children display a high awareness of rhymes, but so do illiterate
adults. Loureiro et al. (2004) studied 97 illiterate and semi-literate Brazilians and found that
many participants did well in rhyme identification tasks. This demonstrated that awareness of
rhyme was unrelated to alphabetical knowledge and word reading score. They went on to
suggest that rhyme identification is a distinct cognitive process from phonemic awareness,
which is dependent on alphabetical knowledge (e.g. Morais et al. 1979). “Rhyming is often
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seen as a first ‘natural’ step into awareness of sub-lexical units” (Elbro & Pallesen 2002: 22)
and can ease phonemic development and thus reading development.
English readers in particular parse written language at the onset-rime boundary, using onsets
and rimes as orthographic recognition units (Geudens & Sandra 2002). This is likely to be
because “when rime units, rather than grapheme-phoneme pairing are the units of analysis,
English turns out to be highly reliable” (Yoon et al 2002: 142). However, Burt & Blackwell
(2008) point out there are inconsistencies in the pronunciation of rimes, which makes word
naming very difficult (e.g. ear in near vs. bear). In spite of this, consistency of the rime is
still important in reading patterns of English orthography.
2.4 Qualities of rhyme in reading for pleasure and language play
Rhyme is commonly found in children’s books because it provides the opportunity to ‘play’
with language (Brock & Rankin 2008) and also can provide predictable features that help
beginners make associations between spoken and written words (Linse 2007). Alongside the
benefits of rhyme in developing phonological awareness, it also has creative writing qualities.
Rhyme is widely recognised as a poetic device and has played an important role in adult
literature and oral tradition for centuries (McKie 1997). As a poetic device, it is used to
engage its audience, make a text or verse more memorable and show versatility of language
use (McKie 1997). The use of rhyme by adults is highlighted by Elbro & Pallesen (2002),
who note that rhyme is used to a high level by illiterate Brazilian street poets. So, we find
rhyme used and enjoyed by children and adults, in written and spoken language, and also in
aid of literacy acquisition.
Reading for a reason is an important concept in encouraging reading for pleasure and general
reading development; therefore high importance needs to be placed on good literature
(Sedgwick 2010).
Literacy is not something that you can teach apart from literate behaviour. You don’t
learn to read; you learn to read something, and you read something because you want
to know something, enjoy a text or participate in a group. (Delpit, 1991: 542)
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Hill (2001) explains that stories written in language that learners can understand can be a
source of both pleasure and learning. He tells us that stories can “radically improve learners’
attitudes because they find they have an immediate and enjoyable use for the language they
are learning” (Hill 2001: 303). They also help develop reading fluency; providing a context
for language and extending grasp of lexis and syntax (see also Krashen 1989).
Together with reading for pleasure, there should also be space for language play in the
language learning environment. Again, language play is not just relevant for children, as adult
literature, poetry and satire demonstrate. In discussing L2 teaching, Cook (1997: 224) points
out that “...a good deal of authentic or natural language is playful, in the sense of being
focused upon form and fiction rather than on meaning and reality.” Language teaching aims
for students to have an authentic grasp of a language and its intricacies, and this is something
language play can facilitate. This is not in exchange for emphasis on communication and
meaning, but to go alongside it and create an environment sensitive to the complexities of
learning a second language (Cook 1997; Linse 2007).
To summarise, phonological awareness is an important element of acquiring literacy and
phonemic awareness is particularly necessary for using an alphabetic writing system. A
problem posed for ESOL A0 level learners acquiring literacy in English is the opaque nature
of English orthography and its frequent one-to-many phoneme-grapheme correspondences.
Unlike phonemes, learners are aware of rhyme prior to formal instruction and English
orthography is more reliable at the level of rimes. Another problem posed for A0 learners is
lack of sufficient engaging fiction books to encourage reading for pleasure. Rhyme is not
only a phonological unit, but also a poetic device that is effective in encouraging language
play and creating a more engaging and enjoyable use of language.
3. Hypothesis
An explicit hypothesis regarding the outcome of this study was not formulated, as the amount
of variables involved was too high. However, it was expected that participants would already
have an awareness of rimes; deep orthography would prove more difficult to decode than
shallow; and use of rhyme would aid phonological decoding and increase enjoyment of
reading.
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4. Methodology
4.1 Participant Background Information
Table 1 shows the biographic information for the 9 participants that took part in this study.
They were all adult A0 level learners taking English classes at an ESOL centre, Action
Language, in Newcastle upon Tyne. Six of the participants were female and three were male,
and they were aged between 20 and 45. (Participants from a low-literate background would
have been preferable but I did not anticipate how difficult it would be to find ESOL centres
willing to co-operate at all, let alone ones with low-literate students.)
Table 1: Participant Background Information
Name
1
2
3
4
AG
MD
GA
EB
Country
of origin
Portugal
Romania
Turkey
Bulgaria
Mother
Tongue
Creole
Romanian
Turkish
Bulgarian
Length of
Time in UK
2 months
3 months
9 months
11 months
English
Classes
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
22 hours
OG
Stage
1
1-2
1-2
1
5
6
7
8
MB
MS
XT
SP
Gambia
Iran
China
Iran
Fula
Farsi
Mandarin
Farsi
6 years
4 months
3 years
5 months
Many
8 hours
54 hours
16 hours
2-3
1
2
1-2
9
MK
Bulgaria
Bulgarian
4 months
30 hours
1-2
Literacy in L1
Unknown
Unknown
Literate in L1
Literate in L1,
Russian & Turkish
School until age 12
University
University
High school and
College
University
Even though L1 literacy ranges considerably along with other variables, the data produced
was insightful. Diversity, as seen above, is a common situation in most ESOL classrooms, so
collecting data from such participants has ecological validity. As six out of nine are literate in
their L1, factors such as influence from L1 writing system and more developed phonological
and phonemic awareness have to be taken into account. Therefore, looking at the data from
the perspective of rhyme aiding phonemic awareness for only low-literates was not possible,
but looking at the use of rhyme in regards to acquiring literacy in English for A0 learners
more generally is possible.
In Table 1 the term OG stage is used, which refers the morpho-syntactic developmental
stages of Organic Grammar (OG) that second language learners pass through (Vainikka &
Young-Scholten 2005; Young-Scholten & Ijuin 2006). These stages are offered as a more
accurate alternative to standardised assessment of L2 learners. As well as using the tasks
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outlined below, I also had a brief conversation with each participant to collect data to assess
their level of OG.
Table 2: Organic Grammar Criteria for stages in L2 English (Young-Scholten and Ijuin, 2006)
Stage
2
Word order in
declaratives
Resembles L1,
then L2
Resembles L2
3
Resembles L2
4
Resembles L2
5
Resembles L2
1
Verb type
Main verbs
only
Main verbs;
copula is
appears
Main verbs,
modals; copula
forms beyond
is
Main verbs,
modals, and
copula forms
beyond is;
range of
auxiliaries
Complex
tense, aspect
forms;
passives
Verbal
inflection
None
Pronouns
Little
Begin to
emerge
No agreement;
some tense
and aspect
forms
Productive
tense, aspect;
agreement w/
be forms
More forms,
but can still
be missing
Extension to
new forms
New uses
there and it
Absent
Obligatory;
there and
existential it
emerge
Complex
syntax
None
Formulaic or
intonationbased Qs
Conjoined
clauses; Qs
formulaic or
w/o inversion
Simple
subordination;
Qs, but may be
uninverted
Complex
subordination;
Qs inverted
4.2 Data Collection
Three tasks were conducted, corresponding with the three aims mentioned earlier, but also to
observe the idea of triangulation of results. Each participant signed a consent form (see
appendix1) and is referred to by either their initials or participant number throughout the
essay, for ethical purposes. They then individually worked through each task, whilst I took
notes their progress. On a couple of occasions a task proved too difficult for the participant,
so we stopped and moved onto the next one.
The first task focused on assessing participants’ awareness of rhyme and on their responses
to shallow and deep rhymes in written English. Each participant was asked to read out loud
three words and then circle the word that did not rhyme. Most of the participants did not
understand the word ‘rhyme’ and actually circle the word they felt was different or the odd
one out. This began with an example that demonstrated the aim of the task, followed by
fourteen more sets of words (six words with shallow orthography and eight with deep
orthography) (see appendix 3).
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The second task had two parts, which both looked at whether rhyme affects how A0 level
students deal with words with a deep or shallow orthography. The first part was made up of
seventeen short sentences, where twelve were rhyming couplets and five had rhyme adjacent
pairs (9 sentences with shallow rhymes and 8 sentences with deep rhymes) (see appendix 4).
The second part was made up of thirteen longer sentences, where eight were single sentences
containing rhyming words and five were rhyming couplets (8 sentences with shallow rhymes
and 5 with deep rhymes). Each participant read each sentence aloud whilst the interviewer
made notes on frequency of pauses and fluency; need for help or a prompt; inability to read;
use of phonemic decoding; and evidence of enjoying the rhyme (see appendix 2).
The third task investigated whether rhyme helps with phonological decoding and enjoyment
of reading a fiction book. Each participant read aloud from the book Spotty Boys (see
appendix 5), whilst the interviewer took note of problem areas, common mistakes,
replacements, phonemic decoding, use of rhyme and evidence of enjoyment. The book was
written and illustrated by me, and the process of creating the book will be described below.
Another book was also written following the same storyline, but without any rhyme. I
originally planned that participants would read both versions of the book so that results of
using rhyme could be clearly compared and participants could say which version they
enjoyed more. However, during the interviews it became clear that this was too much to ask
of the participants.
4.3 Writing the Book
The main focus of this study was to look at the use of rhyme in ESOL fiction books aimed at
A0 level adult learners. As mentioned above, rhyme is a poetic device that has been used for
many centuries by many cultures to enjoy language and storytelling (McKie 1997).
Furthermore, rhymes are phonological units that are more accessible than phonemes (Yoon et
al. 2002). So, in theory rhyme could be helpful as an educational and creative device, and
something that can be commonly appreciated in a multi-cultural classroom.
My previous essay (Shepperd 2011) gave a detailed description of the process of writing an
adult fiction book accessible to A0 learners. The book Spotty Boys was based on the same
principles but also took into account what was learnt through field-testing the previous book.
This included keeping content as linguistically accessible as possible, choosing material that
was relevant to everyday life and including a lot of repetition. Most pages contained two to
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three short sentences with a clear illustration and characters which were chosen purposefully
to demonstrate racial and cultural diversity.
The story was written by following the stages learnt in previous creative writing workshops
and then adding rhyme to the simplified version of the story (see appendix 7). The
simplification involved reducing the prose to short simple sentences, with no embedded
clauses except a few co-ordinating clauses. The story was written in 3rd person singular
present so that proper nouns could be used instead of pronouns. Complex vocabulary was
eliminated where possible and so were adverbs; two were kept only because they rhymed.
Words and phrases that lacked semantic content, idioms and deixis were also avoided to
maintain clarity and simplicity.
All remaining words were either mono or bi-syllabic, and orthographically opaque words
were kept to a minimum. The original idea was to write the entire book in rhyming couplets
but due to the limited vocabulary learners seem to know this proved more difficult than
anticipated. Again, tension arises between content and accessibility. To maintain a logical
storyline, rhyming couplets were used on eleven out of eighteen pages; nine of these rhymes
had a deep orthography and two had a shallow orthography. Part of the motivation for the
second task was to look at rhyming couplets and the decoding of words in a way that was not
possible through the book. The aim was that the previous rhyme-based tasks and the rhyme
throughout the book would help readers decode opaque words and learn more about the
orthography and rhythm of English.
5. Results
5.1 Rhyme awareness task
The first task was not fully understood by many of the participants and some found the
concept perplexing. They did not understand the purpose of a task that was concerned purely
with phonological awareness separate from semantic content (similar issues found in Kurvers
et al. 2006). Also many did the task without reading the words out loud, which may have
made the process more difficult. Participant 6 did not participate in this task as it proved too
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difficult. The rest of the participants all attempted the task with varying levels of
comprehension2.
Out of the other eight participants only one was able to correctly identify more than half of
the non-rhyming words. The average total of correct answers was 42.5% and, on average,
38.8% of shallow rhymes and 44.4% of deep rhymes were correctly identified. The graph
below shows which particular word sets were problematic and whether there was any
distinction between rhymes with deep or shallow orthography.
Figure 1: Results from rhyme awareness task
Word set 8 (day, tree, key) was only answered correctly by one participant, with the majority
circling tree as the odd-one-out (indicate which participants). The next highly problematic
word set was 12 (hat, rat, hot), which was only correctly answered by two participants, with
the majority circling rat as the odd-one-out, highlighting alliteration over rhyme. Word set 8
was orthographically opaque, whereas 12 was transparent, also, word lists 11,14 and 15 were
all opaque but were answered correctly by over 60% of participants. Overall, depth of
orthography did not make a difference. In many cases where rhymes were not correctly
identified matching onsets or orthographically similar words were, which still showed a
degree of phonological awareness.
2
Young-Scholten and Strom (2006) gave their tasks in the learners’ L1 first but as I had eight different L1s,
compared to their two L1s, this was not replicable.
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5.2 Reading list of rhyming sentences
The second task proved more successful as all participants were familiar and comfortable
with reading aloud short sentences. In the first half of the data set, involving shorter
sentences, most sentences were read with a relatively high level of fluency and many
participants developed a sense of rhythm as they went along. Sentences 5 (couplet: skirt,
hurt) proved the most difficult with only four able to read it relatively fluently and over half
needing prompting. Sentences 6 (couplet: best, test), 10 (adjacent: blue, shoe) and 17
(couplet: blue, shoe) proved easiest and were read fluently by all, except participant 7 who
needed help with blue and shoe. Some even showed that they enjoyed a few of the rhymes,
including: best and test; and sick chick.
In the second half of the data set, involving longer sentences and more complex vocabulary,
most sentences were again read with a relatively high level of fluency and sense of rhythm.
Sentences 11 (couplet: cough, off) were read fluently by all participants with only participant
6 sounding out phonemes and needing a prompt. In the shorter sentences cough was found
difficult by over half (exact number) of the participant but read fluently in the longer
sentences, suggesting modification from the previous set of sentences. Sentences 2 (adjacent:
dirt, hurt) and 4 (adjacent: shows, clothes, froze) were found most difficult, both with one
participant unable to read them correctly, more than half making mistakes and at least 25%
needing a prompt and sounding out of phonemes. Sentence 7 (adjacent: call, fall, wall) was
the next most problematic with only 50% reading fluently. The difficulty with opaque
sentences 2 and 4 but then also transparent sentence 7 demonstrates again that there is little
distinction between deep and shallow orthography. Finally, 25% of participants showed that
they enjoyed the rhyme jelly and belly in sentences 10.
Figure 2 demonstrates distinctions between deep and shallow orthography and also rhyming
words’ position in rhyming couplets and adjacent within the same sentence.
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Figure 2: Results from rhyming sentences reading task
The main result shown in figure 2 is that most sentences were read fluently with few
problems, irrespective of depth of orthography or position of rhyming pair. On average,
sentences with orthographically deep rhymes did entail more prompting, short pauses and
phonemic decoding. However, again the data does not indicate rhymes with a deep
orthography are more difficult. One the other hand, these results might be demonstrating that
rhyme does help overcome difficulty with obscure orthography. Regarding position of the
rhyming words, couplets are highest for fluency and lowest for mistakes and difficulty, but
there is insufficient data to indicate a relationship between position of rhyme and participants
ability read.
5.3 Book reading task
The aim of this final task was to examine how well the book as a whole would be received by
A0 learners as well as effect of rhyme (see appendix 5). Each student read the story aloud
whilst I made notes on difficult areas and gave prompts where necessary. Every participant
was able to read the book with few difficulties and the majority clearly comprehended the
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content of the story. There were problem areas, but these varied for each participant,
exemplifying the diversity of abilities within the A0 level classroom. The influence of rhyme
on phonological decoding was subtle but became more apparent in the more orthographically
opaque examples. Table 3 displays the results from each participant’s reading of the book.
A common problem area that was not anticipated was number symbols. A conscious decision
had been made to use number symbols (e.g. 1, 2, 3) instead of number words (e.g. one, two,
three), because they were assumed to be more accessible than opaque words, such as eight.
Even though the meaning of the symbol is clear, there are no phonological clues for the
phonetic realisation of the symbol. I decided to keep the number symbols in the final copy of
the book because they provided an opportunity to practise and improve grasp of numbers in
English. Also, the difficulties with these decreased as the students progressed through the
book, due the amount of repetition.
Difficulty with words that had opaque orthography, consonant clusters and/or digraphs was
an anticipated problem. Interestingly, only three words consistently caused problems for
participants; these were cries, irons and sighs. These were all orthographically opaque with
silent letters and consonant clusters. Cries and sighs not only stood out as problematic, but
also as examples where some participants used rhyme to overcome difficulties. Three of the
participants adjusted or corrected their reading of sighs to rhyme with cries, one of whom
adjusted to their incorrect decoding of cries, but this still shows development of phonological
decoding in spite of highly opaque orthography. Other participants showed use of rhyme by
self-correcting their reading or sore to rhyme with door or reading with a sense of rhythm.
Overall, this task gave positive and encouraging results, as the book succeeding in being
linguistically accessible and comprehensible. The illustrations proved important as a few
participants overtly referred to them to better understand the meaning of the text. Also, rhyme
did appear to positively affect the reading experience for the reader. It aided phonological
decoding in areas of difficulty, gave the text a sense of rhythm and in places participants
expressed overt enjoyment of the story.
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Table 3: Book Reading Task Results
Student
1. AG
Problem
areas
starts,
crisps
Replacements
Too
Difficult
quick;
nurse
2. MD
Number
symbols
3. GA
Number
symbols;
cries
[cri:ɛs]
chips (crisps)
uses;
irons
4. EB
Number
symbols
baby (boy)
cough
Drops
‘-s’
boy(s);
give(s)
Reads letter
by letter
irons
ring(s)
late, apples,
more, irons,
cries
Enjoy
story
‘cry’ [cri:] and
‘sigh’ [si:]
rhyme; correctly
guesses ‘sore’
No use rhyme to
guide decoding;
Corrects ‘sore’
to rhyme with
‘door’
Some rhymes
picked up and
used for
decoding, but
not all.
Decoding of
‘sighs’ is not
helped by ‘cries’
6. MS
irons[i:]rons;
sick;
spotty
chips (crisps);
cars (cries)
cream
7. XT
cry [cri:]
late;
socks;
sighs;
rings;
cream
8. SP
Number
symbols;
feelsf[ɛ]ls;
creamcr[ɛ]m
irons;
spot;
worse;
sighs
irons
give(s)
chew;
Mrs.
sighs, worse
‘Cry’ [craɪ] used
to correctly
decode ‘sigh’
[saɪ]; some selfcorrection, but
mainly guessing
Reads with a
rhythm
Reads with
rhythm; uses
‘Cry’ [craɪ] to
correctly guess
decoding of
‘Sigh’ [saɪ]
16
General
ability
Difficult start
but competent
and fluent
Competent
and fluent,
hardly any
issues
Quite
competent,
with some
problem areas
and mistakes
Very
competent and
fluent, no
problems.
Quite
competent and
fluent, with
some problem
areas
Reads with
rhythm
5. MB
9. MK
Uses rhyme
yes
Quite
Competent
and fluent,
uses
illustrations to
clarify
meaning
Competent,
medium
fluency, uses
illustrations
yes
Competent
and fluent,
very few
pauses
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6. Discussion
As mentioned in the hypothesis, I was expecting participants to demonstrate a high awareness
of rimes and a distinction between shallow and deep orthography. The results of the first task
could show this to be incorrect, as they indicate low rhyme awareness and a lack of
distinction between shallow and deep orthography. However, a more likely conclusion is that
lack of understanding of the task and an inappropriate data collection method is responsible
for the results.
The second task demonstrated that participants were able to read sentences involving rhyme
fluently and with little difficulty. The lack of difficulty when decoding words, and use of
rhyme to develop a rhythm, implies that the participants are more aware of rimes than the
first task would indicate. However, similarly to the previous results, little distinction is made
between rhyming words with deep and shallow orthography. A possible conclusion could be
that the rhyme is effective in aiding the decoding of opaque orthography, but it could also be
related to sight word repertoire. Another possible factor is that participants learnt from their
mistakes as they went through the reading tasks. This again could be a factor in lack of
consistent problems with opaque rhymes. To clarify this result, further testing is needed on
words with opaque orthography, without the influence of rhyme and repetition.
When discussing the tasks with the participants’ teachers, they predicted their students would
have a lot of trouble with the book and suggested I should work with the next higher level,
the A1 level group. Out of all the tasks, I found the students responded best to the book
reading and had very few problems regarding accessibility. Due to the teachers’ sceptiscm
towards the book, they may have given me students from the top of their A0 level class
instead of a selection that would represent the average level of ability. This could be a factor
in why there was a consistently high level of fluency and competence in the reading tasks.
An aspect of the reading tasks that proved particularly difficult was trying to test participants’
‘enjoyment’. Certain outward displays were noted, such as smiling after reading particular
sentences and comments made during the interview, demonstrating the participant had
engaged with the story. The fact that any of the participants overtly expressed enjoyment or
engagement with the text is a very positive outcome and could indicate that rhyme does
indeed improve content and encourage language play. However, this is far from a conclusive
finding and further investigation is needed.
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Throughout the tasks, the participants demonstrated low oral ability but a relatively high level
of competence when reading. As mentioned in the literature review, any formal instruction in
an alphabetic script will result in increased phonemic awareness. Most of the participants
were literate in their L1’s (all of which use an alphabetic system, except Mandarin) meaning
their phonemic awareness was likely to be well developed and they were comfortable with
text and reading tasks. To further develop this study and see if rhyme could be used to bridge
the gap between pre-literate and illiterate phonological awareness L1 low-literate adults
would be needed.
7. Conclusion
The first aim of this study was to find out how aware A0 level learners were of rimes in
written English. The results from the first task proved inconclusive, but across the other two
tasks participants did show an awareness of rhyme. This was demonstrated by self-correcting
and correctly guessing opaque words in rhyming couplets and sentences, reading with rhythm
and expressing enjoyment after certain rhyming combinations. The next aim was to find out
whether rhyme helps participants to decoding English orthography. The level of consistent
fluency and competence in both reading tasks, irrespective of shallow or deep orthography,
indicates that rhyme does prove effective. Also, the evidence of participants’ correctly
guessing opaque words in rhyming couplets that they had previously decoded incorrectly
showed that rhyme helps overcome problems with English orthography.
The third and final aim was to find out whether rhyme was an effective device in ESOL A0
level fiction writing, not only encouraging students’ phonological awareness but also reading
for pleasure. There were instances in both reading task where participants expressed
enjoyment of the text, demonstrating the use of rhyme in encouraging language play. Also,
the response to the book was very positive overall, with some participants overtly engaging
with the text, not just as a reading exercise but as a story. These results show that rhyme is
accessible and effective in making a text or story more engaging for low level learners.
Overall, the findings of this study indicate that rhyme aids decoding of opaque words in
English, in a way that is accessible to A0 learners. The results also show that rhyme makes
text more engaging for this level learner by introducing rhythm and an element of language
play. Therefore, rhyme can be used to ease the tension between content and accessibility in
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fiction books aimed at ESOL A0 level learners. However, there are areas of this study which
need to be investigated further, before these findings can be considered fully conclusive.
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