The effect of synthetic phonics on the development of reading skills in L1 and L2

Abstract

This research investigated the effect of using synthetic phonics for teaching Indonesian young learners to read in English and Indonesian. Since English orthography is very different from Indonesian orthography, the use of synthetic phonics for teaching Indonesian young EFL learners to read in English potentially affects the development of their skills to read in Indonesian. To verify this assumption, the researchers analyzed the development of the skills for decoding English and Indonesian sounds represented by ‘a’, ‘u’, and ‘o’ within five months in K-2 students from two kindergartens. In one kindergarten, the teacher used synthetic phonics to teach English. In the other, the teacher used the MIKids program. The results of this research indicate that the synthetic phonics method might be less effective when it is used for teaching reading in English in Indonesia. In addition, it can potentially impede the development of skills for reading in Indonesian.