The Effectiveness of a Combined Program of Direct Instruction and Phonological Awareness on Reading Fluency, Reading Comprehension, and Working Memory for First Grade Elementary School Students with Reading Problems

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the integrative training program consisted of a direct instruction and phonological awareness, compared with phonology and direct instruction programs on reading skills, and working memory in the first grade girl students with reading problems (RP). This study used pretest-posttest and follow-up sessions with experimental and control groups. Sixty girl students with RP were recruited through the purposeful sampling method (n = 15 in 4 groups), and the experimental groups were taught during 13 eighty-minute sessions. Measuring instruments included Diagnostic Reading Test, Phonological Awareness Test, Wechsler Memory, and Raven's Matrices. Mixed MANOVA analysis revealed that the DI group had better improvement in RC and WM rather than the PA group, and the PA group had better improvement in PA. The integrative group had better improvement in both PA and forward memory compared with the other two groups. This is probably due to receiving both instructions at the same time. Accordingly, it is concluded that the integrative method can be used for students with RP.