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The role of phonological awareness in developing English reading skills in EFL students

The objective of this study is to investigate the role of phonological awareness in reading comprehension skills in intermediate EFL college students. Twenty-five 3 rd year college students in the English Department, Faculty of Arts, Mansoura University were selected by convenience to participate in the experimental group, and twenty-six others were assigned to the control group. An experimental method of research was adopted for this study, involving a posttest-only control group design. Two instruments were developed, standardised, and administered in this study: namely, The Chafouleas' Phonological Awareness Tasks Assessment and a reading comprehension test. The PA assessment included five tasks, i.e., rhyme-providing, sound-providing, blending, segmentation, initial-final deletions. The measures were given over five days by the end of the 2019-second semester. Procedures included giving a phonics development programme over the semester to the experimental group as they studied reading. Results showed that the phonics intervention yielded positive results in increasing phonological awareness in the experimental participants, which, in turn, positively affected their reading comprehension achievement. Further, the PA results correlated more positively with reading comprehension. for pedagogy and further research suggestions were forwarded in the end.