Department of Early Childhood Care and Development

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Browsing Department of Early Childhood Care and Development by Advisor "Nghikembua, T.N."

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    Grade one teachers’ experiences in developing children’s phonological awareness in English as a second language: A case of Onankali circuit, Namibia
    (University of Namibia, 2025) Nepolo, Suama Magano; Nghikembua, T.N.
    This study aimed at exploring the challenges Grade 1 teachers encounter when teaching phonological awareness in English as a Second Language (ESL) in the Onankali Circuit of the Oshikoto Education Region of Namibia. The difficulties that children face during the early stages of learning affect the acquisition of better reading skills in future (Naiken, 2016). In an effort to comprehend the difficulties that Grade 1 teachers face in teaching phonological awareness, a single case study design and qualitative approach were used in this study. In addition, the study used purposive sampling to identify the three schools, which consisted of six Grade 1 teachers, three Junior Primary Heads of Departments, and one Advisory teacher from Onankali Circuit. For data collection, face-to-face interviews, observations and document analysis were utilised. Moreover, content analysis was used for data analysis. Some major challenges revealed in the study are but not limited to are a lack of conceptual knowledge about the development of phonological awareness, insufficient teaching and learning resources for phonological awareness, teachers’ lack of English proficiency as well as the insufficient training on the development of phonological awareness which leads to poor reading skills among the Grade 1 learners. The study further revealed the need for Grade 1 teachers to broaden their pedagogical content knowledge of the suitable teaching strategies for phonological awareness and the usage of relevant teaching activities for phonological awareness. Finally, the study recommends Educational Regional offices to make provision for quality professional development training workshops and universal teaching materials for all Grade 1 teachers to support phonological awareness instruction