Reinforcing Blending and Segmenting Words Among EFL Taiwanese Pupils Through Dual-Coding Multisensory Approach

Abstract

This study determined the effectiveness of a dual-coding multisensory approach in reinforcing the blending and segmenting of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words among third-grade EFL pupils at Dacun Elementary School in Changhua County, Taiwan. A true experimental pretest-posttest control-group design was used. Sixteen English-club pupils were included and randomly assigned through the fishbowl method to an experimental group (n = 8) and a control group (n = 8). Both groups received twelve 30-minute phonics sessions over six weeks; the experimental group used visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic activities, while the control group received lecture-based phonics instruction. Performance was measured using a researcher-developed 15-item CVC Decoding Test validated by three experts. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent-samples t tests, paired-samples t tests, and Cohen's d at the .01 level of significance. The groups were equivalent at pretest, t(14) = 0.068, p = .9467. Both groups improved significantly from pretest to posttest: the control group increased from M = 4.00 to M = 11.38, t(7) = -5.468, p = .0009, d = 1.933, while the experimental group increased from M = 4.13 to M = 12.50, t(7) = -6.763, p = .0003, d = 2.391. Although the experimental group achieved a higher posttest mean and mean gain, between-group differences in posttest scores and gains were not statistically significant. The experimental group also showed lower posttest variability. The findings indicate that both structured phonics approaches improved CVC decoding, with the dual-coding multisensory approach showing a larger within-group effect and more consistent gains. The study supports the use of multisensory phonics as a promising reinforcement strategy while recognizing the need for larger and longer studies to establish comparative superiority.