The Use Of Elkonin Box And Reading Strategies

Introduction

Elkonin boxes are also known as 'sound boxes. ' They are instruction techniques commonly used to build phonemic awareness in early elementary grade students. Elkonin boxes aid students in increasing reading skills by requiring students to segment words into their individual syllables and sounds. The instructor draws boxes on a dry-erase board, piece of paper, or chalkboard and asks students to listen to a word while marking a single box for each phoneme heard. The technique was first utilized in early 1960s, by D.B. El 'konin, a Russian psychologist. He studied young children and established the technique of using boxes to segment words into individual sounds. The technique proved to be an effective strategy in enhancing reading

Accordingly, phonological awareness can be developed before reading mastery to facilitate the subsequent attainment of reading skills. Effective phonemic awareness instruction educates participants to identify, think about, and manipulate sounds in spoken language. Phoneme segmentation and Phoneme blending are two essential elements of this instruction. Different researchers have conducted numerous studies on the effectiveness of this technique. The studies show that children who utilize this technique are able to hear sounds in words, divide words and show an understanding of letter-sound correspondence. Elkonin Boxes" are easy to create by simply drawing squares on a flat surface or a piece of paper. The use of the templates with manipulative to represent each sound makes the task both multisensory and concrete. Words with consonant-vowel-consonant patterns can be stretched out to make it easier for the beginner. However, the technique equally works well with more advanced readers. This segment discusses three primary types of research conducted to determine the effectiveness of this technique in

Beginners who could not decode new words but would invent partial sound spellings were assigned randomly to three groups. A mouth treatment group was trained to position pictures to depict the order of articulatory gestures in words. An ear treatment group was taught to position blocks to represent the order of sounds in words. No special instructions were given to a no-treatment control group. The results demonstrated that the two techniques of phonemic awareness instruction were valuable in teaching phonemic segmentation and in improving participant’s ability to spell the sounds in words despite the fact that letters were not used during the activity. On the other hand, only articulatory instruction improved processes improved participants reading ability. The findings show that that awareness of articulatory gestures enhances the activation of graphophonemic connections that aid children to identify written words. Instructors can begin with Elkonin boxes lesson and have children to stretch a few words out into their different sounds. Elkonin boxes have a positive effect on early elementary grades as they aid children in building their phonological awareness by subdividing words into separate sounds or syllables. They help students know how to count the number of phonemes in a