Software Evaluation

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
Reading Horizons & Discover Intensive Phonics

The demo CD explores two different programs: Reading Horizons and Discover Intensive Phonics. These software programs are designed to teach phonics to K-12, adult, and ESL students with mild to severe reading disorders.

Language proficiency level targeted: For native speakers of English, the program targets those with below-average reading skills, particularly those reading below 6th grade level. For ESL students, the program may be helpful to students at varied proficiency levels; beginning or intermediate to advanced students who are encountering difficulties at higher reading levels, for example in (under)graduate courses.

Age range targeted: ages 4-9 and 10-adult.

Description of activities: Reading Horizons software was developed specifically for students ages 10+ who exhibit below-average reading skills. Discover Intensive Phonics targets students ages 4-9. Both programs teach decoding skills to help students learn the structure of the English language and thereby improve pronunciation, reading, and spelling skills. The method consists of three main components: 42 sounds of the alphabet (including blends and special vowel sounds), 5 phonetic skills, and 2 decoding skills. A few additional skills & rule exceptions are taught as well as vocabulary and pronunciation. The software can be used on its own or as a supplement to other classroom curricula.

2. EVALUATION:

Technological Features:

Speed of program operation: I encountered no technical difficulties with the interactive demo.

Reliability of operation: Reliable; no stalls or crashes occurred.

Screen management: The demo and website were easy to navigate. Tabs easily identified different sections to explore and the information was neatly organized and categorized.

User interface: easy to use and demo includes link to website, which contains additional information and downloads.

Exploitation of computer potential: It is a bit difficult to evaluate this component, because the demo is rather limited in hands-on interaction. This demo primarily focuses on “selling” the Reading Horizons and Discover Intensive Phonics software programs. However, from exploring the details on the demo as well as the company website, this software appears to be very interactive.

For ESL students, a pronunciation practice tool is a helpful feature that can be self-accessed at any time. This tool is made up of 4 key features: diagram, video, record, and “ABC”. The diagram is an animated visual to show learners proper tongue placement to produce the target sound while they listen to a native speaker making the sound. Using the video feature, learners can also watch the narrator pronouncing a sound. If the students’ computers are equipped with a microphone, they can compare their own sound production with that of a native speaker. Finally, the “ABC” feature shows how to write the letter associated with the sound. This pronunciation tool makes effective use of sound, graphics, video, and speech recognition.

Students have the ability to adapt certain features. For example, they can choose either a male or female voice for the narration and change background colors.

ESL students may also receive additional support in their native language during lesson instruction. Language support is presently available in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Haitian-Creole with more languages being added. This type of support provides clarification when a student is not clear on how to proceed within a lesson.

Lessons are progressive in nature, meaning that a student may not proceed to the next lesson until they pass their current lesson. The passing requirements set are student specific. Each lesson has a skill check feature. If a student is confident that he/she is proficient in the materials covered during a particular lesson, the learner can opt to take the skill check. If the student passes, he/she may bypass that lesson and proceed to the next lesson. If, however, a student fails or opts not to take the skill check, he/she will proceed with the entire lesson. Students are able to view their progress and test results and may return to previous lessons at any time. The results section specifies if/which section(s) a student failed so that the learner can review and retest that particular section to improve knowledge and scores.

Activities (Procedure):

As this phonics instruction is systematic and sequential in nature, so are the lessons. Reading Horizons programs are primarily instructional with a linguistic focus. The Discover Intensive Phonics program begins with assessment and instruction in phonemic awareness and then proceeds to teaching the 42 sounds of the alphabet, moving sequentially through blends, word formation, and seven skills for decoding multi-syllable words. Students also learn common sight words, sentence structure, word meaning, handwriting, spelling and listening and thinking skills. The primary activities are tutorials and drills that focus on the linguistic aspects of morphology and lexis. The way this is done is very interactive and makes good use of technology. Some activities are facilitative, such as the pronunciation and vocabulary tools. These tools are also well designed for ESL learners, incorporating visuals, sound & recording capabilities.

Teacher Fit (Design):

These software programs are not in the least ambiguous about their underpinning methodology. The instructional approach is phonics; teaching students phonemic awareness and strategies for decoding words. Thus, in evaluating “teacher fit”, one has to make some judgments on whether phonics instruction benefits ESL students and is grounded in current research. The demo CD, of course, heavily promotes the success and benefits of this approach in ESL education. However, I decided to investigate a bit on my own to determine current research outcomes. Well, it’s a bit like opening a can of worms. If you look long and hard enough, you can find as many people arguing for as against it. Although, it seems the general consensus is to include phonics as part of a more comprehensive approach to ESL education. Reading Horizons states that “students learn to read, spell, and pronounce 90% of commonly used English words”. I had some concerns in regard to comprehension; being able to read or pronounce a word is not equivalent to understanding its meaning and using it in appropriate contexts. I then learned that software designed specifically for ESL learners includes a vocabulary section. It lists vocabulary words associated with each lesson. When a student clicks on a word, he/she is provided with a picture and definition(s) along with sentence(s) that put the word into context. Students will then pronounce and then decode the word. There’s also a section called English for Special Purposes, which includes additional vocabulary words relating to travel, business, etc. This extra learning feature for ESL students is important to address comprehension.

The software component of these programs does not encourage collaboration and activities lack authenticity as they are largely instructional in nature: tutorials. The activities in the Reading Horizons and Discover Intensive Phonics programs can be used exclusively as a remediation program for students with learning difficulties. For ESL learners, activities are designed to be a core component of the curriculum or in the least supplementary to instruction.

Learner Fit (Design):

The Reading Horizons programs are adaptable to many different types of learners. Each of their programs is designed to meet the needs of K-12, adult, and ESL students, especially those with mild to severe reading disorders. I’ll evaluate “learner fit” taking into account these different properties, focusing on the program/features for ESL students:

Linguistic level: Since Reading Horizons offers programs for native speakers and varied levels of ESL proficiency, programs adapt grammar, vocabulary and registers to best meet the needs of the intended learners.

Response handling: the recording feature allows students to compare their utterances with that of a native speaker. I’m not able to determine from the demonstrations exactly how the program offers corrective feedback in a lesson. However, an assessment takes place at the end of each lesson and students must pass in order to proceed to the next lesson. The administrator (teacher) sets specific goals for each student and must monitor test outcomes closely. Students and teachers can review the results section to determine which areas of learning warrant extra attention.

Adaptation to individual learner differences: programs are designed for specific age groups and potential reading disorders (native & ESL learners). The vocabulary section adapts words for “special purposes” if activated by the administrator.

Learner styles: students are expected to learn decoding strategies requiring recall & memorization skills.

Learning strategies: these software programs encourage students to learn independently at their own pace. Phonics seems to fall under deductive reasoning as it teaches students specific rules and strategies. Reading Horizons includes visual-graphic as well as visual-textual learning.

Individual/Group work: the software programs themselves are designed for individual learners. However, additional workbooks are available for classroom use promoting collaborative learning though pair/group activities.

Learner control: learners have some control over esthetics (changing background colors) and choosing male/female narrator voice. Within lessons, learners can opt to test out of a section by passing a skills check test. It seems that learners also have some flexibility in choosing the order of decoding vocabulary words in a section, for example, and can search for words that interest them using the vocabulary tool. Overall though, the learner has little control as the lessons are sequential and one must pass each lesson to proceed to the next one.

Design flexibility/modifiability by the instructor: the instructor can adapt features of these programs to best suit specific students. For example, instructors set the “passing percentage” for each student and can grant access to additional information, such as the “special purposes” vocabulary.

3. SUMMARY:

As stated earlier, I think phonics instruction may be beneficial in ESL education for certain students. It’s a very methodical, rule-based method, which may not suit all learners. However, judging the software fairly in its own right as a Phonics teaching tool, I think Reading Horizons and Discover Intensive Phonics make good use of technology to teach these particular skills and creatively adapt their instructional programs to meet the needs of specific learners. As an instructor, I would be willing to try this software as an adjunct to other proven instructional methods with additional materials that extend learning to group interaction. If someone were looking specifically for phonics software to use with ESL learners with reading difficulties, I’d probably recommend this program.

4. PRODUCER DETAILS:

For more information about Reading Horizons & Discover Intensive Phonics, please copy and paste the link below into your web browser:
http://www.readinghorizons.com