RETHINKING ENGLISH TEACHING IN YOUTH AND ADULT EDUCATION (EJA): THE PATHWAY OF PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

This article aims to investigate the impact of a pedagogical intervention, based on Phonetics and Phonology, on the development of phonological awareness in students from an 8th/9th-grade class of Youth and Adult Education (EJA). Grounded on the premise that English teaching in this modality faces historical challenges, since it often neglects the oral aspects of the language, this study was developed. To this end, the quali-quantitative research adopted a pre-test/post-test design with a single group of 30 students. Methodologically, the participants underwent a five-week didactic sequence, which included playful and contextualized activities focused on rhyme, phonemic segmentation, alliteration, and other sound-related aspects of the English language. With regard to the findings, the quantitative results, analyzed using the Wilcoxon test, revealed a statistically significant improvement (p < 0.001), whereby the students' average score doubled from the pre-test to the post-test. Furthermore, on a qualitative level, a significant increase in student engagement, autonomy, and linguistic self-esteem was observed. Therefore, the study concludes that the systematic teaching of phonological awareness is an effective and promising strategy for English language teaching in the EJA context, thereby enhancing not only oral perception and production skills but also positively transforming the students' relationship with language learning.