The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of teaching a phonics program to improve the English reading fluency of students with visual impairment. The participants were three fifth grade elementary students with visual impairment. Two of them were blind and one had low vision, they attended the school for the blind in Gwangju city. The program was consisted of teaching six phonics rules each period. These phonics rules were presented according to the order of main vowels and consonants of each text.
This study was conducted from June 2nd to July 6th, 2006. The changing-criterion design was used to determine the effectiveness of teaching phonics to improve the English reading fluency. The dependent variables were English reading speed and accuracy, criterion levels were increased in a stepwise manner across successive subphases of the intervention until the desired level of functioning was obtained.
The results showed the effects of teaching phonics in increasing the participants\' English reading speed and accuracy. Each participants\' final phase average English reading speed was increased at least from 2.5 times to 4 times higher than the baseline phase average. Each participants\' final phase average English reading accuracy was improved at least from 39% to 80% higher than the baseline phase average. These results implied the benefits of teaching phonics to improve the English reading fluency of students with visual impairment.