The study utilized experimental and descriptive approach to identify the impact of raising phonological awareness on improving EFL reading comprehension skill among Preparatory Year students at Najran University (NU). Phonological Awareness is an applied linguistic term which refers to the ability to hear and manipulate the sound structure of language. It is an encompassing term that involves working with the sounds of language at the word, syllable, and phoneme level and contains many processes. The study is an attempt to identify the impact of phonological awareness training and gender on reading performance of preparatory year students at NU. The sample consisted of (160) students, (80) males and (80) females. Phonological Awareness Skills Test and Cronbach Alpha Coefficient utilized to measure progress in four phonological awareness skills including word identification, word deletion, word blending and word rhyming while a reading passage. Pre- and post-Cloze Test applied to identify the reading levels of the participants. In addition, simple percentage and T-Test utilized to statically analyze the data. The results revealed that training on phonological awareness skills significantly improved the reading performance of the students in the experimental group.
Keywords: Comprehension, EFL Learners’, Najran University, Phonological Awareness
