The phonological processor usually works unconsciously when we listen and speak. It is designed to extract the meaning of what is said, not to notice the speech sounds in the words. It is designed to do its job automatically in the service of efficient communication. But reading and spelling require a level of metalinguistic speech that is not natural or easily acquired. Show
On the other hand, phonological skill is not strongly related to intelligence. Some very intelligent people have limitations of linguistic awareness, especially at the phonological level. Take heart. If you find phonological tasks challenging, you are competent in many other ways! This fact is well proven: Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read any alphabetic writing system (Ehri, 2004; Rath, 2001; Troia, 2004). Phonological awareness is even important for reading other kinds of writing systems, such as Chinese and Japanese. There are several well-established lines of argument for the importance of phonological skills to reading and spelling. Phoneme awareness is necessary for learning and using the alphabetic codeEnglish uses an alphabetic writing system in which the letters, singly and in combination, represent single speech sounds. People who can take apart words into sounds, recognize their identity, and put them together again have the foundation skill for using the alphabetic principle (Liberman, Shankweiler, & Liberman, 1989; Troia, 2004). Without phoneme awareness, students may be mystified by the print system and how it represents the spoken word. Students who lack phoneme awareness may not even know what is meant by the term sound. They can usually hear well and may even name the alphabet letters, but they have little or no idea what letters represent. If asked to give the first sound in the word dog, they are likely to say "Woof-woof!" Students must be able to identify /d/ in the words dog, dish, and mad and separate the phoneme from others before they can understand what the letter d represents in those words. Phoneme awareness predicts later outcomes in reading and spellingPhoneme awareness facilitates growth in printed word recognition. Even before a student learns to read, we can predict with a high level of accuracy whether that student will be a good reader or a poor reader by the end of third grade and beyond (Good, Simmons, and Kame'enui, 2001; Torgesen, 1998, 2004). Prediction is possible with simple tests that measure awareness of speech sounds in words, knowledge of letter names, knowledge of sound-symbol correspondence, and vocabulary. The majority of poor readers have relative difficulty with phoneme awareness and other phonological skillsResearch cited in Module 1 has repeatedly shown that poor readers as a group do relatively less well on phoneme awareness tasks than on other cognitive tasks. In addition, at least 80 percent of all poor readers are estimated to demonstrate a weakness in phonological awareness and/or phonological memory. Readers with phonological processing weaknesses also tend to be the poorest spellers (Cassar, Treiman, Moats, Pollo, & Kessler, 2005). Instruction in phoneme awareness is beneficial for novice readers and spellersInstruction in speech-sound awareness reduces and alleviates reading and spelling difficulties (Adams, Foorman, Lundberg, & Beeler, 1998; Gillon, 2004; NICHD, 2000; Rath, 2001). Teaching speech sounds explicitly and directly also accelerates learning of the alphabetic code. Therefore, classroom instruction for beginning readers should include phoneme awareness activities. Phonological awareness interacts with and facilitates the development of vocabulary and word consciousnessThis argument is made much less commonly than the first four points. Phonological awareness and memory are involved in these activities of word learning:
Phonological awareness is a crucial skill to develop in children. It is strongly linked to early reading and spelling success through its association with phonics. It is a focus of literacy teaching incorporating: Phonological awareness skills can be conceptualised within a sequence of increasing complexity: The diagram below displays this
concept: How phonemic awareness relates to phonological awarenessPhonological awareness consists of all the above competencies, and phonemic awareness is a critical subset of phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness includes onset-rime identification, initial and final sound segmenting, as well as blending, segmenting, and deleting/manipulating sounds (see diagram above). The difference between phonological awareness and phonicsWhile phonological awareness includes the awareness of speech sounds, syllables, and rhymes, phonics is the mapping of speech sounds (phonemes) to letters (or letter patterns, i.e. graphemes). Phonological Awareness and Phonics are therefore not the same, but these literacy focuses tend to overlap. Phonics builds upon a foundation of phonological awareness, specifically phonemic awareness. As students learn to read and spell, they fine-tune their knowledge of the relationships between phonemes and graphemes in written language. As reading and spelling skills develop, focussing on phonemic awareness improves phonics knowledge, and focussing on phonics also improve phonemic awareness. Why use phonological awarenessDeveloping strong competencies in phonological awareness is important for all students, as the awareness of the sounds in words and syllables is critical to hearing and segmenting the words students want to spell, and blending together the sounds in words that students read. Focussing on phonological awareness is recommended to form a key component of early childhood education for literacy, starting with syllable, rhyme, and initial/final sound (alliteration) awareness. In the early years of primary school, the focus of phonological awareness includes syllable, rhyme, and alliteration awareness, but has a stronger focus on phonemic awareness, especially sound blending, segmentation, and manipulation — as these are the strongest predictors of early decoding success. Theory to practicePhonological awareness is a key early competency of emergent and proficient reading, including an explicit awareness of the structure of words, syllables, onset-rime, and individual phonemes. Together with phonics, phonological awareness (in particular phonemic awareness) is an essential competency for breaking the code of written language as per the Four Resources Model for Reading and Viewing Rhyming wordsIn this video, the teacher leads a whole class lesson that focuses on rhyming words. Phonological awareness onset-rimeIn this video the teacher explicitly teaches onset and rime through a mini lesson. Students make differentiated onset-rime booklets to practise the skill of onset-rime segmentation. SyllabificationIn this video, the teacher leads a whole class lesson that focuses on syllables. Evidence baseNational reports on the teaching of reading in the US, UK and Australia support the inclusion of phonological awareness in early literacy programs. Hill (2016, p.110) notes the importance of phonological awareness as ‘a precursor to decoding’ which needs to be explicitly taught (Adams, 2011). Links to the Victorian Curriculum - EnglishFoundationReading
Speaking and listening
Writing
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Links to the Victorian Curriculum - English as an Additional Language (EAL)Pathway A
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Pathway BSpeaking and listeningLevel BL
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Reading and viewing Level BL
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Example activitiesFor example activities to develop the major phonological awareness skills, see: Examples to Promote Phonological Awareness ReferencesAdams, M. J. (2011). The relation between alphabetic basics, word recognition and reading. In S. J. Samuels & A. E. Farstrup (Eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction (4th ed.) (pp. 4-24). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Allington, R., Baker, M., Baumann, J., Hoffman, J., Stumpf Jongsma, K., Klein, A., Larson, D., Logan, J. & Morrow, L. (1998). Phonemic awareness and the teaching of reading: A position statement from the Board of Directors of the International Reading Association. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association. Hill, S. (2012). Developing early literacy: assessment and teaching (2nd ed.). South Yarra, Vic. Eleanor Curtain Publishing. What are the most important phonological awareness skills?The most important phonological awareness skills for children to learn at these grade levels are phoneme blending and phoneme segmentation, although for some children, instruction may need to start at more rudimentary levels of phonological awareness such as alliteration or rhyming.
What is the importance of phonological awareness in every child's learning?The importance of phonological awareness
The awareness of the sounds that make up words is critical to being able to blend sounds together for later reading, and segmenting words into sounds for later spelling. Educators can introduce these concepts to young children through: songs. rhymes and games.
Why is studying phonology important?Phonology is the study of the patterns of sounds in a language. It is important in language learning because it helps learners to understand how the sounds of a language are used, and how they can be produced. It also helps them to learn the correct pronunciation of words.
Why is phonemic awareness important in learning and or acquiring a language?Acquiring phonemic awareness is important because it is the foundation for spelling and word recognition skills. Phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of how well children will learn to read during the first two years of school instruction.
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