Phonemic Awareness

History

Historically, educators believed there were two main components in learning to read—visual and auditory elements. Therefore, it was believed that if students were taught the letters (visual) and the sounds (auditory), which is essentially phonics, then students would learn how to decode words. Even though many children learned to read this way, there were some children who struggled to read. During the 1960s, two Russian psychologists, Zhurova and Elkonin, began to realize that there was a relationship between phoneme segmentation (clearly saying each sound within a word) abilities and reading achievement. Research by Liberman, as cited by Blachman (2000), in America confirmed that children who could read well were able to segment phonemes within words; however, the poor readers were unable to analyze and complete these tasks. Therefore, beginning readers need to recognize that speech is composed of segmented units called phonemes. Phonemes are abstract, and they are the smallest units of sound within spoken words.

Theory and Research

Extensive research has been completed since these early studies. As cited by Blachman (2000), the results continue to provide evidence that phoneme awareness remains a strong predictor of reading ability and children lacking in this ability stay behind as poor readers.

Numerous researchers, such as Ehri (1979) and Perfetti (1985), have identified a reciprocal relationship between early phonological awareness and early literacy acquisition. The hypothesis of this relationship means that phonological awareness, such as rhyme and alliteration (the repetition of the same sounds or the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words), may facilitate literacy development, and that reading instruction may, in turn, influence more reflective phonemic awareness, which contributes to an increase in overall reading scores. Therefore, one can say that phonemic awareness is both a cause and a consequence of learning to read.

Yopp's (1995) work enables educators to understand the difference between phonological and phonemic awareness. Phonological awareness refers to a global understanding of language, such as having an ear for rhyme, alliteration, and identifying syllables. Phonemic awareness is the manipulation of sounds within words, such as matching sounds; counting phonemes; identifying beginning, middle, and ending sounds; and segmenting and blending, which are simple tasks. Phonemic awareness also includes compound tasks such as deleting and substituting phonemes, which require children to handle complex tasks in memory.

Intervention Processes

Early family and preschool literacy experiences such as being read to and language play appear to assist children with a positive advantage in literacy. Many children will naturally acquire some phonemic awareness from hearing stories, participating in language play, and learning to read and spell even if phonemic awareness is not explicitly taught to them. However, the review of research by the National Reading Panel (2000) shows that direct instruction does improve phonemic awareness, which positively impacts reading scores.

The daily time that is recommended for phonemic awareness training should be based on the reason for the instruction as well as situational factors. Overall, phonemic awareness training should be used in moderation because it is a means rather than an end. The maximum allotted instructional time period should be 30 minutes, as concluded by the National Reading Panel (2000).

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