The
Nature and Importance of Phonemic Awareness |
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Before
children can make any sense of the alphabetic principle, they must understand
that those sounds that are paired with the letters are one and the same
as the sounds of speech. For those of us who already know how to read
and write, this realization seems very basic, almost transparent. Nevertheless,
research shows that the very notion that spoken language is made up
of sequences of these little sounds does not come naturally or easily
as human beings. |
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The
small units of speech that correspond to letters of an alphabetic writing
system are called phonemes. Thus, the awareness that language is composed
of these small sounds is termed phonemic awareness. Research indicates
that, without direct instructional support, phonemic awareness eludes
roughly 25% of middle-class first graders and substantially more of
those who come from less literacy-rich backgrounds. |
| Although
a number of different types of linguistic awareness are, in one way
or another, presupposed in the dialogues and activities of beginning
reading instruction, preschool-age children's awareness of phonemes
of the speech sounds that correspond roughly to individual letters has
been shown to hold singular predictive power, statistically accounting
for as much as 50% of the variance in their reading proficiency at the
end of first grade (Blachman, 1991; Juel, 1991; Stanovich, 1986; Wagner
et al., 1994). Furthermore, faced with an alphabetic script, a child's level of phonemic awareness on entering school is widely held to be the strongest single most determinant of the success that she or he will experience in learning to read or, conversely, the likelihood the she or he will fail (Adams, 1990; Stanovich, 1986). |
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Measures
of the preschool-age children's level of phonemic awareness strongly
predict their future success in learning to read. Measures of school
children's ability to attend to and manipulate phonemes strongly correlate
with their reading success through the twelfth grade. Poorly developed
phonemic awareness has been shown to be characteristic of adults with
literacy problems in the United States (Liberman, Rubin, Duques, &
Carlisle, 1985). |
| New
phonemic challenges are presented in a gradual, step-by-step progression,
with new challenges building on those previously introduced and practiced.
The activities themselves have been designed in such a way that teachers
can assess their students' progress by informally observing their responses
and involvement. All of the sessions and games involve some level of
active participation, giving children the opportunities to make up nonsense
words or rhymes and actions of their own creation.("Phonemic Awareness
in Young Children" by Adams, Foorman, Lundberg & Beeler). |
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