Phonics and phonemic awareness, syntax and semantics, graphemes, morphemes, and phonemes…oh my! The plethora of literacy skill terminology can be daunting to understand. All of these ideas are branches of the tree that is phonological awareness, which is a multi-level skill that can be broken down into many levels (Gillon, 2018). Phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are two literary terms that are often used simultaneously; however, the two concepts have very specific meanings and distinct components. Phonological awareness is the overarching idea over all things literacy based. It is the umbrella, if you will, that covers an array of skills needed for successful readers. Phonological awareness is defined as “the ability to hear and manipulate the sound structure of language” (University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning, 2009). It encompasses working with sounds at the word, syllable, and phoneme levels.
(https://sites.google.com/site/literacyresourcewebsite/home/phonemic-awareness)
A child’s phonological awareness is one of the most important indicators of early reading performance and literacy achievement (Gillon, 2018). In fact, “awareness of the phonological structure of a word helps children draw connections between the spoken form of a word and its written representation” (Gillon, 2018, p. 3). In other words, strong phonological awareness leads to better reading, a solid foundation of vocabulary, and deeper comprehension.
As previously stated, phonological awareness is a multilevel skill that involves breaking down words into smaller units. This includes syllable awareness, onset and rime awareness, and phonemic awareness (Gillon, 2018). Each of these processes is distinct in skill, but they all work together to develop a reader.
Syllable Awareness
Phonological awareness at the syllable level requires a reader’s understanding that words can be divided into syllables. Activity ideas to support syllable awareness include (Gillon, 2018):
syllable segmentation: “We can clap out the syllables for hamburger like this - ham…bur…ger. Now you clap out the syllables for spaghetti.”
syllable blending: “I am going to say parts of a word slowly, what word do I get when I put the word parts together? Pen…cil. Pencil!”
syllable identity: “What part of misbehavior and misspell sound the same?”
Visit the Reading Rockets website for more syllable awareness activities developed by the Florida Center for Reading Research, such as the one below:
Onset-Rime Awareness
Understanding of onset-rime takes syllable awareness to a deeper level. The onset of a given word is the initial phonological unit of word (the letters prior to the first vowel), while the rime is known as the string of letters that follow (the vowel and final consonants) (Reading Rockets, 2022). For example, in the word story, st is the onset and ory is the rime. Gillon (2018) suggests these activities to measure onset-rime awareness:
rhyme detection: “Do these words rhyme: mouse - house?”
rhyme oddity task: “Which word does not rhyme: bed, head, book?”
rhyme generation: “I’m going to say a word, and I want you to tell me a word that rhymes with it. Tell me a word that rhymes with ball.”
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is the understanding that words are made from individual sounds. This is the building block for decoding, and includes phoneme blending, deletion, and segmentation. To measure phonemic awareness, there is great value in the following tasks (Gillon, 2018):
alliteration awareness: “Which word has a different first sound: cat, cub, desk, cold?”
phoneme matching: “Which word starts with the /r/ sound like rich: rake, ball, itch?”
phoneme blending: “What word do these sounds make: /r/ /ea/ /d/?”
phoneme deletion: “Say hot. Say hot again, but do not say the /h/.”
phoneme segmentation: “How many sounds do you hear in dog?”
The Literacy How website offers teacher tips and interactive activities to heighten children’s awareness of letter sounds and developing words. One tip is to practice phonemic awareness throughout the day. Giving instructions, such as “Line up for recess if your name starts with /s/,” can easily be turned into an “I Spy a Word” game because it can be done anywhere, at any time. Instead of spying an object of a certain color, an item that begins with a specific sound is found, “I spy, with my little eye, something that starts with /b/.”
Wrapping It All Up
The many skills of phonological awareness are “strongly interrelated…However, the tasks do differ in their degree of difficulty and level of linguistic complexity” (Gillon, 2018, p. 8). Most importantly, children need to be given the opportunity to play with language. Through games, rhyming, songs, and daily conversation, students are presented with the chance to use the components of phonological awareness in their everyday environments. While it may seem like an overwhelming task at first, once broken down into the various strands, you can hold up the phonological awareness umbrella with confidence and have reading success pour down on your students!
References
Gillon, G. T. (2018). 1 Phonological Awareness Defined. In Phonological awareness: From
research to practice (pp. 1-12). essay, The Guilford Press.
Phonemic Awareness. Literacy How. (2021, December 20). Retrieved September 21, 2022, from
https://literacyhow.org/phonemic-awareness/
Phonological and phonemic awareness. Reading Rockets. (2016, April 14). Retrieved September
19, 2022, from https://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/phonologicalphonemic
Submitted by Pilar South (not verified) on July 12. (2022, March 2.) Onset/rime games:
Classroom strategy. Reading Rockets. Retrieved September 19, 2022, from
https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/onset_rime
University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning. (2009, July 17). Big ideas in beginning
reading. Big Ideas in Beginning Reading. Retrieved September 18, 2022, from
http://reading.uoregon.edu/
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