Phonemic awareness in early literacy instruction and reading development

Educational Research: Phonemic Awareness

Web Page

According to Hoover (2002) in his web page article "The Importance of Phonemic Awareness in Learning to Read," phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate the individual sounds within words. This linguistic skill is needed to read alphabetical languages. The abstract nature of phonemes can cause confusion for early learners. Research studies have shown that students who have strong phonemic awareness skills in first grade are strong readers; likewise, students who are weak in phonemic awareness are poor readers. Phonemic awareness can be difficult for many students because it is an abstract skill and must be taught directly. If the child has not mastered phonemic awareness by third grade, Hoover states that there is very little possibility that the child will ever read at the level of his or her peers.

Newspaper Article

Langland's December 2004 article "Working With Sounds: Educators Trying to Boost Reading Skills With Phonemic Awareness," claims that in Norristown, Pennsylvania, teachers have begun to incorporate phonemic awareness into their daily routine in the hopes of improving reading ability among early learners. According to Langland, the strategy of teaching individual sounds within words has been used by dyslexia researchers and reading specialists for many years, but has just begun to be used in the mainstream classroom. Langland indicates that approximately 20% of all children are diagnosed with a reading disability, but reading specialists believe that "teaching phonemic awareness in kindergarten could reduce reading failure in fourth grade by nearly 50%" (Langland, 2004). Phonemic awareness is one of the components of the Reading First program, a federal initiative designed to improve reading skills among early learners.

Magazine

In the April 2009 article "Using Scaffolding to Teach Phonemic Awareness in Preschool and Kindergarten," McGee and Ukrainetz note that many children enter school without the ability to recognize the individual sounds within words. Moreover, their teachers find it difficult to teach phonemic awareness and that there is little in the teaching curricula that can help teachers understand how to teach this skill. They suggest using intense scaffolding for children who have no concept of phonemic awareness. This can be accomplished by isolating and exaggerating the sounds within words and by providing the correct response. They can also use moderate scaffolding by elongating the sound in the word, but without providing the correct response. As the child gains skill and confidence, the teacher withdraws support.