Phonemic awareness is the ability to understand and interpret those words in the English language are formed by unique units of sound, referred to as phonemes. These units of sound have their own ways to make the words being read and understood differently from each other. Being one of the smallest units of articulation, understandability of phenomes occurs when one is able to hear and steer these sounds in a speech in a way that distinguishes one word or its meaning from another. It is important to note that words used in speech and the respective syllables basically consist of various sequences of such sounds. Considering children typically learn to read via an alphabetic writing system, the awareness holds much importance. This is because using the letters means speakers utter these phonemes when they speak. A child unaware of this linguistic concept, will not be able to understand the phonics as well, and considering these kids grow up, choose various professions, represent their countries, do meaningful researches, etc., it is important that their education serves the purpose and they truly understand their respective fields, reading and truly understanding this is an integral part.
Some basic examples of phonemes in common words:
- There are three notable phonemes in the word cat which are: k/a/t
- The word boat consists of three phonemes which are: b/ō/t
- While there are just two phonemes in the word dough which are: d/ō
- As a first, when students start to acknowledge and get familiar with the existence of these phonemes, their vocal organs like teeth, lips, hard palates, etc., start adjusting to different dialects and variations in movements. These learned patterns then form different sounds and they and help students to effectively make a connection between these sounds and the relevant letters that depict them. Interestingly students need not know the alphabets when they get in the process of learning phonemes for awareness because the focus remains on the spoken language.
Why is Phonemic Awareness important?
It is crucial to have Phonemic awareness because it allows readers to obtain an approach of understanding the core essence of the material and gives them a strong foundation to build new words as they progress in developing their language skills. Similarly, while many don’t realize it, this is regarded as an analytical skill that broadens the thought process and inculcates a growth mindset among students in their early lives. For such impactful reasons, this awareness should be widely given to children at an early age. Below are some examples of skills which could be gained:
Some important Phonemic Awareness Skills
Typically, Phonemic awareness takes around 2 years to be taught; in kindergarten and in the first grade. Since the focus in basic grades like kindergarten revolves around simple oral activities practices such as rhyming, word matching with starting sounds and blending learned sounds into words act as successful tools. As students proceed to the first standard, phonemic awareness exercises get relatively more advanced and focus on blending increases. This goes like instructions to blend the sounds “mmmm-aaaa-nnnn” together. Similarly, practicing segmentation is pursued to be made habitual where for instance children contemplate questions like which sounds make the man?. Likewise, they are trained with substitution and manipulation of phonemes where for instance they are practice to replace sounds in words like man to /r / and then asked the word they find. These are summarized below as well:
- Blending: Getting to surmise the words instructors try to say like Mmmmm…oooooo…p.
- Practicing Segmentation by isolating the first sound like in the word mop? /m/
- Practicing Segmentation by isolating the last sound like in the word mop? /p/
- Doing complete Segmentation by separating all the sounds in the word mop. / /m/ /o/ /p/
How can Deficiency of Phonemic Awareness leave a lasting mark
Children who are not taught and trained the phonemic skills fail to
- Cluster words together sounding similar and dissimilar for example, mat, mug, sun etc.;
- Either Blend or split the syllables for example in the word (foot);
- blend the sounds hey learn into words appropriately or at all for example in (m_a_n)
- segment the words into different sequences according to sounds for example fish is made up of three phonemes which are: /f/ , /i/, /sh/)
- Detect and manipulate sounds within words like changing r in run to s.
