Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify,
and manipulate the individual sounds which make up words. In the past
few decades, large amounts of research have improved our understanding
of phonemic awareness and its importance in helping children learn to
read. There are hundreds of research studies conducted on all aspects of
phonemic awareness, and how it affects and benefits reading and
spelling abilities of young children.
The National Reading Panel of the
US have stated that phonemic awareness improves children's reading and
reading comprehension, and that it also helps children to learn to
spell. Based on the research and reviews done by the National Reading
Panel, they have concluded that teaching phonics and phonemic awareness
produces better reading results than whole language programs.
When teaching phonemic awareness, children are
taught the smallest units of sound, or phonemes. During the teaching
process, children are taught to focus on the phonemes, and learn to
manipulate the phonemes in words. Studies have identified phonemic
awareness and letter knowledge as the two best school-entry predictors
of how well children will learn to read during the first 2 years of
instruction. In a review of phonemic awareness research, the National
Reading Panel (NRP) identified 1,962 citations, and the results of their
meta-analysis were impressive as stated in the NRP publication:
Overall, the findings showed that teaching children to manipulate phonemes in words was highly effective under a variety of teaching conditions with a variety of learners across a range of grade and age levels and that teaching phonemic awareness to children significantly improves their reading more than instruction that lacks any attention to phonemic awareness (PA).
Specifically, the results of the experimental studies led the Panel to conclude that PA training was the cause of improvement in students’ phonemic awareness, reading, and spelling following training. The findings were replicated repeatedly across multiple experiments and thus provide converging evidence for causal claims. [1]
As can be clearly seen, teaching children
phonemic awareness early on significantly improves their reading and
spelling abilities. Furthermore, the NRP research stated that these
beneficial effects of phonemic awareness teaching goes well beyond the
end of training period. The NRP phonemic awareness research also found
that the most effective teaching method was to systematically teach
children to manipulate phonemes with letters, and teaching children in
small groups.
Phonemic awareness (PA) teaching provides
children with an essential foundation of the alphabet system, and a
foundation in reading and spelling. The NRP has stated that PA
instructions is a necessary instructional component within a complete
reading program.
Below are two other studies done on phonemic
awareness, and its effects on reading abilities. In a study involving
children aged 6 to 7 years old, researchers found that the few readers
at the beginning of grade one exhibited high phonemic awareness scored
at least close to perfect in the vowel substitution task, compared to
none in children of the same age group who could not read when they
entered school.
The research also stated that phonemic awareness
differences before instruction predicted the accuracy of alphabetic
reading and spelling at the end of grade one independent from IQ.
Children with high phonemic awareness at the start of grade one had high
reading and spelling achievements at the end of grade one; however,
some of the children with low phonemic awareness had difficulties
learning to read and spell. The study suggested that phonemic awareness
is the critical variable for the progress in learning to read. [2]
Another study looked at phonemic awareness and
emergent literacy skills of 42 children with an average age of 5 years
and 7 months. The researchers indicated that relations between phonemic
awareness and spelling skills are bidirectional where phonemic awareness
improved spelling skills, and spelling influenced the growth in
phonemic skills. [3]
It is clear that with the conclusions made by the
National Reading Panel and other research studies on the benefits of
phonemic awareness, children should be taught PA at a young age before
entering school. This helps them build a strong foundation for learning
to read and spell.
Notes:
1. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report
of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An
evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on
reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
2. Cognition. 1991 Sep;40(3):219-49.
The relationship of phonemic awareness to reading acquisition: more consequence than precondition but still important.
Wimmer H, Landerl K, Linortner R, Hummer P.
University of Salzburg, Austria.
The relationship of phonemic awareness to reading acquisition: more consequence than precondition but still important.
Wimmer H, Landerl K, Linortner R, Hummer P.
University of Salzburg, Austria.
3. Exp Child Psychol. 2002 Jun;82(2):93-115.
Emergent literacy skills and training time uniquely predict variability in responses to phonemic awareness training in disadvantaged kindergartners.
Hecht SA, Close L.
Emergent literacy skills and training time uniquely predict variability in responses to phonemic awareness training in disadvantaged kindergartners.
Hecht SA, Close L.
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