What Does Phonemic Awareness mean?

Oral language begins in early childhood when students begin to understand the meanings of words. Children are able to look at a cat and understand that it is in fact a cat. We can also build vocabulary at home through the use of picture books. However, once students step through the doors of our classrooms, we must be read to teach them phonemic awareness.

So what does phonemic awareness mean? Phonemic awareness means that children have access to the phonology of our language which allows them to manipulate the sounds that make up words. Confused yet? Don’t worry! I was too. Today I am going to break down phonemic awareness for you and what it means to teach it.

When students have a strong knowledge of phonemic awareness, it simply means that they are able to take words apart and put them back together through sound. They are also able to hear and isolate sounds within the spoken word.

If a child is able to hear individual speech sounds (phonemes) -the /s/ sound at the beginning of sun or the /ch/ sound at the end of much, they are said to have phonemic awareness. 

Phonemic awareness then supports students as they begin to learn letters and sounds within the alphabet, which will eventually support them as they learn to read and spell. 

I found the research behind this article to be fascinating. Snider, V. (1997). The Relationship between Phonemic Awareness and Later Reading Achievement. The Journal of Educational Research.

Researchers conducted studies to examine the relationship between phonemic awareness and reading achievement. What they found was this-

The biggest predictor of later reading achievement was how dependent upon a child’s phonemic awareness skills. One study even indicated that phonemic awareness was more predictive  than a child’s economic status or their IQ.

So what does this mean for us as teachers? We have the power to help our students become strong readers. With the research behind us, let’s dive in to some activities that will help to develop phonemic awareness for your students.

PHONEME Blending

"I am going to say three word parts (sounds) and I want you to put them back together to solve the mystery word" /c/ /a/ /t/. The word is cat!

PHONEME SEGMENTATION

"I am going to say a word and I want you to sound it out by saying each sound in the word. Are you ready?" bag. Student responds /b/ /a/ /g/.

Isolating Phonemes

“Let’s segment the word /cat/ and stretch out each sound as we say it. What sound do you hear in the beginning? What sound

1. What sound do you hear in the beginning?

2. What sound do you hear in the middle?

3. What sound do you hear at the end?

4. Can you think of another word that starts or ends the same way?

Phoneme Manipulation

Once students have a solid foundation of blending and segmenting phonemes, it is time to work on manipulation, addition, and deletion. Here are some examples of each.

Phoneme Deletion

1. Say: /stop/ now say stop again but without the /s/ (top)

Phoneme Addition

1. Say: /tone/ -say tone again but this time add the /s/ sound at the beginning (stone)

Phoneme SUbstitution

1. Say: /rose/ - say it again but instead of /r/ at the beginning say /n/ (nose)

So how do we know where to start this instruction? Though assessment of course. I will be sharing how to assess phonemic awareness instruction in my next blog post! Stay tuned!

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