Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is the knowledge that individual sounds [phonemes] make up spoken words and an understanding and recognition of the sounds in oral language. For example the word “beg” contains three phonemes, while the word “egg” contains two phonemes. Phonemic awareness is not phonics and is not auditory discrimination. One way of differentiating between phonics and phonemic awareness is to remember, “Phonemic awareness is something you can do in the dark.”

The following tasks are ordered from easy to difficult based on the 1999 findings of Schatschneider, Francis, Foorman, Fletcher, and Mehta (National Reading Panel)

• First-sound comparison (identifying the names of pictures beginning with the same sound)
• Blending onset-rime units into real words
• Blending phonemes into real words
• Deleting a phoneme and saying the word that remains
• Segmenting words into phonemes
• Blending phonemes into non-words

Why is phonemic awareness important?

The National Reading Panel reports that correlation 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 two years of instruction.

Taking a Reading: a Teacher’s Guide to Reading Assessment describes phonemic awareness as “the most important causal factor separating normal and disabled readers,” and describes this research as the one of the most important research breakthroughs of the 20th century.

How do I assess phonemic awareness?

Phonemic awareness is assessed through oral assessments usually given to children individually. The only writing used in assessing phonemic awareness is done by the teacher to record the sounds that the child makes in response to the prompt. Phonemic awareness assessments are used with children who are non-readers or very low-level readers. Phonemic awareness assessments do not need to be used with children who are reading at the early stage or beyond.

There are many versions of phonemic awareness assessments available and schools should choose the assessments that meet their needs and align with their curriculum, instruction, and standards.

What are the structural implications of phonemic awareness?

The following activities can improve a student’s phonemic awareness.

• Read aloud ABC books with rhyme and alliteration
• Sing songs - especially ones with rhyme and alliteration
• Read and recite poetry
• Recite jump rope chants
• Play oral word games
• Read aloud Dr. Seuss books which feature rhythm, rhyme and alliteration