Phonemic Awarness Narrative Essay Example

individual phonemes in words is demonstrated by the capability to articulate the sounds in multi-syllable words separately or to discern the specific distinctions between two words, such as task and tacks. (The order of the last two phonemes is reversed.) In our language, the alphabetic principle poses two significant hurdles to children's learning. First, individual phonemes are not easily identifiable as separate segments in ordinary speech.

The phonemes in the word dog overlap to create a single burst of sound. Co-articulating phonemes helps speech flow but can make it difficult for children to distinguish individual sounds within words. Letters and phonemes do not always have a one-to-one correspondence, with some phonemes represented by multiple letters. Some words also deviate from regular letter-phoneme patterns, such as yacht and choir. This raises the question of whether understanding and mastering the alphabetic principle is necessary for proficient reading despite its challenges.

According to research conducted in the past twenty years on reading, reading development, and reading instruction, it has been found that the answer to this question is a definite yes (Beck ; Juel, 1995). Children who can easily understand the connections between letters and phonemes, and who can effectively use this knowledge to recognize words in written form, generally exhibit stronger reading skills compared to children who face difficulties with these abilities (Share ; Stanovich, 1995).

Research indicates that children who are acquainted with nursery rhymes at the age of three exhibit a higher level of phonological awareness by the age of four and greater honemic awareness by the age of six (Bryant, MacLean, Bradley, ; Crosland, 1990). Recent studies have further suggested that children who have

been exposed to letters, their names, and various reading activities from an early stage display more advanced phonological awareness upon starting school compared to those with limited exposure in these domains.

The development of phonological awareness in children after they start school is influenced by both the instruction they receive and their response to that instruction. Reading programs that include explicit phonics instruction lead to faster growth in phonological awareness compared to approaches that do not provide direct instruction in this area. Furthermore, children who respond positively to early reading instruction exhibit more rapid development in phonological awareness than those who struggle with acquiring early reading skills.

The text emphasizes the importance of phonological awareness in children's reading development. It states that phonological awareness has a dual role as it is influenced by how quickly children learn to read and also impacts their reading progress. Children with strong phonological awareness understand reading instruction better, grasp the alphabetic principle faster, and become proficient readers easily. On the other hand, children with limited phonological awareness struggle with early reading instruction, which leads to a lack of learning experiences and hampers the development of their reading knowledge and skills. Consequently, this hindered growth negatively affects their overall phonological awareness.

Numerous research studies have demonstrated that direct instruction in phonological awareness can assist children in their reading development. Additionally, the effectiveness of oral language training in phonological awareness is significantly increased when children are given the opportunity to apply these skills to basic reading and spelling tasks (Bradley & Bryant, 1985). Children who have acquired a foundational level of phonemic awareness should be able to identify the initial

letter of a spoken word. They can also be encouraged to substitute different letters at the beginning of a word, such as changing "cat" into various other words. Furthermore, they can be prompted to articulate the sounds of individual letters, like "a" and "t", and then blend them together to form words. Most instructional programs in phonemic awareness begin with activities focused on oral language.

Experts agree that teaching phonological awareness to children should include activities that encourage reading and spelling. It is vital to recognize that instruction should not solely focus on developing phonological awareness. Its effectiveness will be enhanced when seamlessly incorporated into the reading curriculum, along with teaching letter-sound correspondences for reading and spelling words.

Recent research suggests that instructional programs in phonological awareness should go beyond basic levels and include activities that target phonemes within words. Programs that only emphasize rhyme or syllable awareness are not as effective as those that encourage recognition of individual phonemes in words. To ensure the development of phonemic awareness in all children, it is crucial for classroom teachers to possess some understanding of language structure, particularly phonology.

Phonology explores the unconscious rules governing speech sound production, while phonetics studies the actual articulation of speech sounds. In contrast, phonics involves representing sounds with symbols in alphabetic writing systems. Phonological rules limit speech-sound production based on biological and environmental factors, including human articulatory-motor limitations. For example, humans are unable to produce the high-frequency vocalizations made by whales.

Other constraints on speech production involve the classification and perception of phonemes, which are the minimal units of sound that affect meaning. The distinctions between phonemes can be quite subtle,

such as the difference between /lb/ and /p/. However, these subtle sound variations can convey significant differences in meaning, as seen in the comparison of bat and pat. Thankfully, since phonemes serve as the fundamental elements of spoken language, infants naturally become accustomed to the phonemes specific to their native tongue within their early months of life.

The sensitivity to phonemes and their distinctions is an unconscious ability ingrained in the language system. While individual phonemes may not be directly noticeable, words and syllables are more prominent and easier to perceive. Consequently, counting the number of words in a sentence or syllables in a word can be used as a starting point for breaking down and synthesizing isolated phonemes (Lundberg, Frost, & Peterson, 1988). Sentence selection from a reading or writing lesson allows for word counting to be done.

To engage children in an activity, the sentence should be spoken aloud while they are unable to visually see it. As the children listen, they will mark each word from left to right. The number of words can be verified by presenting the printed sentence and pointing to each word as it is read, prompting the children to touch their markers correspondingly. Alternatively, the teacher can reinforce the concept of counting by confirming how many words were heard. (References: Beck, L. L.; Juel, C. (1995). The role of decoding in learning to read.)