Head
of the Class
Reading Tips and Notes
Author: Claude Godenberg
Education Professor: CSU-Long Beach
Excerpted from Los Angeles Times (July 11, 1999 B2)
One of the most important concepts to emerge from reading research over the last 10 years is “phonemic awareness.” Many parents and educators have heard about it, but few have a good understanding of what it is and why it matters.
It matters because children who have phonemic awareness are more likely to become good readers.
Phonemic awareness means understanding that speech is made up of individual sounds – phonemes – arranged in a particular sequence. When we pronounce and fluidly blend together the phonemes making up a word, we say a meaningful word. For example, when articulated smoothly and in the proper sequence, the phonemes /k/ - /a/ - /t/ form the word “cat.” Going from individual phonemes to an intelligible word is called phonemic blending.
But readers can go in the opposite direction: begin with “cat,” then break into its individual phonemes /k/ - /a/ - /t/. Now you have gone from a meaningful word to individual phonemes, which themselves have no intrinsic meaning.
Notice two important points about phonemic awareness.
First, it does not involve print. Phonemic awareness is NOT phonics. Phonics refers to the sounds that letters represent and how these sounds and letters combine to form words. Phonemic awareness is strictly oral: knowing how to manipulate the sounds in spoken words.
Second, phonemic awareness requires focusing on the sounds of speech, not the meaning. This is surprisingly difficult, because people tend to focus on meaning. Developing phonemic awareness requires attention to meaningless sounds making up spoken words. We are naturally drawn to the meaning of the word “cat” and not to the sounds that mike it up. Ask a young child what sounds he hears in “cat,” and he might look at you puzzled. Or he might say, “meow.”
Children who have developed phonemic awareness have an easier time learning to read, write and spell than children who have not. Reading requires, among other things, mastering the “alphabetic principle” – the idea that particular letters stand for particular sounds. Without adequate sensitivity to the sounds making up words, the connection between sounds and letters is usually difficult to make.
Phonemic awareness is no cure-all for our reading ailments. But it does play a role that parents and teachers should understand.
An
excellent book to learn more about phonemic awareness is "Reading Reflex".
It discusses a method that we use called Phono-Graphix™. It is excellent
and a very good read for those wanting more information. To learn more
about this book, click on the image.
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