- Young Readers - popofatticus
Phonics and phonemic awareness are related, but difficult, terms to understand. To make matters more confusing, phonological awareness is another term that is sometimes used to describe student learning about reading and the instructional moves teachers use to teach students to read.
What is Phonemic Awareness?
Phonemic awareness is just the understanding on the part of emergent readers that words that are spoken are made up of sequential sounds called phonemes (see Cunningham, 2009). Phonemes, adding to the “phon” confusion, are the smallest unit of sound that can be discerned in any given word. Phonemes in the word “fog” are /f/, /short o/, and /g/. Notice that a single sound can be represented by different series of letters. The /f’ sound can be represented in writing by “ph” or “f.” The most important point here is that young readers are often aware that spoken words are made up of individual sounds. The awareness is an effective predictor of how well students read.
What is Phonics?
Phonics is a system of teaching students that there is a relationship between the sounds students discern in spoken words and the letters they see in written words. This can be called phoneme-grapheme correspondence or sound-letter correspondence. All this means is that the sounds students hear map to the letters they see on the page or chalkboard. Knowing that there is a relationship between sounds heard in oral words and letters seen in written words helps students learn to apply their knowledge of phonics. A popular term for applying phonics rules to new written words is “decoding.”
Why Is There Confusion?
In addition to the common root “phon,” activities teachers use to promote phonemic awareness and phonics learning may be quite similar. A rule of thumb is that students are working on phonemic awareness if the activity involves only oral language. As soon as students see a written word or printed letters, the activity becomes one that transcends phonemic awareness. Activities that focus on rhyme in oral language activities, read-aloud activities with children listening, clapping out syllables in oral language, and so on develop phonemic awareness.
Activities that involve the use of written words help students develop phonics skills. These might include manipulating cards with letters written on them, reading along with the teacher as the teacher reads aloud, and so on. However, many reading theorists believe that phonemic awareness continues to develop even as phonics proficiency also develops. Thus, when teachers plan their lessons, they must consider the particular needs of the students and the purposes for the instructional activities. Most reading practitioners and theorists agree that phonemic awareness is just one important part of a much more comprehensive reading program. Focusing only on phonemic awareness without attention to other facets of reading instruction is not usually helpful.
Phonological Awareness
Sometimes confused with phonemic awareness and phonics is yet another term: “Phonological awareness.” In general, phonological awareness is an awareness of sound that may include syllables (Yopp & Yopp, 2000). Other theorists are more inclusive and treat phonological awareness as a larger umbrella construct that may include understanding awareness of the relationship between the printed word and the sound representation of the word (Dechant, 1991).
For teachers and parents, the knowledge of how these terms are used can help them plan learning activities that target understandings emergent readers need on their paths to proficiency.
References
P. Cunningham, Phonics they use: Words for reading & writing (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2009.
E. Dechant, Understanding and teaching reading: An interactive model. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1991.
H. K. Yopp & R. H. Yopp. Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 54(2), 130-143, 2000.
Tom Wolsey - Tom Wolsey, Ed.D., is an educator and author. His articles on literacy have appeared in professional publications such as Action in ...
