Research

Phonemic awareness is not phonics. Phonemic awareness is an understanding about spoken language. Children who are phonemically aware can tell the teacher that bat is the word the teacher is representing by saying the three separate sounds in the word. They can tell you all the sounds in the spoken word dog. They can tell you that, if you take the last sound off cart you would have car. Phonics on the other hand, is knowing the relation between specific, printed letters (including combinations of letters) and specific, spoken sounds. You are asking children to show their phonics knowledge when you ask them which letter make the first sound in bat or dog or the last sound in car or cart. The phonemic awareness tasks that have predicted successful reading are tasks that demand that children attend to spoken language, not tasks that simply ask students to name letters or tell which letters make which sounds.

Recent longitudinal studies of reading acquisition have demonstrated that the acquisition of phonemic awareness is highly predictive of success in learning to read - in particular of successful reading acquisition.

Programs for teaching phonics often emphasize rules rather than patterns and focus on "separate" sounds, called phonemes. In contrast, the most effective and efficient phonics instruction focuses children's attention on noticing letter/sound patterns in the major components of syllables: that is, on noticing the letter/sound patterns in initial consonants and consonant clusters and in the rime, which consists of the vowel of a syllable plus any following consonants, such as -ake, -ent, -ish, -ook (Moustafa, 1996).

Conventional blending and segmentation instruction improves the ability to manipulate phonemes. When instruction emphasizes phoneme manipulations, children learned what they were taught. In contrast, teaching beginners about phoneme identities does not seem to enhance phoneme manipulation skill.

Kindergarten children with explicit instruction in phonemic awareness did better than a group of first graders who had no instruction, indicating that this crucial pre-skill for reading can be taught at least by five and is not developmental (Cunningham).

Precursory phonological awareness skills such as rhyming and alliteration can emerge in informal contexts before school and are seen in young children who can neither read nor spell (Snow, 1991; van Kleeck, 1990).

A general order for the emergence of phonological awareness abilities begins with rhyming and alliteration; segmenting sentences into words; followed by segmenting words into syllables; followed by segmenting words into phonemes. (Fox & Routh; Ehri, Holden & MacGinities; Huttenlocher; Liberman; Liberman, Shankweiler, Fisher & Carter)

Phonemic awareness alone is not sufficient.  Explicit, systematic instruction in common sound-spelling correspondences is also necessary for many children (Adams, 1988; Ball & Blackman, 1991; Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1990; Foorman et al, in press; Mann, 1993; Rack, Snowling & Olson, 1992; Snowling, 1991; Spector, 1995; Stanovich, 1986; Torgeson et al., in press; Vellutino, 1991; Vellutino & Scanlon, 1987a; Foorman, Francis, Novy & Liberman, 1991.)

Explicit, systematic instruction in sound-spelling relationships in the classroom was more effective in reducing reading difficulties than a print-rich environment characterized by interesting stories, even with children who had benefited from phonemic awareness instruction in kindergarten. (Foorman, Francis, Beerly, Winikates, and Fletcher, in press)

Research has established a correlational, if not causal relation between phonological awareness and reading (Eric & Sweet, 1991; Mason & Allen, 1986; Sulzby & Teal, 1991; van Kleeck, 1990)

Young children's awareness of onsets (the initial consonant of a word or syllable) and rimes (everything after the initial consonant in a one-syllable word or in syllables, traditionally referred to as phonograms or word families) is related to success in beginning reading. (Goswami, 1988, 1990; Goswami & Bryant, 1994).

Effective phonics instruction focuses children's attention on noticing the letter/sound patterns in initial consonants and consonant clusters and in rimes (the vowel of a syllable, plus any consonants that might follow). Focusing on rimes rather than on vowels alone is particularly important in helping children learn to decode words. (Adams, 1990)

Research shows that all proficient readers rely on deep and ready knowledge of spelling-sound correspondence while reading, whether this knowledge was specifically taught or simply inferred by students. Conversely, failure to learn to use spelling/sound correspondences to read and spell words is shown to be the most frequent and debilitating cause of reading difficulty. Many children learn to read without any direct classroom instruction in phonics. But many children, especially children from homes that are not language rich, do need more systematic instruction in word-attack strategies. Well-sequenced phonics instruction early in the first grade has been shown to reduce the incidence of reading difficulty even as it accelerates the growth of the class as a whole. Given this, it is probably better to start all children, most especially in high-poverty areas, with explicit phonics instruction. Such an approach does require continually monitoring children's progress both to allow those who are progressing quickly to move ahead before they become bored and to ensure that those who are having difficulties get the assistance they need.

Sulzby and Teale (1991) noted that while phonological awareness has long been tied to research and practice in the teaching of phonics and other decoding skills, it has been neglected in emergent literacy due to the tendency to view phonological awareness research as traditional and bottom-up theory.

The dimensions of phonological awareness are represented by a range of difficulty. From easiest to hardest the range of difficulty is as follows: rhyme, auditory discrimination, phoneme blending, word-to-word matching, sound isolation, phoneme counting, phoneme segmentation, and phoneme deletion. (Yopp, 1988)

Young children are competent at analyzing spoken words into onsets and rimes but not into phonemes when onsets or rimes consist of more than one phoneme. (Calfee, 1977; Goswami & Bryant, 1990; Liberman, et al., 1974; Treiman, 1983, 1985)

Young children who are beginning to read make analogies between familiar and unfamiliar print words to pronounce unfamiliar print words and that they make these analogies at the onset-rime level rather than at the phonemic level. (Goswami, 1986, 1988)

Classroom Implications

One of the most important foundations of reading success is phonemic awareness. Phonemes are the basic speech sounds that are represented by the letters of the alphabet, and phonemic awareness is the understanding that words are sequences of phonemes. Phonemic awareness is demonstrated by the ability to identify and manipulate sounds within spoken words. Children can learn to assemble phonemes into words as well as break words into their phonemes even before they are writing letters or words. Giving children experience with rhyming words in the preschool years is an effective first step toward building phonemic awareness. Hearing rhymes, and then producing rhymes for given words, requires children to focus on the sounds inside words.

Rhyming activities initiate phonemic awareness. The reading and rereading of books with clear, simple rhymes offer abundant and fun opportunities for direct instruction in rhyming and the beginnings of phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is an insight about oral language. There is evidence to suggest that the relation between phonemic awareness and learning to read is reciprocal: phonemic awareness supports reading acquisition, and reading instruction and experiences with print facilitate phonemic awareness development.

Young children's awareness of onsets (the initial consonant of a word or syllable) and rimes (everything after the initial consonant in a one-syllable word or in syllables, traditionally referred to as phonograms or word families) is related to success in beginning reading. Therefore children should be taught to identify and manipulate these sound units. Children in kindergarten should be introduced to common phonograms. In addition to building phonemic awareness, providing instruction with phonograms also prepares children for reading words by analogy.

Instruction in both phoneme identity and phoneme manipulation are valuable. After the children have caught onto how letters cue the phonemes of spoken words, learning to manipulate phonemes by blending and segmentation manipulations will likely help beginners progress into sequential decoding. Instruction in phoneme identities is likely of greater value than manipulation instruction for children who have not yet demonstrated alphabetic insight. Activities focused on the identities of individual phonemes, which make these phonemes familiar and memorable, and which help children recognize their identities in words could well be incorporated into early literacy programs that contain other activities we know to be helpful in preparing children to read.

Phonological awareness and letter recognition contribute to initial reading acquisition by helping children develop efficient word recognition strategies (e.g., detecting pronunciations and storing associations in memory.)

Children need opportunities to understand and manipulate the building blocks of spoken language.  Children's ability to think about individual words as a sequence of sounds (phonemes) is important to their learning how to read an alphabetic language. Children's phonemic awareness, their understanding that spoken words can be divided into separate sounds, is one of the best predictors of their success in learning to read.

Teach each sound-spelling correspondence explicitly. Explicit instruction means that a phoneme is isolated for the children.  E.g. This letter says /mmm/. A brief practise of phonemes each day for about 5 minutes should precede these phonemes in context of words and stories.

Teach frequent, highly regular sound-spelling relationships systematically. (m, t, s, f, d, r, ch, g, l, h, c (k), b, n, k, v, p, w, j, y, z, kn, ph, qu, sh, th, and vowels and vowel combinations)

Show children exactly how to sound out words.

Children need opportunities to learn the relationships between the sounds of spoken language and the letters of written language.    Increasing children's awareness of the sounds of spoken language and their familiarity with the letters of written language prepares them to understand the alphabetic principle - that written words are composed of patterns of letters that represent the sounds of spoken words. Effective instruction provides children with explicit and systematic teaching of sound-letter relationships in a sequence that permits the children to assimilate and apply what they are learning. 

Children learn how to divide spoken words into individual sounds and to blend spoken sounds into words.

Children learn that sounds can be represented by letters, and to recognize the most useful sound-letter relationships.

Read and reread favorite nursery rhymes to reinforce the patterns of the language and enjoy tongue twisters and other forms of language play together.

Reread favorite poems, songs, and stories and discuss alliteration and rhyme within them.

Read alphabet books to and with children and make alphabet books together.

Discuss words and make lists, word banks, or books of words that share interesting spelling/sound patterns.

Discuss similar sounds and letter/sound patterns in children's names.

Emphasize selected letter/sound relationships while writing with, for, or in front of children.

Encourage children to play with magnetic letters and to explore letter/sound relations.

Help children write the sounds they hear in words, once they have begun to hear some separate sounds.

When reading together, help children use prior knowledge and context plus initial consonants to predict what a word will be, then look at the rest of the word to confirm or correct.

Teaching recognition of particular phonemes in word contexts may help beginners gain insight into the alphabetic principle and apply their insights in early word identification.

Implicit teaching of phoneme awareness involves word play through rhyme and alliteration, and games that involve manipulation of sounds in names, songs, poetry and drama. Students who are not progressing with implicit teaching will benefit from structured teaching.

Summaries of Current Models

Marilyn Jaeger Adams is highly quoted through all phonemic awareness literature as a knowledgeable and well-grounded source.  Following is a summary based on Adams' work:

There are 5 basic types of phonemic awareness:

Task 1-   Rhymes and alliteration:

1. rhyme  - working with same word endings  coat, goat, boat

2. alliteration - six snakes sell sodas and snails (s)

3. assonance - the leaf, the bean, the peach all were within reach  (e)

Task 2- Oddity tasks:

1.  Rhyme - Which word does not rhyme?

2. Beginning consonants - which two begin with the same sound?  man, sat, sick?

3. Ending consonants - which two words end with the same sound: man, sat, ten?

4. Medial sounds (long vowels) - which word does not have the same medial sound: take, late, feet?

5. Medial sounds (short vowels)- which two words have the same middle sound: top, cat, pan?

6. Medial sounds (consonant) - which two words have the same middle sound: kitten, missing, lesson?

Task 3-Oral blending:

1. Syllables
    Example:Listen to these word parts.  Say the word as a whole. ta...ble- What's the word? (table)

2. Onset/rime
    Example: Listen to this word: pan.  Say the first sound in the word and then the rest of the word. ( /p/...an)

3. Phoneme by phoneme (counting sounds)
    Example: Listen to this word: sat.  Say the word sound by sound. (/s/  /a/  /t/ )  How many sounds do you hear? (3)

Task 4-Oral Segmentation (including counting sounds)

1.Syllables
Example: Listen to this word:table.  Say it syllable by syllable. (ta...ble)

2. Onset/rime
Example: Listen t this word:pan.  Say the first sound in the word and then the rest of the word. (/p/...an)

3.Phoneme by phoneme (counting sounds)
Example: Listen to this word: sat.  Say the word sound by sound. (/s/ /a/ /t/) How many sounds do you hear? (3)

Task 5 - Phonemic manipulation
1.  Initial sound substitution
     Example: Replace the first sound in mat with /s/. (sat)

2.  Final sound substitution
    Example: Replace the last sound in mat with /p/. (map)

3.  Vowel substitution
     Example: Replace the middle sound in map with /o/. (mop)

4.  Syllable deletion
    Example: Say baker without the ba. (ker)

5.  Initial sound deletion
     Example: Say sun without the /s/. (un)

6. Final sound deletion
    Example:Say hit without the /t/. (hi)

7.  Initial phoneme in a blend deletion
    Example:Say step without the /s/. (tep)

8.  Final phoneme in a blend deletion
     Example:Say best without the /t/. (bes)

9.  Second phoneme in a blend deletion
     Example: Say frog without the /r/. (fog)

Some Hints:

The first four can be used in kindergarten and possibly some of 5.  The last
ones are very hard tasks even for second graders. 

This is not a linear sequence.  Rather each area can be worked on
simultaneously, a mix is best during each lesson.  It is better to do oral
blending tasks before oral segmentation.

This work was written up in this form by Wiley Blevins in Phonics from A to Z A practical Guide by Wiley Blevins. Scholastic Professional Book 1998.  Work was taken from Adams work in  Adams, M. J. 1990 Beginning To Read: Thinking and Learning About Print.  Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cunningham: Three books have been prepared for teachers to use with children to construct, manipulate, and "play" with words.  Following is a summary of Cunningham's ideas for working with young children.

Alphabet books are very important for young children and should be read often.

When blending sounds for words start with the cvc (consonant/vowel/consonant) configuration.  Also start with these consonants as you can easily hold their sounds : m, n, r, s, v, z, l, f. 

When teaching phonic sounds - s, t, m, f, r, b, l, c, h, p, w, n, d, q, j, k, v, z, x, y, q.   Then move to sh, ch, th, wh, ph, gh, ng.

r blends, s blends, l blends

One form of sample lesson:

Step 1:  repeated reading and warm-up.

Step 2: explicit instruction of sound -spelling relationship.

Step 3: blending and word-building exercises also Cunningham's letter cards to make words.

Step4:  reading connected text

Step 5: dictation and writing

Step 6: Free writing

Second lesson suggestion (based much on Reading Recovery model)

1) Guided Reading block:  teacher-guided reading and discussions from basal readers- tradebooks

2) Writing Block:  follows a writing process format

3) Self-Selected Block- children choose from a wide range of books and other reading material.  (Project editing comment: this one falls apart here as sometimes it will be necessary to choose books for children or provide choices from a limited selection to make sure you are helping them further their reading skills as stated by Clay.)

4) Working With Words Block:  Multi method, multilevel literacy instruction (Project editing recommendation: also go back to reading or print with this.)

Reading Recovery: A very strong global movement is spreading and teachers need special training in order to implement it properly.  It is based on the following premises:

1. Child writes from memory several high frequency words, the teacher dictates.

2. Child selects from book already read: 3 books reads with high accuracy and fluency.

3. Child rereads book read yesterday with a running record being recorded - analyzed later.

4. Child makes words using magnetic letters-manipulates these:  changes letters, makes words like he, she, me, and finds patterns.

5. Writing notebook - rereads 2 previously written one sentence stories- matches their cut-up words.

6. Child writes a new story based on book read today - writes those he knows, blends others, teacher support provided.  Reads sentence, teacher writes on strips and cuts out words.  Child matches twice and put together twice without matching.

7. Teacher introduces new book, which child reads.

8.  Child takes home old book read today and cut up strips.

Reading Recovery material was based on Reading Recovery (Clay) but summarized by Patricia Cunningham.  The model following Clay one is Patricia's from Second Edition Phonics They Use Words For Reading and Writing   Harper Collins College Publishers. 1995 

Tarasoff:

1.  Students reread familiar stories.  As books are introduced they can be kept handy for rereading.   Students (or teacher) choose favorite, familiar books to be reread by students each day.

2.  Without help students orally read the book that was introduced the day before.   The students should be able to read this book with 90-95% accuracy.  As students read, teacher notes reading strategies and difficulties.

3.  Work with letters or words.  Teacher provides lesson focusing on letter recognition and/or sounds related to students' decoding needs as observed in Step 2.   Teacher ensures there is a link between the lesson and miscues in the students' story reading.  Other reading, strategies may be focused on as needed.

4.  Students write a message or story daily.  As the students write the teacher makes connections with decoding and spelling focused on in steps 2 and 3 and with the content of story.

5.  Reading a new book.  Teacher introduces a new book, with students looking through it, discussing pictures, predicting what it may be about, and employing other prereading activities.  Depending on their level students may listen to the story, read the story with assistance, or just be involved in the prereading discussions. ( This is the story that is read independently the next day.)

Tarasoff idea's based on Clay's Reading Recovery in her book Mary Tarasoff  Reading Instruction that Makes Sense; Active Learning Institute Inc. Publishers, 1993

Early Intervention Reading Program (ERI) Series: focuses on preventing reading problems with first graders in a small group setting.

Children spend 3 days on each story.   Teacher reads story to the entire class, modeling fluent reading.  Before, during and after reading the teacher chooses to focus on aspects of reading suitable to the whole class. Then, while most of the class works independently, a summary of the story written on a chart is read to a selected group of children.  Teacher stops and works on developing phonemic awareness and models decoding based on context and phonics.   Children write using words from chart and lesson. Next 3 days the children practice decoding skills on the summary and continue to write about the story.  Children get personalized book once read to take home.

The last part is a series it does include books that has come out based on Clay as well, only Clay would not approve of a series but her method.  At any rate this one would be worth
checking out.

Stone's Animated Literacy Program: Jim Stone knows that children learn best when they are animated, that movement motivates and stimulates the mind.  His program is an interactive, multisensory, movement, meaning, and literature based approach to integrating language arts instruction.  All lessons are based on the stages of oral language acquisition. He uses a packaged series of tapes and lessons that introduce the alphabet through animation, music, and stories.  Alliteration is highly emphasized. After the alphabet characters and jingles have been learned, children move onto the Pattern Reading, Writing, and Singing component of the program.  Children begin substituting sounds for sounds in selected pattern songs.  For example, in the song Are You Sleeping, the ding, dong, ding becomes ping, pong, ping and so on. His program contains a third component The Draw To Read and Write Book, which has children draw objects and read and write to label their illustrations through simple drawing lessons.  His emphasis on phonemic awareness is unique in that children do not just practise hearing and producing sounds, but also "signing" them with a gesture. (project editing comments: ideas excellent, but program rigid for whole class needs; children need flexibility and provision for individual needs. Difficult to pull out part of this to use - you either buy into the whole package or you cannot use it?)