What are Phonemes?

Phonemes are the smallest units of spoken language.  In English, there are 41 phonemes that combine to create syllables and words.

For example: One phoneme: a; Two phonemes: go; Three phonemes: check, etc.

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic Awareness is the ability to focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words. Some phonemic awareness tasks include isolating phonemes (the first sound in ‘dog’), identifying common features (what do these words have in common ‘mop’, ‘mat’, ‘melon’), and categorizing phonemes (what does not belong ‘run’, ‘rug’, ‘dug’).

Phonemic Awareness and Phonics are NOT synonymous!

• Phonics uses the grapheme*-phoneme correspondence to decode and spell
• Phonemic Awareness teaches children to manipulate phonemes in speech
• Phonemic Awareness can be considered Phonics instruction when it teaches to segment or blend phonemes with letters

*Note: Graphemes are units of written language that represent phonemes in spellings of words.

What did the National Reading Panel find?

Some of the findings of the report include:

• Explicit instruction in one or two Phonemic Awareness skills rather than a combination of three or more skills was more effective.
• Phonemic Awareness instruction was more effective with a manipulation of letters.
• Small group instruction targeting specific needs was more effective than whole group instruction.
• Students in PreK and K showed a larger effect size as did children at risk for reading failure.

What are the implications for reading instruction?

• Phonemic Awareness instruction helps learners use the alphabetic system to read and write.
• Some students will need more instruction than others.
• Phonemic Awareness instruction is NOT a complete reading program.
• Instruction should be engaging.
• This research should not be used as an end all.
• More Phonemic Awareness instruction is not necessarily better.

Want to know more?

Check out the actual report at www.nationalreadingpanel.org.

Related Readings * Suggested Resources * Activites

[Understanding SBRR] [The Consortium] [Phonemic Awareness] [Related Readings] [Suggested Resources] [Activities] [Phonics] [Fluency] [Vocabulary] [Comprehension]