Phonemic Learning – An In-Depth Study
Introduction
Learning, a non-ending phenomenon starts from the cradle and ends in the grave. Human-being desires to get knowledge of the unknown throughout his life. The
most interesting and important part is the start. When a toddler listens and
murmurs small words, not knowing their meanings. A child wonders about the different sounds of the surroundings. There comes “phoneme”, a speech sound, which is the elementary level
of any language. We identify the words through hearing their sounds. The
recognition of a letter is merged into our memory. This happens through
different resources of our childhood. Every letter carries a unique sound. When
we hear a word, the sound creates an image of all the letters that the word
carries. For example; the word ‘CAT’ creates an image of an animal and we also
recognize the sound of ‘C’ and ‘AT’.
The memory of human-being stores the image of everything from daily
life. We remember these images and their related spoken names. So, there is a
relationship between an image, its name, and the sound of that spoken word. To
know the image, we learn its name by the sound of the word. Later on, whenever
we recall, an image appears in our mind with the name and the sound of the word.
For example; when we say “Fish”, we see an image of that fish which we have
seen sometimes back in the past. Children at a young age do not have the sense
to identify the things around them. They see and register an image of
everything in their memory. They also hear different sounds in their
surroundings. These sounds could be of a bird, moving car, or a talk.
The cognizance of these sounds is the skill of phonemic awareness. It is
the capability to manipulate phonemes in spoken words. It leads to letter-sound association, spelling and, word recognition. The combination of
phonemes creates syllables and words. Acquiring phonemic awareness skills is a
pre-requisite for pre-school and school learners.
There are students in higher classes, who are weak in reading and
writing. The analysis shows that they have a weak foundation of phonemic
awareness. The comparison of their performance with other classmates also
confirms the fact. There are certain activities through which learners can
develop phonological and phonemic awareness.
What is Phonological
and Phonemic Awareness?
Ø Phonological
Awareness. It deals with a global awareness of
the sound of speech structures and how to use those structures. It covers the
basic levels and syllables in the words. The basic level tackles with the number
of words a sentence holds. It also handles rhyming, word, sentence, and
consonance. Phonological awareness holds many skills. It enables the learners
to make a fair judgment towards the sound structure of the words. It is the
study of linguistic skills like word, syllable, Onset-rime, and phoneme. It
also handles the phonological skills like blending, adding, and deleting. And
substituting the elements of language words as well (Kelly, Leitao, Lock, &
Heritage, 2019, pp. 3-4).
Ø Phonemic
Awareness. It comes at the advanced level of
phonological awareness. It allows a learner to identify the sound of letters.
It also inculcates the ability to manipulate them into words. A phoneme is the smallest
unit of speech. The word “bat” carries three phonemes: ‘/b/’, ‘/a/’, and ‘/t/’.
Each letter has a sound that varies once placed with other letters. Sound of the
letter “a” in “tale” and “rat” are different. So, all letters in a word have
distinguished sounds (Wasik, 2001, p.128). The English language has 44 phonemes
and their combination create syllables and words. Letter ‘a’ with one phoneme,
‘no’ with two, “rack” with three, and “crop” with four are few examples (Bizzocchi,
2017, p.36).
Ø Alphabetic
Knowledge. It depends upon the alphabetic principle.
It is a predictable bonding of written letters with their spoken sounds.
Learners cannot apply this principle until they recognize the letters and
related sounds. We need to acquaint the learners with successive alphabetic
knowledge. The order of learning begins with the shape, name, and sound of the
letters.
At the first stage, the learners recite the alphabetic poems. By
repetition, they memorize them by heart. In the second stage, they familiarize
themselves with letter shapes. These shapes are the letters in upper-case and
lower-case of 26 graphemes of the alphabet (Paige, Rupley, Smith, Olinger &
Leslie, 2018, p.2). At the final stage, they listen to the alphabet songs/
poems and identify the shapes. This practice helps them to understand the
relationship between the name and sounds.
Stages of Phonological Skills. In
general, there are seven developmental stages (Echri et el., 2001, p.253): -
Ø
Syllables Awareness. A syllable is a linguistic unit that enables
a learner to count the number of sounds in a word. The word ‘Pocket’ has two
distinguished sounds; ‘/Po/’ and ‘/ket/’. So, the combination of different
letters creates sounds in a word that maybe one, two, three, or more. Learners
get the basic idea of counting the sounds and tapping the numbers. They also
observe the blending of letters and finally see the segmenting of the word.
Ø Onset and
Rime Awareness. Every word starts with a
letter which is a phonological unit of that particular word. We see that the
word ‘/dog/’ starts with the letter ‘/d/’. So, "onset" is the
initiation of every word. Rime is the remaining part of the word which is a
vowel followed by consonants. The word ‘/kit/’ carries the letter ‘/k/’ as the
onset. Rime is ‘/it/’ which carries the letter ‘/i/’ (vowel) and the letter ‘/t/’
(consonant). It is not necessary that all the words have an initial
phonological unit.
In the beginning, we teach the learners to
identify the starting letter of the word. On removing the first letter, they
can see the remaining part of the word. This practice increases their literacy
skills. This also helps the learners with the decoding process. They can
replace the onset of a word and create a new word. Once we replace the letter ‘/c/’
of ‘/cat/’ with the letter ‘/b/’, we get ‘/bat/’. This is a fruitful exercise for
learners. With the passage of time their minds get sharp enough to rhyme the
words by changing onsets with same rimes.
Ø
Words Awareness. The learners develop the habit
of tracking the words in the sentence. It enables them to identify the words in
the sentences. They observe the construction of sentences. How different words
convey different meanings once placed in one place. They also see the
individual and combined power of the words.
We achieve word awareness
by different ways like rhyming songs, display cards, ‘I spy’ games etc. Since
learners are well aware of word recognition at the pre-school level. So, the
skill of recognizing the word is much easier. They get to learn how different
letters make a word. Joining of letters make sensible and meaningful words.
Ø Sound Isolation
or Phonemic Awareness. It is the ability to listen and recognize the
sounds in the words. There is an initial sound then a middle and final one. The
learners get the training to identify the initial sound of different words.
Once they succeed then they seek middle and final sounds in the words. There
are words with one, two, or three sounds and there are words with more than
three. Learners get the training to segment the word into sounds. They can identify
the number of sounds in the words.
Ø Phonemic
Blending. At this stage, the learners can put together
the phonemes which are audible to them. They listen to the letters and manage
them to blend in a word. For example, they hear the pronunciation of the letters
‘/b/’, ‘/a/’, and ‘/t/’ in a stretched form. And they blend them together to recognize
the word ‘bat’.
Ø Phoneme
Segmentation. The learners reach the level of pulling
apart the sounds of the word. They listen to the word and identify the sounds
of letters. For example, if they hear
the word ‘man’, they can tell the letters ‘/m/’, ‘/a/’, and ‘/n/’ with ease.
Ø Phoneme
Manipulation. At this level, the learners are
self-confident. They carry out the adding, deleting, and substituting of the
phonemes/sounds. By doing so they are capable of making new words. For example,
they can change the word from ‘goat’ to ‘boat’ by replacing the letter ‘/g/’ to
‘/b/’ positively. They can add the letter ‘/b/’ to ‘/it/’ which makes ‘/bit/’
and they know how it sounds before and after. Table – 1 depicts an example of
phonological units for better understanding.
|
Phonological Units |
||||||
|
Word |
Chimneys |
|||||
|
Syllables |
chim |
neys |
||||
|
Onsets and Rimes |
Ch |
im |
n |
eys |
||
|
Phonemes |
Ch |
i |
m |
n |
ey |
s |
Table – 1 Depiction of Phonological Units
What is Phonics and Decoding?
Phonics is a predictable
bonding of sounds between the letters and spoken language. Understanding the
letter-sound relationship enables the learners to read a word with accuracy.
Learners get this knowledge for turning a word into sound and make some sense
out of it.
Decoding is the process of
breaking the code of written language. Learners
hear and analyze the sounds of a word to identify the word. They can read aloud
a group of words to check how they sound. This exercise enhances their decoding
skills in a better way. (Davis, 2013, pp.6-8).
Spoken language has
different sounds. These sounds are divided into different categories like
consonants and vowels. While we speak, the tongue, teeth, and or lips hinder
the consonant sounds as in ‘speak’. Whereas, sounds produced by open mouth are
the vowel sounds. Following speech sounds are very helpful in understanding
phonics and decoding (Hope, 2001):-
Ø Consonants. Consonants
are the speech sound. A partial or complete vocal tract closure creates these
sounds. There are twenty-one consonants: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q,
R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, & Z. Letter ‘Y’ falls into both categories, e.g.,
‘/y/’ in ‘/yell/’ (consonant) and ‘/y/’ in ‘/fly/’ (vowel). Consonants are further
sub-categorized as: -
o Consonant Digraph. It
is the combination of two consonant letters that create a single speech sound.
Technically, it is the consonant phoneme. At times, one letter may be silent. But
many times, the combination produces a unique sound. Both letters cannot
produce that sound in isolation. Few consonant digraphs have the ability to
come up with vowel sounds as in ‘ai’, ‘au’, ‘aw’, ‘ay’, ‘ea’, ‘ee’, ‘ei’, ‘eu’,
‘ew’, ‘ey’, ‘ie’, ‘oi’, ‘oo’, ‘ou’, ‘ow’, ‘oy’.
o Consonant
Trigraph. It is the combination of three consonant
letters that create a single speech sound. A unique sound that three letters in
isolation cannot produce on their own. A few examples are: ‘nth’, ‘sch’, ‘scr’, ‘shr’,
‘spl’, ‘spr’, ‘squ’, ‘str’, ‘thr’.
o Consonant
Blends. It is the combination of two or three
consonants that produce a unique sound such as ‘bl’ or ‘spl’. It is also known
as consonant clusters.
Ø Short & Long
Vowel Sounds. Vowels are the speech sound. The sound
of vowel letters comes out from the mouth without any hinderance of tongue, teeth, or lips. There are five vowels, ‘a’, ‘e’. ‘i’, ‘o’, and ‘u’. while speaking,
short vowel sounds take less time as in ‘ship’, or ‘pet’. Whereas long vowel
sounds take more as in ‘keep’, or ‘sheep’.
Ø Short & Long
Vowel Digraphs. The placing of two vowels together
creates a vowel digraph. There is a single sound of vowel digraphs. The
combination of two vowels is either from the same letter or may be different.
The word ‘moon’ and ‘foot’ have two vowels letters ‘oo’ each. Both have long
and short vowel sounds respectively. There are other vowel digraphs with two
different vowels like “oa” in “road” or “ai” in “bait”. As a general rule, “when
two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking”. So, the vowels ‘oa’ in
the word ‘road’ produces the sound ‘o’ whereas ‘a’ is silent.
Ø Other Vowel
Patterns
o
Closed Vowel Pattern. Word
with one vowel followed by one or more consonants is a closed vowel pattern.
For example, ‘cat’, ‘blast’, ‘stand’, and ‘thumb’.
o
Open Vowel Pattern. A
word that ends with one long vowel is an open vowel pattern. For example, ‘hi’,
‘fly’, and ‘he’.
o
Magic ‘e’ Pattern (Silent e). A word with a vowel that has a consonant
ahead of it and ends with a final e. So, the soundless letter ‘e’ closes the word.
For example, ‘cake’, ‘ride’, and ‘globe’.
o
Double Vowel Talker Pattern. A
word that contains two combined vowels. We can hear the sound of the first
vowel and the second vowel remains silent. For example, ‘boat’, ‘rain’, and ‘float’.
o
Double Vowel Whiner Pattern. A
word that contains two combined vowels produces a different sound. The sound of
the word resembles a funny whining sound. For example, ‘soil’, ‘coil’, and ‘fault’.
o
Bossy ‘r’ Pattern. A
word that contains consonant ‘r’ has a bossy command over the vowel of the
word. The letter ‘r’ overpowers the sound of the vowel to an extent that vowel
sound changes. For example, ‘bar’, ‘her’, and ‘born’.
o
Consonant + ‘le’ Pattern. A
word ends with a consonant and ‘le’. The word breaks up into two parts. For
example, ‘ap- ple’, ‘ca- ble’, and ‘pur- ple’.
o
VC and CVC Words Pattern. VC (vowel-consonant)
and CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words sound like closed and short vowels.
For example, ‘at’, ‘rat’, ‘it’, and ‘sit’.
Ø Syllable Patterns. Small
units (syllables) create the words. Every syllable of the word carries a vowel
sound. There are some rules which help in finding these syllables. We find out
the pattern of consonants and vowels in the word along with their sounds. The
rules are helpful in the break-down of the word into syllables. These rules are
as follows: -
o
Closed Syllable. A
syllable that ends with a single or double consonant. It contains a short vowel
letter before the consonant. We can divide the word by syllables. The division
is between two consonants in the word. It has a vowel-consonant pattern. For
example, the word ‘shallow’ has two syllables, ‘shal’ and ‘low’. Both syllables
follow the rule of the VC pattern.
o
Open Syllables. A syllable that ends with a long vowel. Words
may have an open syllable in the middle if they have more than one syllable. Such
type of words follows the vowel or consonant-vowel pattern. For example, the
word ‘paper’ has two syllables, ‘pa’ and ‘per’.
Ø Affixes. We attach a word with the stem of
another word to create the affix. There are three types of affixes. When we
attach a word at the start of another word that creates the prefix. When we
insert the word in the middle of another word that creates infix. Same way, the attachment
of the word at the end of another word creates the suffix. These attachments
change the meaning of stem words. Examples are as under: -
Prefix: ‘sub-standard’,
‘un-willing’,
Infix: The English
language has no infixes.
Suffix: ‘cheer-full’,
‘brother-hood’
Phonological Skill Development in Young
Learners
The development rate of phonological skills
in young ones depends upon their age brackets. One-to-two-years old are not
expected to learn and show some output. Real learning starts at the age of two
and onwards. At the pre-school level, learners develop the senses of their
surroundings. In succeeding paras, we discuss the achievement of phonological
skills by the learners (About Kids Health, “Phonological awareness: What sounds
your child can recognize at different ages”, 2009): -
Ø
Age Group of 2-4 Years
o
The rhyming songs,
poems, and jingles are some of the ways to teach learners at a young age.
o
Rhyming plays a vital
role in initiating the phonemic awareness skills of the learners.
o
Learners between the
age of two to three, recognize the rhyming words like ‘hat’, ‘bat’,
‘rat’.
o
And between three to
four years of age, they start rhyming at their own.
Ø
At the Age of 5 Years. At
this age learners can do the following by an oral action: -
o
Can identify and count
the syllables in the words with ease.
o
Understand the
onset-rime relationship. They also comprehend the onset sounds.
o
They can add, remove,
replace, and blend the onsets of the words.
o
They recognize the
individual sounds in a speech. They can count the phonemes of the words.
Ø
Age Group of 6-7 Years. At this stage, learners see how letters
produce the sounds, how to write a letter/ word, and how to read a word.
Although the main focus remains to reinforce phonemic awareness in the learners. At this age, learners can do the following:
-
o
They can distinguish
the rhyming and non-rhyming words. They can identify
‘run’ as a non-rhyming word among the list of ‘hat’, ‘bat’, ‘rat’, ‘run’,
‘cat’, ‘chat’.
o
They identify and
isolate the beginning and ending sounds of the words. They know ‘cat’ starts
with the letter ‘c’ and ends with the letter ‘t’.
o
They can identify the
odd word in a set of words. They can pick the word ‘cut’ as odd among the list
of ‘bat’, ‘cat’, ‘cut’, ‘rat’.
o
They can create a list
of same-sounding words like ‘care’, ‘car’, ‘cat’, ‘cute’.
o
They understand the
syllable blending as in ‘win-dow’, and ‘bu-tter-fly’. They also comprehend
syllable segmentation as in ‘sidewalk’ and ‘rainbow’.
Ø Age Group of
8-9 Years. At this age, learners are like “little
adults”. Their knowledge of grammar and synonyms is near completion. They have
adequate phonological awareness skills. At this age learners can do the following:
-
o
They can use language with good grammar, specific
vocabulary, and a variety of words.
o
They understand directional words and act upon them with
responsible behavior.
o
They can read with a full understanding of basic
phonic patterns.
o
They can write with clarity of mind keeping in view
their phonological skills.
Role of Parents
& Teachers in Phonemic Learning
Parents and teachers, both play an
important role in the grooming of learners. Parents are responsible for the
preschool training of phonological awareness. Teachers have a fair advantage as
they receive the learners with preliminary readiness.
Ø
Parents. Children have blind trust
in their parents. So, the parents can play a stronger role as compared to the
teachers. Due to this faith, children listen to their parents and feel that
they are not out of their comfort zone. Parents can do the following to get the
best out of their children (Reading Rockets. “Phonological and Phonemic
Awareness”): -
o
Encourage the learners to take part in the activities of
building sound skills.
o
Help out the learners to think of other words with the
same starting letters.
o
Make some sentences with same-sounding letters like
“Guide the Goldsmith”. Ask them to give a try.
o
Play rhyming and blending games with them.
o
Read story-books and poems that contain rhyming.
o
Play the alphabetic games and point out the letters and
mention their sounds.
o
Use computer games containing phonological and
phonemic awareness skills programs.
o Use animated TV programs which develop
phonic skills and decoding tests.
o
If the learner is a latecomer then a piece of timely
information to the teacher will be helpful. He/she may need some extra classes
to get the phonological skills.
o
Have periodic meetings with the concerned teachers. Discuss
the progress of the learner and give your input. It ensures that proper
phonological and phonemic awareness programs are in place.
Ø
Teachers. We, as a teacher, play a
vital role in the educational grooming of the learners. By adopting the
following measures in the classroom, we can get the anticipated results (Reading
Rockets. “Phonological and Phonemic Awareness”): -
o
Learn all the details about phonemes like, there are
44 phonemes in the English language. These phonemes include 24 consonants (2 semivowels)
and 20 vowels.
o
Ensure that phonological and phonemic awareness
programs are up-to-date.
o
Have special coaching classes for the learners showing
deficient phonological skills.
o
Arrange a supplemental program for over-aged learners
who missed at their appropriate ages.
o
Engage the learners in the stress-free activities of
phonological awareness tasks. Create fun and excitement for them.
o
Analyze and
ensure that phonemic learning programs are progressive.
o
Make small groups according to their ability,
understanding, and comprehension level. As a teacher, we may have to spend more
time with weak groups and vis versa.
Teaching of Letters and Phonics to the
Preschool Learners
Coaching preschool learners is a delicate
subject and needs special attention. So, I placed it at the end of my
discussion. It is an uphill task to teach learners of young ones, who are of
tender age and still learning, “how to walk?”. At this age, learners play with
sounds and images which are the only workable “teaching tools”. They recognize
and react to familiar voices like their names. They also show fear when
listening to unfamiliar sounds like a thunderstorm or a bang. Sound is the
basis of phonics which plays a vital role in teaching preschoolers. They react
to the still images (pictures) and moving images (videos): -
Ø Visual and
Auditory Senses
o
Print Awareness. Since
their early childhood, preschool learners get the concept of print mediums
(books, magazines, etc.). They observe elders reading the books and they follow
the footsteps. Parents read out stories to them which develops a sense of
awareness of the spoken language. Besides, they also meet the knowledge of the
letter-sound relationship (Paige & Laura. (2003).
pp.89-90, Terrell, 2007).
o
Oral Language. At
an early age, preschool learners get an understanding of grammar and
vocabulary. They don’t comprehend every word or phrase of songs, poems, or
stories. They ask for meaning and keep the concepts. This exercise sharpens
their memories and helps at a later stage (Paige & Laura. 2003.
pp.89-90).
Ø Building of
Phonics Sense. We can teach the letters and phonics to the
preschool learners by using above mentioned teaching tools in the following
ways: -
o
Check Their Response. Observe
the response of the preschoolers to different sounds. Like door-bell, car’s
horn, songs, jingles, reading story-book, etc. Ask them about these sounds and
see how they react.
o
Engage Them Effectively. Engage
the preschoolers with interesting rhyming games, related TV programs, rhyming
poems, etc. Sing out aloud the rhyming sounds and encourage them to repeat with
you.
o
Focus on the Initial Sounds. Draw
their attention to the initial sounds of different words. Repeat the onsets of
words by doing yourself. For example, say to them, “this is my ‘n’ ‘n’ ‘n’
‘nose’, where is your ‘n’ ‘n’ ‘n’ ….” Let them guess.
o
Play
Games with Them. Games with
iterating sounds, substituting onsets, repetitive rimes, etc. are best suited
for preschoolers. Young ones are always playful. Games like ‘I spy’, ‘missing
alphabet’, ‘same-sounding words’, etc.… and many more would helpful.
o
Establish
Letter-Sound Relationship. The letter has its own unique spoken sound. Make the preschoolers understand the
relationship through practical. At home, use display cards, books, etc. to show
the letters and read to them. Make use of TV programs for the purpose. While
driving, show them the billboards, neon signs, traffic signs, etc., and read to
them. Ask them to repeat the same for you. During shopping, show and identify
different logo brands and labels of food. Ask them to fetch some specific
beverage starting with the letter ‘c’ (coke).
o
Break Apart the Sounds. Use
the words with more than one syllables and speak aloud the words to the
preschoolers. Let them notice parts of the word sounding differently. Tell the
difference and put another word for their analysis. Tell them to break apart
the word according to sounding. Take compound words (cowboy, firefly) and
repeat the exercise.
o
Blending Stage. When
the preschoolers reach a level where they recognize the letters and phonics.
They are ready for the blending stage. We can start with two sounding words by
splitting them into two and join back by blending. We can move to three-sound
words and so on. The progression depends upon how the preschoolers are
responding to the exercise.
o
Involvement of Audio & Video Technology. Audios
and videos have effective engaging power. We can use audios of jingles, poems,
and songs. Videos clips can teach rhyming songs, letters, consonants, vowels,
blending, etc... Both modes are effective, efficient, and reliable.
Conclusion
Learning is a process to get knowledge of the unknown. At an early age, learners
struggle to learn. They use their ears and eyes to observe and understand. They
hear different sounds and have visuals. They learn to relate the sounds with
the corresponding things. We need to strengthen their learning process with
phonological and phonemic awareness programs. Parents and teachers have a
parallel responsibility to enhance the ability of learners.
I have considered different age groups
covering from 2 – 9 years span. The teaching of phonological awareness skills to
these groups are progressive. If a learner is not grasping some skill at one
level then he/she will suffer at the next level. So, I recommended the extra
coaching/ phonological skill programs for such learners.
Phonological and phonemic awareness has a significant
effect on the development of modern society.
References
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10.1080/00094056.2001.10522146.
Bizzocchi, Aldo. (2017). How many phonemes does the English language
have? International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature
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Paige, David D., Rupley, William H., Smith, Grant S., Olinger, Crystal.,
Leslie, Mary. (2018). Acquisition of letter naming knowledge, phonological
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