Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

Phonemic awareness and phonics play a crucial role in teaching balanced reading. Many people often confuse the two thinking that they are the same in when fact they are different and both essential for learning to read adequately. Phonemic awareness is considered a new trend to many seniors. Seniors are more familiar with phonics. While phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words, phonics teaches children the relationships between the letters of written language and the individual sounds of spoken language, both of these methods for teaching reading are needed for students to become successful readers.. This article will elaborate on the findings from the report by the National Reading Panel (NRP) titled, Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read . This article will discuses the importance of both phonemic awareness and phonics instruction, as well as how each is a fundamental part of a balanced reading program.

Phonemic Awareness

The report from the NRP states that phonemic awareness is "the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words" (Armbruster et al., 2003, p. 2). Five major ideas of phonemic awareness are: "Phonemic awareness can be taught and learned. Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read. Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to spell. Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when children are taught to manipulate phonemes by using the letters of the alphabet and phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when it focuses on only one or two types of phoneme manipulation, rather than several types"(Armbruster et al., 2003, pp. 5-9)

The five above statements can be taught in several different ways. Children need to learn how to see different parts of speech, called phonemes. They also need to learn how to identity similar sounds that are shared by different words .Children also need to learn to categorize phonemes, and break words down in to signal phoneme sounds. Once students master these skills they will then build on them. Students will use their newly mastered phonemic awareness skills to add, subtract or change graphemes to construct new words. "When students master the basics of phonemes, they will be able to read and spell with much more ease than students who are not exposed to phonemic strategies" (Armbruster et al., 2003, pp. 5-6).

The research from the NRP report show that phonemic awareness instruction is most successful when it is not restricted phonemes. Phonemic awareness is most beneficial if taught in conjunction with letters of the alphabet. When teaching phonemic awareness, teacher must only use a few manipulation tactics. "Adhering to these key findings can prevent confusion and allow students and teachers to focus on mastering one or two important skills versus skimming over many skills" (Armbruster et al., 2003, pp. 6-7).

Phonics

According to the NRP phonics instruction is also a key factor when it comes to reading education. Phonics is often confused with phonemic awareness or they are mistaken for the same thing. When in fact they are quit different. Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words and phonics teaches children the relationships between the letters of written language and the individual sounds of spoken language. According to the finding from the NRP report phonics helps "children learn and use the alphabetic principle in order to recognize familiar words accurately and automatically" (Armbruster et al., 2003, p. 12). This means that phonics helps students learn to decode words as they are reading.

According to the NRP report there are seven conclusions that can be drawn about phonics from their research. "Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is more effective than non-systematic or no phonics instruction. Systematic and explicit phonics instruction significantly improves kindergarten and first-grade children's word recognition and spelling. .Systematic and explicit phonics instruction significantly improves children's reading comprehension. Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is effective for children from various social and economic levels. .Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is particularly beneficial for children who are having difficulty learning to read and are at risk for developing future reading problems. Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is most effective when introduced early. Phonics instruction is not an entire reading program for beginning readers" (Armbruster et al., 2003, pp. 13-19)

From these statements teachers can assume many things. Teachers can assume that the instruction of phonics needs to be well organized and efficient. This will benefit the students more. Systematic phonics is a phonics program that instructs students by using the letter sound relationship in an organized progression. Systematic phonics also gives students an ample about of practice so that they can master the skill.

There is plenty of research that shows how to use phonics properly and its benefits. Phonics is a stupendous way to promote word recognition, spelling, and reading comprehension. Phonics is most beneficial when started early, such as in preschool and Kindergarten. However, phonics can still be helpful to older students as well. Research shows that phonics is also helpful for students of any socioeconomic class.

Students who are struggling with learning to read( or just reading) will benefit the most from phonics instruction. .Its important that teachers realize that "phonics instruction is not a complete reading program. It is, in fact, a great supplement to phonemic awareness programs, and when used together, students are provided with a better chance at becoming proficient readers" (Armbruster et al., 2003).

Conclusion

In order for teachers to create a well balanced reading program, they need to include phonemic awareness, phonics and several other factors, such as reading fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. These factors are dramatically effect by phonemic awareness and phonics. Its impossible for students to become fluent readers with out first mastering the individual sounds of letters. Phonemic awareness and phonics also affects students' ability to speak, write, and listen to words. Teacher should make sure that they have their students use vocabulary words in both oral speaking and reading. This will allow students to acquainted themselves with words that may appear in their reading. Without phonemic awareness and phonics students would not be able to comprehend text. Phonemic awareness and phonics allows students to understand the meaning of the text that they are reading or hearing. It is extremely important teachers teach, both phonemic awareness and phonics when working with younger children on reading.

Reference

Armbruster, B. B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2003). Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read (2nd ed.). Jessup, MD: Partnership for ` Reading.