PR-6219UK Reading for Success - Book 4

Phonemic awareness
Phonemic awareness
The term phonemic awareness refers to an individual’s ability to attend to the sounds of spoken words. In
order to begin to read, a pupil needs to understand that words are made up of individual sounds. It is
important to remember that phonemic awareness activities should be fun and playful for the pupils.
Why teach phonemic awareness?
Research suggests that experience with and instruction in phonemic awareness benefits pupils in their
quest to become readers. Phonemic awareness assists pupils in spelling and should be related to letters to
assist them with transitioning from hearing sounds to reading words.
This section of the book is shorter than the others, as most pupils at this stage have already developed
phonemic awareness. It is likely, however, that some pupils will still need practice in this area, which is
why these activities have been included. Incorporate these playful activities as a part of a whole-class
routine.
There are several elements involved in phonemic awareness instruction. These include phoneme isolation,
phoneme identity, phoneme categorisation, phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, phoneme deletion,
phoneme addition and phoneme substitution.
Phoneme isolation (recognising sounds in words)
Example: The first sound in dog is /d/.
Phoneme identity (recognising words that have similar sounds)
Example: The words cat, car and cave all begin with /c/.
Phoneme categorisation (recognising words that sound the same and words that sound different)
Example: The words bun, run and fun have similar sounds. The word bat does not sound the same.
Phoneme blending (combining spoken phonemes into words)
Example: The sounds /t/ /u/ /g/ make the word tug.
Phoneme segmentation (breaking words into their separate phonemes)
Example: There are four sounds in the word truck: /t/ /r/ /u/ /k/.
Phoneme deletion (identifying a new word when a phoneme is removed from another word)
Viewing sample
Example: If you take away the /s/ in start, you have the word tart.
Phoneme addition (identifying a new word when a phoneme is added to another word)
Example: If you add /s/ to the beginning of port, you have the word sport.
Phoneme substitution (changing a phoneme in a word to make a new word)
Example: If you change the /r/ in car to /t/, you have the word cat.
When facilitating phonemic awareness activities, focus on only one or two of these elements at a time.
Teach phonemic awareness in a variety of formats—whole-group, small-group or individual instruction.
Determine which format best suits the needs of the pupils.
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