PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE

BETWEEN PHONOLOGY AND
PHONETICS?

describes the way sounds function within a

given language or across languages to
encode
meaning.

More to the physical production, acoustic

transmission and perception of the sounds of
speech.

Phonological awareness is the

understanding that
spoken language can be broken into smaller units:

sentences into words

words into syllables
syllables into onset-rimes
words/syllables into phonemes
Phonological awareness is an important predictor of
reading success

The hippopotamus jumps across the river.

The

hippopotamus

jumps

into

the

river

Words into syllables

The

hippopotamus

jumps

into

the

the hi-ppo-po-ta-mus jumps in-to the ri-ver

river

Syllables into phonemes

the hi-ppo-po-ta-mus jumps in-to the ri-ver
/ hpptms dmps nt rv/ (phonemes)

Phonemes
~Transcribed using the IPA system e.g., /bs/, /raf/
~Phonemes are not the same as letters (graphemes)

~knowing how letter names and phonemes relate to

each
other
~also known as letter (grapheme)-sound (phoneme)
correspondence
~phonics is a part of phonological awareness

There are estimated 44 sounds/phonemes.

To read and write, pupils will need to learn more than
100
spellings (graphemes) for these phonemes.
Phonemes are divided into consonants and vowels.

1. Consonant digraph:
~two consonants represent one sound
~E.g. ch(alk), gh(ost), (ri)ng, ph(ase), wh(o), th(ree)
2. Consonant blend:
~combination of the sounds of two/ more consonants so
that
theyre clustered together
~E.g. bl(ack), cl(ock), fr(og), br(eak), str(eet), sw(ing)

3. Short vowel (using phonemes):

~E.g. i-kit, -trap, -foot, -up, -lot
4. Long vowel (using phonemes):
~E.g. u: -goose, i: -fleece, : -nurse, : -palm, : bear

d. Teach one phoneme at a time. Start with

phonemes
that occur frequently in simple words (e.g., /a/, /m/,
/t/)
e. Letters that look familiar and have similar sounds
(e.g.,
b and d) should be separated in the instructional
sequence to avoid confusion
f. Short vowels are taught before long vowels

g. Lower case letters are taught first

h. Start by teaching the sounds of the letters, not
their
names.
i. Teach blending and segmenting in oral as well
as
written language
j. Highlight the first phoneme of words

star

(word)

onset

rime

/st/
onset

up

//
rime

/p/

onset rime

Rhymes (words that end with the same rime)

E.g. Pick, kick, click
Alliteration (words that start with the same onset)
E.g. Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers

Blending

Segmenting

Students say the sound in a word and then

say them fast while the teacher pushes
blocks or letters together to demonstrate
blending
Students say the word and then clap (or
separate the syllables/phonemes) and say
each syllable or phoneme
Stretch-shrink technique