Developing Phonemic Awareness In Young Children

Developing Phonemic Awareness in Young Children Chia-Hui Shen

Outline

Introduction

--Research purpose

-- What is phonemic awareness?

Research questions

Phonemic awareness instruction

Phonemic awareness & reading

Implication

Reference

Research purpose

In classroom teaching:

Some of the students have difficulties in reading and writing.

These students are unaware that words consist of a series of discrete sounds.

The role of English teachers:

To provide meaningful activities which can help students to learn how to distinguish individual sounds or phonemes within words.

To help students to be independent readers.

What is phonemic awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds, or phonemes, in spoken language.

Research questions

Why is phonemic awareness important?

How can phonemic awareness be assessed?

What does phonemic awareness instruction look like in the classroom?

Why is phonemic awareness important?

Yopp (1992) conducted a research with 235 kindergartners who took 15 to 20 minutes daily sessions for one year.

They had pretest and posttest.

The research finding was that children who had received phonemic awareness training program performed significantly better than the controlled group, who had not received such training.

Besides, when children were tested again several months at the beginning of first grade, the training children still performed significantly better than the controlled group.

If a child lacks phonemic awareness, he or she may be at risk for future reading failure.

Flett, Angela & Conderman, Greg (2002)

Adams (1990) concluded that children who fail to acquire phonemic awareness are severely handicapped in their ability to master print (p.412).

Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation

It provides teachers with a new tool for assessing children’s phonemic awareness and identifying those children who may experience difficulty in reading and spelling.

Each child is given the 22-item test for 5 to 10 minutes.

Yopp, H. K. (1995b)

Yopp, H. K. (1995b)

5 levels of abilities in Phonemic Awareness

Level 1. The ability to hear rhymes and alliteration

Level 2. The ability to do oddity tasks

Level 3. The ability to blend words

Level 4. The ability to segment words (including counting out the number of phoneme in a word)

Level 5. The ability to do phonemic manipulation task (Adams, M. J., 1990).

Phonemic Awareness Assessment Blevins, W. (1998)

Before starting instruction, it is important to assess students to determine their awareness level.

This helps indicate where teachers’ instruction should begin and what areas need emphasize.

(Blevins, W., 1998).

A sequence for phonemic awareness instruction Yopp, H. K. & Yopp, R. H. (2000)

Yopp, H. K. & Yopp, R. H. (2000)

1. Rhyme: The Hungry Thing “ We have a kanana in our lunch today.” “ Banana! Banana!”

2. Syllable manipulation: How Many Syllables in a Name?

3. Onset-rime manipulation

4. Phoneme manipulation: Scavenger Hunt

3 students in a team

Find objects in the classroom that begin with their target sound

Team presentation

pig

Guidelines for planning phonemic awareness instruction

First, phonemic awareness activities are child appropriate. For example, songs, chants, storytelling, riddles, and word-sound games are ideally suited toward developing young children’s sensitivity to the sound structure of language.

Yopp, H. K. & Yopp, R. H. (2000)

Yopp , H. K. (1992) modified the song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” into a fun game for students to work on identifying the beginning, middle, or ending sounds in words.

What’s the sound that starts these words:

Turtle, time, and teeth ?

(wait for stduenst to respond /t/)

/t/ is the sound that starts these words:

Turtle, time, and teeth

With a /t/, /t/, here and a /t/, /t/, there,

Here a /t/, there a /t/, everywhere a /t/, /t/.

/t/ is the sound that starts these words:

Turtle, time, and teeth

Second, phonemic awareness instruction should be deliberate and purposeful.

Third, phonemic awareness will not be helpful unless they can be placed in a context of real reading and writing.

Yopp, H. K. & Yopp, R. H. (2000)

Phonemic Awareness & Reading

Many children’s books emphasize speech sounds through rhyme, alliteration, assonance, phoneme substitution, or segmentation and offer play with language as a dominant feature.

For example, Dr. Suess’ s ABC (1963) uses alliteration as each letter of the alphabet.

Yopp, H. K. (1995a)

How to use read-aloud books in class?

(a) read and reread the story;

(b) encourage predictions about sounds, words, or

phrases;

(c) examine language use by asking children ‘What

sound do you hear at the beginning of all those

words?’ ‘What are some other words that begin

with the same sound?’

(d) Children can change the story and maintain the

language pattern to develop their own versions

of the story. Yopp, H. K. (1995a)

Implications

Practical implication:

Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read and spell.

Stories, songs, and games help children to focus on the sounds of language.

Research implication:

The use of the phonemic awareness assessment and instruction in EFL context

Reference

Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and Learning about Print . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Blevins, W. 1998. Phonics from A to Z . New York: Scholastic

Flett, Angela & Conderman, Greg (2002). Invention in School and Clinic, 37 (4), 242-245.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (1986). Position statement on developmentally appropriate practice in programs for 4- and 5-year-olds. Young Children, 41 (6), 20-29.