Phonological Awareness
Phonological Awareness
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Phonological Awareness
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David J Chard
Southern Methodist University
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This article defines phonological awareness and reading instruction, including instruction in phonics,
discusses historic and contemporary research word analysis, and spelling (Adams, Foorman, Lund-
findings regarding its relation to early reading. berg, & Beeler, 1998; Chard, Simmons, & Kameenui,
Common misconceptions about phonological 1998). The most common barrier to learning early word
awareness are addressed. Research-based guide- reading skills is the inability to process language phono-
lines for teaching phonological awareness and logically (Liberman, Shankweiler, & Liberman, 1989).
phonemic awareness to all children are described. Moreover, developments in research and understanding
Additional instructional design guidelines are have revealed that this weakness in phonological pro-
offered for teaching children with learning dis- cessing most often hinders early reading development
abilities who are experiencing difficulties with for both students with and without disabilities (Fletcher
early reading. Considerations for assessing chil- et al., 1994).
dren’s phonological awareness are discussed, No area of reading research has gained as much atten-
and descriptions of available measures are pro- tion over the past two decades as phonological aware-
vided. ness. Perhaps the most exciting finding emanating from
research on phonological awareness is that critical levels
Row, row, row your boat of phonological awareness can be developed through
gently down the stream. carefully planned instruction, and this development has
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily; a significant influence on children’s
Life is but a dream reading and spell-
ing achievement (Ball & Blachman, 1991; Bradley &
Bow, bow, bow your boat
bently bown the beam. Bryant, 1985; Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1989, 1991;
Berrily, berrily, berrily, berrily; O’Connor, Jenkins, Leicester, & Slocum, 1993). Despite
Bife is but a beam. the promising findings, however, many questions remain
Sow, sow, sow your soat unanswered, and many misconceptions about phonolog-
sently sown the seam. ical awareness persist. For example, researchers are look-
Serrily, serrily, serrily, serrily; ing for ways to determine how much and what type of
Sife is sut a seam. instruction is necessary and for whom. Moreover, many
people do not understand the difference between phono-
ctivities like substituting different sounds for logical awareness, phonemic awareness, and phon-
the first sound of a familiar song can help chil- ics. Still others are uncertain about the relationship
dren develop phonological awareness, a cogni- between phonological awareness and early reading.
tive substrate to reading acquisition. Becoming The purposes of this article are to (a) clarify some of
phonologically aware prepares children for later the salient findings from research on phonological
understand that words can be divided into individual training is beneficial for beginning readers starting as
phonemes and that phonemes can be blended into early as age 4 (e.g., Bradley & Bryant, 1985; Byrne &
words, they are able to use letter-sound knowledge to Fielding-Bamsley, 1991). In a review of phonological
read and build words. As a consequence of this relation- research, Smith et al. (1998) concluded that phonologi-
ship, phonological awareness in kindergarten is a strong cal awareness can be developed before reading and that
predictor of later reading success (Ehri & Wilce, 1980, it facilitates the subsequent acquisition of reading skills.
1985; Liberman et al., 1974; Perfetti, Beck, Bell, & Documented effective approaches to teaching phonolog-
Hughes, 1987). Researchers have shown that this strong ical awareness generally include activities that are age
relationship between phonological awareness and read- appropriate and highly engaging.
ing success persists throughout school (Calfee, Linda- Instruction for 4-year-olds involves rhyming activi-
mood, & Lindamood, 1973; Shankweiler et al., 1995). ties, whereas kindergarten and first-grade instruction
Over the past 2 decades, researchers have focused pri- includes blending and segmenting of words into onset
marily on the contribution of phonological awareness to and rime, ultimately advancing to blending, segmenting,
reading acquisition. However, the relationship between and deleting phonemes. This pattern of instruction fol-
phonological awareness and reading is not unidirectional lows the continuum of complexity illustrated in Figure 1.
but reciprocal in nature (Stanovich, 1986). Early reading Instruction frequently involves puppets who talk slowly
is dependent on having some understanding of the inter- to model word segmenting or magic bridges that are
nal structure of words, and explicit instruction in phono- crossed when children say the correct word achieved by
logical awareness skills is very effective in promoting synthesizing isolated phonemes. Props such as colored
early reading. However, instruction in early reading- cards or pictures can be used to make abstract sounds
specifically, explicit instruction in letter-sound cor- more concrete.
respondence-appears to strengthen phonological During the last few years, publishers have produced
awareness, and in particular the more sophisticated multiple programs in phonological awareness, some of
phonemic awareness (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). which are based on research. Two of these programs
Many children with learning disabilities demonstrate are Ladders to Literacy (O’Connor, Notari-Syverson, &
difficulties with phonological awareness skills (Shaywitz, Vadasy, 1998) and Teaching Phonemic Awareness (Adams
1996). However, many other children have such diffi- et al., 1996). Figures 2 through 4 are illustrations of
culty without displaying other characteristics of learning phonemic awareness lessons that are based on examples
disabilities. Although a lack of phonemic awareness cor- from these programs.
relates with difficulty in acquiring reading skills, this lack Most early phonological awareness activities are
should not necessarily be misconstrued as a disability taught in the absence of print, but there is increasing evi-
(Fletcher et al., 1994). More important, children who dence that early writing activities, including spelling
lack phonemic awareness can be identified, and many of words as they sound (i.e., invented or temporary
them improve their phonemic awareness with instruc- spelling), appear to promote more refined phonemic
tion. Furthermore, although explicit instruction in awareness (Ehri, 1998; Treiman, 1993). It may be that
phonological awareness is likely to improve early reading during spelling and writing activities children begin to
for children who lack phonemic awareness, most chil- combine their phonological sensitivity and print knowl-
dren with or without disabilities are likely to benefit edge and apply them to building words. Even if children
from such instruction (R. E. O’Connor, personal com- are unable to hold and use a pen or pencil, they can use
munication, June 22, 1998). letter tiles or word processing programs to practice their
In short, success in early reading depends on achieving spelling.
a certain level of phonological awareness. Moreover, Instruction in awareness can be fun,
phonological
instruction in phonological awareness is beneficial for engaging, and age
appropriate, but the picture is not as
most children and seems to be critical for others, but the simple as it seems. First, evidence suggests that instruc-
degree of explicitness and the systematic nature of tion in the less complex phonological skills such as
instruction may need to vary according to the learner’s rhyming or onset and rime may facilitate instruction in
logical awareness (Torgesen, Wagner, & Rashotte, poorly to instruction. In the design of phonological
1994). Similarly, in a 12-week training in blending and awareness instruction, the following general principles
segmenting for small groups (3-4 children) in 2-minute increase students’ success (Chard & Osborn, 1998):
sessions four times a week, about 30% of the children
still obtained very low scores on the segmenting posttest ~
Start with continuous sounds such as /s/, /m/, and /f/
and 10% showed only small improvements on the blend- that are easier to pronounce than stop sounds such as
ing measures (Torgesen et al., 1994). /p/, /b/, and /k/;
Torgesen et al. (1994) concluded that training for ~
Carefully model each activity as it is first introduced;
at-risk children must be more explicit or more intense ~ Move from larger units (words, onset-rime) to
than what is typically described in the research literature smaller units (individual phonemes);
if it is to have a substantial impact on the phonological ~ Move from easier tasks (e.g., rhyming) to more com-
awareness of many children with severe reading disabili- plex tasks (e.g., blending and segmenting); and,
gies may include using concrete objects (e.g., blocks, dents must be strongly predictive of future reading abil-
bingo chips) to represent sounds. ity and separate low and high performers. Measures used
for monitoring progress must be sensitive to change and
Research suggests that by the end of kindergarten chil- have alternate forms (Kaminski & Good, 1996). In this
dren should be able to demonstrate phonemic blending section, we discuss only measures that have been demon-
and segmentation and to make progress in using sounds strated to be valid and reliable. We report the technical
to spell simple words. Achieving these goals requires that adequacy of the measures in the Appendix, rather than in
teachers be knowledgeable about effective instructional the narrative description of the measure.
As stated earlier, screening measures must be strongly
approaches to teaching phonological awareness and be
aware of the ongoing progress for each of their students. predictive of future reading ability and must separate
In the next section, we describe effective ways to assess high from low performers. Measures of automatized
phonological skills and monitor progress in phonological color, object, number, or letter naming meet these crite-
awareness.
ria (Torgesen, Wagner, Rashotte, Burgess, & Hecht,
1997; Wolf, 1991). Segmentation is a second skill that is
highly predictive of future reading ability (e.g., Nation
& Hulme, 1997; Torgesen et al., 1994; Vellutino &
ASSESSING PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS Scanlon, 1987; Yopp, 1988). Unlike rapid naming, seg-
mentation is a skill that can be taught, and the instruc-
Assessment in phonological awareness serves essen- tion of segmentation benefits reading acquisition.
tially purposes: to initially identify students who
two Screening measures must also separate high from low
appear to be at risk for difficulty in acquiring beginning performers. This means that they must address skills that
reading skills and to regularly monitor the progress of are developmentally appropriate. Phonological aware-
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The measures appropriate for identifying first-grade progress-monitoring measures indicate that the first-
students at risk for not acquiring reading skills overlap grade students receiving instruction in phonological
those used in kindergarten. The TOPA-K and onset- awareness lag behind their peers in reading or spelling,
rime are no longer appropriate, as students should have the teacher may choose to increase the integrated
developed these skills by the end of kindergarten, instruction in letter-sound correspondence and to make
whereas segmenting is still an emerging skill. However, stronger the links between segmenting and blending
tasks such as automatized naming of colors, objects, skills and reading. Brief descriptions of the screening and
numbers, or letters remain predictors for students at risk monitoring measures that have demonstrated validity
for not acquiring beginning reading skills, as do mea- and reliability through research follow. For each mea-
sures to determine whether students lag behind their sure, we indicate the grade and purpose for which the
peers in phonological awareness, such as measures of measure is appropriate. Note that some measures are
segmenting. appropriate for more than one grade level and for both
When using screening measures, the teacher must screening and monitoring progress.
establish decision rules for identifying students requiring
phonological awareness instruction. The decision rules TEST OF PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS-KINDERGARTEN.
vary. The TOPA-K has normed scores and provides (Second Half of Kindergarten; Screen). This measure
information to help a teacher decide whether to provide of phonemic sensitivity strongly predicts which students
phonemic awareness instruction to students who score will demonstrate high segmenting ability following
one or two standard deviations below the mean. small-group instruction in phonemic awareness (Torge-
However, there is little research evidence to guide deci- sen & Davis, 1996). The measure consists of one form
sion making about which children should receive the with 10 items requiring students to indicate which of
more intensive phonological awareness instruction. three words (represented by pictures) have the same first
A second use of measures is to monitor students’ sound as a target word and 10 items that require students
progress. Unlike the screening measures, progress- to indicate which of four words (represented by pictures)
monitoring measures must be sensitive to growth and begins with a different first sound than the other three.
require multiple forms. The Dynamic Indicators of The measure is administered to small groups of 6 to 10
Early Literacy (Kaminski Good, 1996) fit this require-
& children and is untimed. Students receive raw scores that
ment and are appropriate for kindergarten and first are normed.
ple, if students are not acquiring segmenting, the teacher beginning the top and continuing to the bottom.
at
may decide to add more scaffolds, such as cards that the Students complete two trials using cards with differently
students can move as they segment words, thereby mak- arranged numbers. The score is based on the average
ing segmenting instruction more explicit, or provide time for the two series.
students with more guided practice. If most students
successfully respond to instruction but a few respond YOPP-SINGER TEST OF PHONEME SEGMENTATION.
poorly or not at all, the teacher may decide to place these (Second Half of Kindergarten, First Grade; Screen).
students in a flexible group to receive more intense This test (Yopp, 1995) consists of 22 items and requires
instruction. The teacher could also choose to provide students to separately articulate each phoneme in the
some individuals with more intense instruction through- presented words. The student receives credit only if all
out the day to keep them up with their peers. If the sounds in a word are presented correctly. The student
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does not receive partial credit for saying /c/ or /c/ /at/ for series. The measure is administered individually and is
cat.One feature that differentiates this screening mea- timed. Unlike the Yopp-Singer Test, students do not
sure from others is that students receive feedback after receive feedback on their responses but do receive scores
each response. If the child’s response is correct, the test for partially correct answers. In other words, for cat, a
administrator says, &dquo;That’s right.&dquo; If the student gives an student receives a score of 1 for saying /c/, a score of 2
incorrect response, the examiner tells the student the for saying /c/ /at/, or a score of 3 for saying /c/ /a/ /t/.
correct response. Moreover, if the student gives an Because this measure assesses the number of correct
incorrect response, the examiner writes the error. phonemes per minute, it is sensitive to growth and is,
Recording the errors helps the teacher decide what therefore, appropriate for both screening and monitor-
remediation the student requires. The student’s score is ing progress.
the number of items correctly segmented into individual
phonemes. The test is administered individually and
requires about 5 to 10 minutes per child. CONCLUSION
BRUCE TEST OF PHONEME DELETION. (Second As we noted at the outset of this article, efforts to
Half of Kindergarten; Screen). The Bruce (1964) test understand the role of phonological awareness have far
assesses phoneme deletion, a more difficult and com- exceeded the efforts to relate research findings to class-
pound skill than segmenting (Yopp, 1995). The measure room practice regarding phonological awareness. This
consists of 30 one- to three-syllable words drawn from article is an attempt to pull together the valuable infor-
words familiar to children between the ages of 5 and 61/2. mation available on the role that phonological awareness
The examiner asks students to delete one phoneme from
the beginning, middle, or end of a word and to say the
plays in early reading development, the research-based
word that remains. The positions of deleted phonemes
teaching strategies that address the needs of all children,
the instructional design principles that address the needs
are randomly ordered throughout the test. The test is of children experiencing delays in early reading develop-
individually administered and requires 10 minutes to ment, and the validated instruments available for screen-
administer.
ing and monitoring students’ progress in phonological
awareness.
AUDITORY ANALYSIS TEST. (Second Half of Kinder-
garten ; Screen). This measure (Rosner & Simon, 1971,
description of the role that phonological aware-
Our
cited in MacDonald & Cornwall, 1995) consists of 40
ness plays in reading development conspicuously fails to
address the connection of phonological awareness and
items arranged in order of difficulty from deletion of syl-
lables in compound words to deletion of syllables in mul- spelling. This failure is not an oversight, nor should it be
tisyllabic words to deletion of phonemes in beginning, perceived as a statement of our beliefs regarding the
middle, and end positions. The teacher asks the student importance of spelling. We firmly believe that findings
from spelling research (e.g., Ehri, 1998; Templeton,
to delete a syllable or phoneme and say the word that is 1995; Treiman, 1993) represent such a significant part of
left. The measure is administered individually.
our knowledge base about reading that they would go far
RAPID LETTER NAMING, DYNAMIC INDICATORS OF beyond the length and scope of this article.
BASIC EARLY LITERACY SKILLS. (Second Half of Recent research on phonological awareness and
Kindergarten, First Grade; Screen). The Rapid Letter phonemic awareness, including how to teach and assess
Naming, DIBELS (Kaminski & Good, 1996) is another them, has made an extremely valuable contribution to
our understanding of how to teach reading to children
of many measures used to assess the rapid letter-naming
with learning disabilities or delays in early reading. It is
ability of students. The measure has 18 alternate forms
and consists of 104 randomly selected upper- and lower- not, however, a cure for reading disabilities, but a signif-
case letters presented on one page. The measure is given
icant advance in preventing and correcting reading diffi-
culties so that more children are prepared to learn how
individually, and students have 1 minute to name as to read in our alphabetic writing system.
many letters as possible in the order that they appear on
the page.
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