subject: Phonic Awareness And Its Importance [print this page] As a child grows, he begins to develop phonemic skills that help him to enter into the world of reading. This happens to be the most crucial phase for the little one and if he gets right guidance and support at this stage, he can very well master phonemics. Just as there are many ways to teach a language or a musical instrument, there are many successful ways to teach phonics. Though it is impossible for a teacher to teach all the words to the students that they need to learn in order to read with ease. But still, teachers need to put in best of their efforts strengthen the vocabulary of the children.
Studies show the best predictor of reading success in young children is phonemic acquaintance. Children with high level of phonemic awareness have high reading and spelling proficiency whereas children with low phonemic awareness experience difficulties in learning to read and spell. Therefore, it is important for teachers to help children develop good phonemic awareness.
What is phonic awareness?
Phonemic awareness can be defined as the ability to identify the smallest units of sounds. For example - /d/, /o/, and /g/, are the individual sounds of the word "dog". The letters enclosed in the slashes denotes the sound of the letter, and not the name of the letter. Phonemes are the smallest units of individual sounds that form a word. In short, phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and work with the phonemes. Phonemic awareness should be taught very early on to the child as it builds the foundation for reading and spelling. A child of two years old learns to read by developing phonemic awareness.
Why is Teaching Phonemic Awareness Important?
Teaching phonemic awareness is important as it is the best way to teach child to read. It opens whole new dimensions of reading for the child. It helps them to read books and develop better understanding of the words. But what is the best way to teach phonics? Phonics can be taught through repeated exposure of words by listening, speaking and reading. There are certain exercises as well such as playing simple word segmentation or oral blending games. It helps the child to develop a sense and an understanding that each word is made up of individual sounds.
Teacher often uses assessment techniques to gauge phonic progress. Phonics can be assessed by associating a sound with a given symbol, and by child's ability to decode nonsense words. The nonsense word assessments progress from decoding common sounds to less common sounds.
