“v ACQUIRING PHONEMIC AWARENESS In recent years, a number of researchers have emphasized the importance of developing phonemic awareness among emergent readers (National Research Council, 1998; Lions, 1998; Mustafa, 1997; Fox, 1996; Strickland, 1998; Wilde, 1997; Cunningham, 1995; Blevins, 1997; Goswani and Bryant, 1990; Bess, “Templeton, Invernizz, and Johnston, 1996; Adams, 1990a). It is estimated that roughly 20% of young children lack phonemic awareness (Blevins, 1997). Phonemic awareness is defined both conceptually and in terms of performance. -Soveepoaly, phonemic mares s defined as an understanding that words ate. ‘made up of sounds. In etm of pesformanee, phonemic awareness is defined as ihe abMtyiD pick out and manipulalesaunds in spofen words, So, when. speaking a phonemic wares. arenes is not enough to pecform specified tasks ~they must be able to manipulate spoken sound vale. ‘Adams (1990 a,b) in her landmark research review on beginning reading asserted thatthe two best predictors of early reading success are alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness. There are, according to Adams, basic performance-related phonemic awareness tasks: «hearing thymes (rime) * hearing alliteration «hearing essonance (vowel or vowel combination sounds) * hearing and recognizing the nonmatching sound or word (oddity) + hearing and blending syllables in words * splitting syllables and oral blending (onset-rime-whole word) + analyzing words in syllables and sounds (segmenting) + manipulating sounds in words (substitutions and deletions) + connecting sounds with eters for spelling 14is important 1o note here that phonemie awareness training focuses only upon the adfory modalty pearing cal No writen word are Bing proented or analyzed in combination with the sound values during phonemic awareness training! Phonemic awareness training isa prerequisite to phonic instruction since ‘hones instruction presupposes the ability to hear and manipulate sound values in Secoding unfamiliar words Many researchers have indicated that as litle as 11- 15 hours of intensive honemic awareaess taining spread.over an apoOpeate ‘ime fame (no more than 10 minutes daily in kindergacen) can achicuethe desired result. “Matched withthe tasks shown above, we provide several examples below of tasks appropriate for training phonemic awareness:Phonemic awareness instruction should be intentional and logically ‘sequenced from the whole to the parts ~ workin3 from the known to the new. This means, generally, we begin with words, move to syllables, then to syllable pats Such as onset and rime, an¢ then to individual sounds or phonemes (Mustafa, 1997; Blevins, 1997; Fox 1986, Strickland 1998 a,b. Blevins (1997) recommends a twenty- week scope at sequence for teaching phonemic awareness as follows: Rhyme/Alliteration/Assonance: Werks 1-10 Oddity Tasks: Weeks 2-12 Oral Blending: Weeks 3-20 Analyzing Words into Sounds: Weeks 9-20 Manipulating Sounds in Words: ‘Weeks 16-20 Connecting Sounds to Letters for Spelling ‘Weeks 19-20 Research has clearly shown that once children acquire a basic level of [Phonemic awareness, phonies instruction can then be effective. Too many teachers do not take the time to develop their stuclents’ hearing of the sounds of language before introducing them to the unfamiliar world of| Connecting printed symbols with the sounds of spoien language. Reutzel, DAR, and Cooter, R.B., Jr. (in press). Teaching Children to Read: From Basals 10 Books, Third Edition. Columbus, OH: MerrillPrentice Hal