INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU

KAMPUS DATO’ RAZALI ISMAIL

21030 KUALA NERUS TERENGGANU

PROGRAM IJAZAH SARJANA MUDA PENGURUAN (PISMP)

AMBILAN JUN 2021
SEMESTER 1 TAHUN 2

TASK 1: ACADEMIC ESSAY

NAMA PELAJAR : AHMAD FAIZ BIN ABDUL AZIZ

ANGKA GILIRAN : 2021092340218
NO KAD PENGENALAN : 020808-10-0417
KUMPULAN/UNIT : TESL 3
KOD DAN NAMA KURSUS : TSLB3243 CHLDREN AND LITERACY

NAMA PENSYARAH : MADAM SALMA BT ABD RAZAK

TARIKH HANTAR : 15/09/2022

Ulasan/Komen/Maklum Balas Pemeriksa/Pensyarah :

Tanda Tangan Pemeriksa/Pensyarah : Tarikh :

Pengesahan Pelajar

Saya mengesahkan bahawa maklum balas yang diberikan oleh pensyarah telah saya rujuki dan
fahami.

Tanda tangan Pelajar : FAIZ Tarikh :

 Reading and writing are both components of literacy. For humans to survive, they must
be able to communicate, whether orally or in writing. Clark 2008 stated that literacy is a
language for talking about language. Because of this, literacy in the English language is one
of the most crucial aspects of the language. Early literacy development in children is greatly
influenced by teachers. Hence, teacher itself needs to master and understand the literacy in
English in order to deliver the English classes in the primary ESL classroom. This essay will
be focusing on the importance of understanding literacy in teaching the English language in
the primary ESL classroom and example of the teaching of early literacy sound systems
focusing on phonemic awareness.
Kilpatrick stated that Phonemic awareness is the knowledge of and capability for
controlling the many phonemes found in spoken words. Children with phonemic awareness
will be better able to manipulate the sound structures in spoken language (Paulson & Moats,
2010). Phonemic awareness is very important in early childhood education because it is the
essential skills in developing the children’s reading and spelling skills. There are six layers of
phonemic awareness which are phoneme isolation, phoneme blending, phoneme segmenting,
phoneme substitution and phoneme deletion.
The first elements in the phonemic awareness topic is phoneme isolation. Phoneme
isolation is the ability to identify where a sound appears in a word or to identify what sound
appears in a given position in a word. Phoneme isolation is very crucial technique that need
to be mastered both by teacher and students because it is critical to reading and spelling
fluency and the predictor of the likelihood of testing and spelling success. There are lots of
activity that teacher can do in order to teach the phoneme isolation. The most efficient way is
teacher can ask the student to identify the first phoneme and sounds in every word. As an
example, the teacher can ask, what is the first sound in a word “cat”? This activity can develop
the student’s phonemic awareness and will help them in mastering the literacy in English.
Next, the second element in the phonemic awareness topic is phoneme blending.
Phoneme blending is the ability to hear the individual sounds in a word, put the sound together,
and say the word made. Phoneme blending is very important because it is essential in
developing children’s reading skills. One of the way that teacher can do to teach phoneme
blending is by pronouncing the sounds of some word to a student such as the word “sand”
(/sss/, /aaa/, /nnn/, d) and the students will say the word “sand”. These activities need to be
practiced repeatedly to make sure that the students can master and grasp the technique in
order to learn the English Language in the early stages.
In addition, phoneme segmenting is the counterpart of phoneme blending. Using
phoneme segmentation, we can separate words into their constituent sounds. Along with
rhyming and blending, it is a stage in the development of phonemic awareness, although it is
one of the difficult ideas for children to understand. Phoneme segmentation is also one of the
crucial technique that need to be mastered by the student in order to develop reading and
spelling skills. Teacher itself need to master this technique before teaching the students. One
of the activities that can be done by the teacher is teacher can said the word “sand’ and ask
the students to segment the word “sand”. Hence, the students need to segment the word “sand”
into (/sss/, /aaa/, /nnn/, d). This technique need lots of practices because it is quite tricky for
young children.
Lastly, phoneme manipulation is the ability of children to manipulate or work with
individual sounds in spoken word. Children who can master phoneme manipulation will
become a better reader and speller. Children who master this can easily or be able to
distinguish and remember words that its pronunciation are quite similar such as fresh, French
and flesh. In substitution, it requires children to be able to switch or substitute one phoneme
for another phoneme to make a new word. As an example, children can change the initial
sound like the first sound in cake is changed with /t/ (take). Next, final sound substitution is
replace the last sound in a word to change it to another word such as change the last sound
in gross with /z/ and it will become grows. The last example in phoneme substitution is vowel
substitution, children can change the middle sound in sow with /a/ and it will turned to saw.
Children should be able and master in manipulating phonemes in order to learn words, and it
also helps them get better at reading.
In conclusion, mastery of literacy is a must in teaching the English language in the
primary ESL classroom. Phonemic awareness is fundamental for teacher in order to deliver
the lesson successfully.

References:

Orpi, D. (2021, August 18). 5 activities for developing phoneme segmentation skills. Thrive

Literacy Corner - Thrive Educational Services. https://thriveedservices.com/how-to-

teach-phoneme-segmentation/

Paulson, L. H., & Moats, L. C. (2010). LETRS for early childhood educators. Longmont,

CO: Cambrium Learning Sopris West.

Phonemic Awareness Assessment. (2013, April 24). Reading Rockets.

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/phonemic-awareness-assessment