Session 2

Determining Phonological Awareness

I. What is Phonological Awareness

II. Levels of Development of Phonological
Awareness
A. Word
B. Syllable
C. Onset-rime
D. Phoneme
III. Phonological Awareness Skills by Level
IV. Blending and Segmentation Skills Across Levels
V. Some Guidelines for an effective Phonemic Instruction
VI. Conclusion/Challenge
What is Phonological Awareness?

Phonological Awareness is an umbrella term that includes the

awareness of larger parts of spoken language such as words,
syllables, onset and rimes as well as the smallest part called
the phoneme.
Levels of Development of
Phonological Awareness
A. Word
children should be aware of the beginning and ending of
words in an utterance including its internal structure so that
they can derive and interpret meaning.

B. Syllable
a syllable is a word or part of a word pronounced as a unit,
children should be aware that a word is made up of syllables.
C. Onset-rime
a syllable has two parts – the onset and the rime. The
onset is the part of the syllable that comes before the word. It
maybe a consonant, a consonant digraph. The rime is the
vowel and everything after it.

Word Onset Rime

I I
It It
Out Out
Sing S (Consonant) ing
Bring Br (Consonant) ing
Thing Th (Digraph) ing
D. Phoneme
A phoneme is the smallest unit of the spoken language
that makes a difference in a word's meaning. (sat/s/-fat/f/;
sum/m/- sun/n/; sin/i/ - son/o/).

Consonant Phonemes
Consonant Phoneme Classification
1. Place of Articulation
(Where in the month the sound is produced)
 bilabial- lips closed
 labiodental- upper front teeth on lower lip
 dental- tongue between teeth
 alveolar- tongue on ridge behind upper teeth
 palatal- tongue against roof of mouth
 velar- tongue against soft pallet in back of throat
2. Manner of articulation
how the sound is produce, a consonant sound is produced when
vocal airflow is either partially or completely obstructed as it moves
through the mouth.

 Stops (plosives) Airflow is stop completely for a short time

 Nasals- Air is forced through the nasal cavity, mouth is close.
 Fricatives- Air is forced through a narrow space creating friction
 Affricates – A sequence of stop and fricative, Airflow is stopped
completely and then released.
 Glides- Glides immediately into the vowel that follows; airflow is not
obstructed.
 Liquids- Seem to float in the mouth
3. Voice or unvoiced
 Voiced- the vocal cords vibrate
 Unvoiced(- The vocal chords do not vibrate
Continuous Sounds
sounds that can be produced for several seconds without
distortion
- /f/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /r/, /s/, /v/, w/w, /y/, /z/

Stop Sounds
sounds that can be produced for only on instant
- /b/, /d/, /g/, /h/, /j/, /k/, /p/, /t/
 Consonant Blends
these are two consonants that appear together in a word,
with each retaining its sound when blended.
Initial CBs Final CBs
/bl/ Black /sk/ (sc) Scan
/kt/ (ct) Fact /sk/ Desk
/cl/ Clip /sk/ (sk) Skate
/ft/ Raft /sp/ Crisp
/fl/ Flow /sm/ Small
/ld/ Wild /st/ best
/gl/ Glad /sp/ Spell
/lf/ Self
/pl/ Plan /st/ Star
/sl/ Slap /lk/ Milk
/sw/ Sway
/br/ Brat /lp/ Help
/skr/ Scream
/cr/ Crow (scr) /lt/ Quilt
/dr/ Drawn /spl/ Splash /mp/ Clamp
/fr/ Free /spr/ Spring /nd/ Blend
/gr/ Green /nk/ Sink
/skw/ Squash
/tr/ Train (squ) /nt/ Rent
/pr/ pray /str/ Strap /pt/ Kept
Consonants Digraphs
these are two consonant letter/ sound that together stand
as a simple sound.

/sh/ (ci) social

/sh/ (sh) shoe
/sh/ (ti) action
/ch/ chain
/wh/ what
/th/ thank
/TH/ this
/zh/ (g) regime
/zh/ (s) usual
/zh/ (si) fusion
 III: PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS SKILLS BY LEVEL
Level Skill Description Example
WORD Sentence Given a sentence or I’m going to say a sentence. Tap/clap once
LEVEL Segment phrase, student taps/claps for every word you hear in the sentence.
Action once for every word in the (I like pizza,)
sentence How many times did you tap/ clap?

WORD Blending Given two small words, Listen as I say two words.
LEVEL student blends them (dog-house)
together to form a Put the two words together to make a
compound word. bigger word.

WORD Segment Given a compound word, Listen, I’m going to say a word. (doghouse)
LEVEL Action student breaks the word As I say it again clap once for every word
into smaller words part you hear. How many times did you
clap?

WORD Deletion Given a compound word, Listen, I’m going to say a word. (doghouse)
LEVEL student deletes one of the Now, say the word without dog. (house)
small words Say it without house. (dog)
 Level Skill Description Example

Syllable Blending Given a word broken into Listen, I’m going to say two
Level syllables, student blends the syllables (pock–et). Put the
word parts together to create syllables together to make a
the whole word. whole word (pocket).

Syllable Segmentation Given a whole word student Listen, I’m going to say a
Level breaks the word into syllables. word (pocket). As I say the
word again, clap once for
every syllable you heard
(pocket). How many times
did you clap. (2)

Syllable Deletion Given a word, student deletes Listen, I’m going to say a
Level one of the syllable. word (pepper). Now say the
word without -er. (pep)
Level Skill Description Example

Onset-rime RECOGNIZE Given a point of words, student determines Listen, I’m going to say two words.
RHYME whether they rhyme. Say yes if they rhyme. Say no if
Level
they don’t rhyme, (ham – jam) yes
(ham – hat) no.

Given a word and after a short pause,
another set of two words, student
determines the word that rhymes with the
first word.
Listen, I’m going to say a word. After
a short pause, I’m going to say two
words. Which of the two words
rhyme with the 1st word. Say 1 or 2.
(pat __ cat , man)

Onset-rime GENERATE Given a word, student says a word that Listen, I’m going to say a word. Give
RHYME rhymes with it. a word that rhymes with it (nat) (cut)
Level
etc.

Onset-rime CATEGORIZA- Given a set of 3 or 4 words, student - gives Listen, I’m going to say four words.
TION the word that does not rhyme with the other Which word does not rhyme with the
Level
words. other words?
(mat, sat, fat, sun) – sun

Onset-rime BLENDING Given a word broken into onset and rime, Listen, I’m going to say something.
Level student blends the sounds together to Say the word I’m trying to say. ( /b/ -
create /ig/ - big)

Onset-rime SEGMENTA- Given a word, student breaks the word into Listen, I’m going to say a word. Say
TION onset and rime. the word in two parts. ( big - /b/ -
Level
/ig/)
Level Skill Description
Phonemic Segmentation Given a whole word, student
separates the word into
individual phonemes, then
says the whole word.
Phonemic Deletion Given a word, student
recognizes the word that
remains when a phoneme is
removed from the word.
Phonemic Addition Given a word, student makes
a new word by adding a
phoneme.
Phonemic Substitution Given a word, student makes
a new word by replacing one
phoneme with another.
Example
Listen. I’m going to say a
word. (big) Say it sound by
sound, then say the whole
word (big- [b] [i] [g] - big)
Listen , I’m going to say a
word. (spark) Remove the |
s|. What is the word? (park)
Remove |k|. What is the
word? (par)
Listen, I’m going to say a
word. (mall) Add |s| then
say the new word. (small)
Listen, I’m going to say a
word. (rug) Change |r| to |m|
(mug)
Level Skill Description
Phonemic Isolation Given a word, student
recognize individual sounds in
the word
Phonemic Identity Given a word, student selects
the word that has a common
sound as the first word from a
set of 3 or 4 different words.
Phonemic Categorization Given a set of 3 or 4 words
students recognizes the word
that has the odd sound.
Phonemic Blending Given a word separated into
phonemes, students combines
the sounds to form the whole
word.
Example
Listen, I am going to say a
word. (Van) what is the
first sound? /v/ the last
sound? /n/ the middle
sound? /a/
Listen, I am going to say a
word. Then after a pause,
I am going to say 3 words.
Which word has the same
sound as the first word?
(car – fan – corn – map)
(ans-corn)
Listen, I am going to say 4
words. Which word does
not belong? (bus – ball –
mouse – big)
(ams-mouse)
Listen to what I will say.
Combine the sounds you
hear to form a whole word.
(/b/ /i/ /g/ - big)
IV. Blending and Segmentation Skills Across Levels
V. Some Guidelines for an Effective Phonemic
Instruction
1. Phonemic awareness instruction (PAI) should be
explicit.
2. PAI should be systematic.
2.1 Segmenting words or syllables is easier than
segmenting phonemes.
2.2 Isolating initial phonemes in words is easier than
isolating final or medial phonemes.
2.3 Blending or segmenting words with two phonemes
is easier than blending or segmenting words with 3 or
more phonemes.
2.4. Blending words with continuous sounds is easier
than blending words with stop sounds.
V. Some Guidelines for an Effective Phonemic
Instruction
3. PAI should be conducted in small groups.
4. For most students, the PAI Program need not last 20 hours for
the school year with each session not to exceed 30minutes long.
But additional instruction maybe required for struggling learners.
5. A phoneme awareness lesson should target no more one or
two skills at a time. All lessons should support instruction in
phoneme blending and segmentation.
6. PAI techniques should be engaging, interesting and
motivating making use of games and other interactive activities.
7. In phonemic awareness activities, phonemes should be
pronounced correctly in a manner that will make them blendable
(e.g. blending stop sounds)
 V. Some Guidelines for an Effective Phonemic
  Instruction
8. PAI is most effective when students are taught to use
letters as they manipulate phonemes. Instruction in
phonemic awareness and phonics tend to overlap.

Phonemics awareness is the understanding that spoken

language can be broken into phonemes. Phonics is the
understanding of the relationship between phonemes and
graphemes (the letters that represent the sounds in written
language)

9. So as to distract the learners’ attention from focusing on

the sound, enough activities for mastery should be devoted
to PAI before teaching phonics.
 VI. CONCLUSION/CHALLENGE

Acquiring phonological/phonemic awareness skills is a

means rather than an end. It is not taught for its own sake
but rather for its value in helping children understand the
alphabetic principle TO BE ABLE TO READ and WRITE.

It is our target to make every child to be a good speaker

and reader at the end of grade III to be able to tackle more
complex skills in the grades IV-VI curriculum.

To attain that target , let us establish a very strong

foundation in listening and speaking.