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Phonemic Awareness

The Lab School in Washington, D.C. shows how one-on-one tutoring helps struggling readers achieve phonemic awareness.

Although phonemic awareness is a widely used term in reading, it is often misunderstood. One misunderstanding is that phonemic awareness and phonics are the same thing. Phonemic awareness is not phonics.

Phonemic awareness is the understanding that the sounds of spoken language work together to make words. Phonics is the understanding that there is a relationship between letters and sounds through written language.

If children are to benefit from phonics instruction, they need phonemic awareness. This is because children who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken words will have a difficult time learning how to relate these phonemes to letters when they see them in written words.

Phonemic Activities for the Preschool or Elementary Classroom

By: Marilyn J. Adams, Barbara Foorman, Ingvar Lundberg, and Terri Beeler (2004)

Activities that stimulate phonemic awareness in preschool and elementary school children are one sure way to get a child ready for reading! Here are eight of them from expert Marilyn Jager Adams.

Phonemic Awareness: Watch & Learn

By: Reading Rockets (2004)

The following are four short video clips that offer you the chance to watch and learn effective phonemic awareness activities. The video clips are from Reading Rockets' PBS television series Launching Young Readers.

Phonemic Awareness Instruction

By: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000)

Alphabetics is a term for the letter-sound elements of learning to read, including phonemic awareness and phonics. In this summary, find out what practices for teaching alphabetics have been proven effective by research.

Tuning In to the Sounds in Words

By: Bruce Murray (1999)

Thinking about the sounds in words is not natural, but it can be fun. Here are some games children can play to develop phonemic awareness, as well as a method for segmenting words that prevents children from distorting the pronunciation of the phonemes.

Teaching Alphabetics to Kids Who Struggle

By: Mary Fitzsimmons (1998)

This article describes two processes that are essential to teaching beginning reading to students with learning disabilities: phonological awareness and word recognition, and provides tips for teaching these processes to students.

Phonemic Awareness in Young Children

By: Marilyn J. Adams, Barbara Foorman, Ingvar Lundberg, and Terri Beeler (1998)

Research shows that the very notion that spoken language is made up of sequences of little sounds does not come naturally or easily to human beings. The small units of speech that correspond to letters of an alphabetic writing system are called phonemes. Thus, the awareness that language is composed of these small sounds is termed phonemic awareness.

Phonemic Awareness

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