Phonological Awareness Lessons: Introduction
Phonological awareness is the structure of oral language. It involves the awareness that oral language comprises sounds in different-sized parts (phrases, words, syllables, individual sounds) and the ability to manipulate these sound parts in various ways (blending, segmenting, deleting, adding, substituting). Also, phonological awareness includes the recognition of rhyme and alliteration. Phonological awareness lays the foundation for decoding words by using the alphabetic principle.
Because it relates to sound, phonological awareness could be taught to students with “eyes closed and lights off.”
Phonemic awareness is an awareness of the individual sounds in words, the phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest units of sounds. Phonemic awareness is just one of the skills within the larger umbrella of phonological awareness.
These phonological awareness activities are designed to enhance the instruction of all teachers of reading and to meet the learning needs of all students, as indicated by data.
