Phonological Awareness and Phonics

Phonological awareness is awareness of the sounds in the spoken language and is a crucial precursor to phonics instruction. Phonics involves associating the sounds we hear in spoken language with the letters and spelling patterns in words. Phonological awareness is an umbrella term that includes the awareness of the smaller parts of spoken language, such as syllables, and intra-syllabic units (onsets and rimes) and phonemes. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. There are approximately 44 phonemes (sounds) in English that are represented by the 26 letters of the alphabet individually and in combination. Phonemic awareness, the ability to detect, identify, and manipulate phonemes in spoken words, is the most sophisticated level of phonological awareness. It can be a predictor of later reading achievement and phonemic awareness can develop as a result of learning to read. 

Phonemic awareness develops when pupils are taught to hear and manipulate the sounds in words. If a pupil struggles orally blending sounds to form a word (/ p / /e/ / n / = / pen /), then that pupil may not be able to read the word with automaticity when he / she sees it in print. Likewise, if a pupil cannot orally segment a word (/ pen / = / p / e / n /) then the pupil may struggle when attempting to spell the word if he / she does not know what the word looks like. It is important to be aware that many pupils with literacy difficulties have working memory difficulties and may be unable to blend phonemes together. Many pupils with early literacy difficulties present with phonological awareness difficulties, however, not all pupils with phonological awareness difficulties develop dyslexia if the correct environmental support and teaching approaches are implemented. 

Phonemic awareness is different from phonics. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that spoken language can be broken into phonemes (sounds). Phonics is the understanding of the relationship between phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters). The letters symbolise the sounds in written language. Phonics is the method used to link the sounds we can hear in speech with their written representation. That is, the link between phonemes /graphemes (alphabetic phonics) but also the link between clusters of graphemes (orthographic phonics) as found in onset and rime patterns, syllables and whole words.

A pupil presenting with literacy difficulties may have co-occurring neuro-developmental difficulties such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), developmental language difficulties (DLD), Autism or Dyslexia and he / she may also have cognitive difficulties such as limited working memory, low auditory/visual short-term memory, phonological processing difficulties (awareness of sounds) and or orthographic processing difficulties (awareness of letter patterns in print that represent clusters of phonemes). Pupils with phonological processing difficulties may find it difficult to discriminate phonemes in words, hold them in mind to manipulate, or blend them together, for example, hearing differences between similar sounding phonemes, such as /f/ and /v/, /m/ and /n/, /p/ and /b/ and /t/ and /d/. The word, “stamp” has 5 phonemes s-t-a-m-p. Many five- to seven-year-old pupils will find holding five phonemes in mind and trying to blend them to make a word, complex and difficult, if not impossible. An approach which reduces the impact on working memory may be more appropriate, such as chunking sounds using an onset/rime approach. Chunking is a strategy which will support working memory in pupils with literacy difficulties. This in turn promotes motivation and enables information to be stored more effectively in long-term memory.

There are pupils who will learn letter/sound knowledge and develop proficient reading skills but are unable to spell correctly as they choose letters that represent the phonemes but it is the wrong choice of letters, they have been referred to as ‘good readers, poor spellers’. Their difficulties are because they have failed to develop orthographic knowledge and as a result, they do know what a word looks like (they have limited awareness of word patterns and whole words in memory). Whilst other pupils may have executive function difficulties or have hearing difficulties and can be impulsive in their response, and as a result they guess at letters and sounds. Newcomer pupils or looked after pupils may have been impacted by environmental factors and have had limited exposure to early literacy skills. A supportive environment can develop and support cognitive and affective factors. This can be best achieved by thorough diagnostic testing to establish the specific difficulties a pupil may be presenting with and through teaching accordingly. 

The findings from research studies have identified that pupils with good phonological and orthographic awareness are in a great position to become good readers. While pupils with poor phonological and orthographic awareness may struggle in reading, more recent research has identified that orthographic processing difficulties are as significant as phonological and rapid automatised naming difficulties. It is important that accommodation is made for all learners, so no pupil is left behind.

• Has difficulty discriminating, for example similar sounding consonant phonemes, such as, /m/ and /n/ or /w/ and /wh/
• Has difficulty learning the vowel sound
• May have short medial vowel confusion and extensive difficulties with long vowel sounds
• May struggle separating spoken words into sounds
• Has difficulty blending spoken sounds to form words
• May struggle noticing rhymes, alliteration, or repetition of sounds
• Has difficulty clapping out syllables or separating a compound word
• May struggle pronouncing unfamiliar words or names
• Has difficulty producing multi-syllabic words accurately

It is important to understand that phonics is the method for teaching links between sounds and letters and orthographic processing difficulties negatively impacts spelling development. Unfortunately, difficulties with spelling development only become apparent when the pupil starts to write which is why it is so important to teach orthographic awareness from the first point of learning.

• Reading words laboriously phoneme by phoneme
• Poor reading fluency
• Spelling words by phoneme/grapheme correspondence but often it is the wrong choice of grapheme
• Difficulty unitising sounds
• Low sight word vocabulary

Phonics is the method used to teach the link between letters and the sounds they represent. Pupils with specific literacy difficulties require intentional teaching of phonics at the alphabetic level, that is phoneme/grapheme correspondence and at the orthographic level, that is, intra-syllabic units (onset and rime patterns), syllables and whole words that are irregular. It is important that literacy teaching is balanced ensuring that phonological, orthographic and morphemic knowledge are taught from the beginning of instruction. It is important that pupils with literacy difficulties are taught by means of a structured, cumulative, multisensory, phonics-based approach.

• Has difficulty learning the connection between letters and sounds
• Has difficulty discriminating sounds, for example, similar sounding consonant phonemes, such as /m/ and /n/ or /w/ and /wh/
• Has difficulty discriminating between short vowel sounds, for example confuses i/e, o/u 
• Extensive difficulties with long vowel sounds that have multiple mappings
• Confuses similar letters (for example b/d, p/q) and words (no/on)
• Sounds out words; guesses words based on the first letter or picture 
• Struggles with spelling and reading fluently

There are four levels of sound-letter links in English:

1. Phoneme level, that is, phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence (fine grain phonics); Phoneme-to-grapheme correspondences represent alphabetic knowledge
2. Intra-syllabic unit level, that is recognition of onset and rime patterns as blended units of sounds within one syllable words, for example, c/at, w/ed (coarse grain phonics)
3. Syllable level, that is recognising syllables as blended units of sounds within polysyllabic words for example, in/ter/est/ing (coarse grain phonics)
4. Whole word level, that is, recognising irregular words that do not have blended units that occur in other words, for example, yacht, queue, the, are, eye, said (coarse grain phonics)

Development of phonic knowledge at all four levels is important because some pupils have difficulties processing certain types of information due to underlying cognitive difficulties. 

Phonics at phoneme to grapheme level develops alphabetic knowledge but should not be used in isolation. It does not support the development of orthographic knowledge, that is knowledge of commonly occurring letter patterns in the English Language. Some pupils can learn implicitly from reading experience and develop orthographic knowledge without intentional teaching but a considerable number of pupils, including those with literacy difficulties, cannot. They require intentional teaching. 

It is important that phonics is taught in a systematic and structured manner which follows a cumulative, sequential and multi-sensory approach. In the Foundation Stage pupils begin by learning phoneme-grapheme correspondence (alphabetic knowledge) and progress to learning initial consonant blends, clusters and end rimes (orthographic phonics). Pupils can be taught the letter names and sounds using the alphabet arc, as a useful resource that can be used for a number of different activities to establish the link between letters and sounds. Some pupils are unable to establish all phoneme/ grapheme knowledge beyond the initial consonant sounds. If pupils know individual consonant sounds it is important that they are taught the common initial consonant blends and clusters so that they recognise them on sight without having to decode them phoneme by phoneme. They may never be able to hear the vowel sound clearly, spoken in a word, unless it is attached to a final consonant or consonants in a word. Teachers, therefore, need to teach phonics at orthographic as well as the alphabetic level. Pupils with literacy difficulties require over-learning and repetition to ensure that a firm foundation is established. New learning should be based on prior knowledge and it is essential that the teacher provides clear explanations and modelling.  

The three major learning modalities or pathways, auditory, visual and kinaesthetic should be engaged when introducing a letter or letter cluster. Pupils link the look of the letter (visual) with its written shape and its feel (kinaesthetic) to form the letter, while saying its sound (auditory). The information received through more than one sensory pathway increases the certainty of learning and retrieval. Use multisensory teaching approaches and activities that are cumulative in nature to ensure knowledge is gained through many sensory channels: visual, auditory, tactile and kinaesthetic. Overlearning and repetition of all new learning helps ensure learning is secure while being transferred and retained in long-term memory. 

As pupils progress through primary school and into post-primary it is quite common that reading may develop, however difficulty with spelling can persist. At the post-primary stage difficulties may be more apparent in lack of reading fluency and vocabulary knowledge, which in turn impacts on the pupil’s comprehension. Spelling difficulties often continue as incorrect word recall has become rooted in long-term memory. Assistive technology and by-pass strategies should be introduced to scaffold the pupil’s learning.