Phonological Awareness and Phonics
Phonological cognizance is a meta-cognitive aptitude for the sound conformation of language. Phonological awareness accedes one to remember, manipulate and discriminate sounds at the sentence word phoneme level and syllable. Aptitude within phonological cognizance includes inaugural recognitions of sounds in cosmic and more substantial linguistic structure. An exemplification of a phonological awareness agitation is an educator’s saying a word distinctly and learners saying each discrete sound in the word.
It’s a vital and reliable augury of the aptness to read. It is obligatory for education and using alphabetic code. Individuals who have the aptness to sound out words and identify sounds and put them in concert again have a keen cognizance of the alphabetic cryptograph. Without phonological cognizance, learners may not know how to print apparatus represents the uttered words. Phonological awareness is a paramount determiner of prosperity in learning to spell and read (Anthony, 2005). For most learners, strong readers have burly phonological cognizance and vice versa.
Although phonological competence is not strongly concomitant to intelligence, it is condemnatory for learning to scrutinize any alphabetic writing system. Research has it that learners experiencing travail with phonological aptness is a predictor of penurious spelling and reading inauguration. Phonological awareness is the kernel of reading. The awareness escalates reading conception and vocabulary. Phonological cognizance also helps portend by making words elementary to break down into convectional speech sounds and syllables. Phonological awareness is an essential skill in the reading development of learners since lack of this aptness will eventually lead to frustrations when writing sentences or encountering of new words when reading.
Phonics is a technique for reading, writing and teaching of an alphabetical enunciation. It is done by exemplifying the relationship between the sounds of the uttered words which is also referred to as phonemes and groups of letters also known as graphemes, or syllables of an inscribed language. Phonics can be illuminated in numerous way which includes: oral fluency, guided scrutiny, cooperative learning, reading comprehension, phonological cognizance and many other ways. Phonics is a methodology used by educators to teach reading by accentuating on the sounds and their spellings. It is taught systematically with maneuvered lessons orchestrated directly and distinctly.
When phonics is instigated as a way to teach English, linguistic students can learn scrupulous pronunciations and grammar to eschew flaws that will eventually result in poor communication. Phonics provides a rudiment of education meant to make scrutinizing easier. Also, it builds a foundation to help learners read by simplifying words into sounds and creating letters and word remembrance. Phonics augments the learner’s propensity to use unknown words hereafter. Besides, phonics enables learners to blend words and educates them on how to analyze words while ameliorating escalating pronunciation and spelling ability (Patricia, 1995). Learning phonics can build a learner’s poise since the smirch of not being able to read or having a hard time enunciating words may cause hurdles with self-confidence and self-image.
Phonics is relevant in reading inauguration since it succours in the development of the word remembrance by providing learners with paramount and useful ways to understand unfamiliar words while reading. Learners have a muddle in reading mainly because they are incapable of recognizing the sounds of alphabetical letters in the words they read. Phonics will aid in meliorating their reading aptness and efficiency.
References
Anthony, J. L., & Francis, D. J. (2005). Development of phonological awareness. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(5), 255-259.
Patricia, M., Witting, E., & Stehr, L. (1995). Phonics they use: Words for reading and writing.