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This paper is an attempt to investigate the significance of the phonological component for the successful reading process at the elementary stage of learning a foreign language. Phonological awareness, the ability to segment language into smaller components and consciously manipulate them, together with the phonemic awareness, i.e. the ability to discriminate the individual phonemes within words, have been extensively studied since the 1980’s. Their causal role in reading acquisition is considered to be the single most powerful advance in the science and pedagogy of reading this century. However, this phonological component of reading skills formation has not yet been extensively examined in Lithuanian schools, while a number of scholars have proved the inter-relationship of the above mentioned skills by different experiments, conducted in foreign countries. The paper comprises three parts. In the first part Reading as a Cognitive Process the views about the cognitive process of reading of such scholars as G. V. Rogova, J. Harmer, F. Davies and many others are discussed. The second part of the paper, The Taxonomy of Phonological Awareness, deals with the phonological as well as phonemic awareness and their role in reading acquisition. The scholars K. Hempenstall, P.E. Bryant, R. Sensenbaugh, and some others are analysed here. In The Experimental Part of the paper, the hypothesis, that the presence of phonological awareness stimulates reading skills and vice versa, the... [to full text]

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Phonemic awareness is the ability to attend to the formal, phonetic or phonemic, aspects of spoken language. Skill in analysis of speech sounds and synthesis of phonetic segments into real words has often been found to correlate with success in reading acquisition. The nature of this relationship was investigated by postulating a causal model for the effect of phonemic awareness in kindergarten on reading and spelling skill in the first school years. The quantitative implications of this model were estimated with path-analysis in a kindergarten - grade 3 passive observational study. In order to experimentally test the effect of phonemic awareness a 8 week training program in kindergarten was evaluated using a quasi- experimental design in field settings. The effects of this program were evaluated in kindergarten, in grade 1 and in grade 2. Methodological problems in evaluation research were discussed. The results from the quasi- experimental study was further elucidated applying structural equation modeling with latent variables (LISREL). Clear effects of the training program were found on phonemic awareness tasks in grade 1 and on spelling in grade 2. More subtle effects were found on reading and spelling of simple words in grade 1. No effect was found on rapid silent word decoding. The LISREL analysis was interpreted in favour of a model with phonemic awareness effecting phonological processing which in turn is essential for the early reading development. The results were interpreted as supporting an interactive-compensatory limited capacity model of reading. Phonemic awareness helps the child to understand the alphabetical principle and ensures the development of an effective system for representing written language. Trained children find it easier to learn spelling-sound relations. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., härtill 5 uppsatser.</p> / digitalisering@umu

Converging evidence suggests that phonological awareness is at the core of reading ability. Rapid automatized naming (RAN), defined as how quickly individuals can name continuously presented familiar visual stimuli, is also known to be a strong predictor of reading performance, and reading fluency in particular. The double deficit hypothesis suggests RAN deficits represent an additional core deficit associated with the reading process. Although there are many ways to measure RAN (e.g., using letters, numbers, pictures, objects), not well established is which RAN task is most predictive of the reading fluency skills of clinic referred children. Further research is also needed to understand the relationship between RAN and general processing speed, and the extent to which RAN tasks uniquely predict the reading fluency of clinic-referred children. The purpose of the current study is to determine a) the relationships among phonemic awareness, RAN, general processing speed, and reading fluency; b) the predictive value of phonemic awareness and RAN tasks in determining reading fluency performance; c) which RAN task best predicts reading fluency; and d) if RAN tasks continue to predict reading fluency while controlling for general processing speed. 64 children from a university reading clinic were used as participants in this study. The results suggest that alphanumeric RAN task performance --and letter naming in particular-- are unique contributors to reading fluency performance in dysfluent readers. Further, the results indicate that this contribution to reading fluency extends beyond that of other theoretical components of fluency. / School of Education / School Psychology / PhD / Dissertation

This quantitative study has been derived from a five-year federal experimental research project entitled English and Literacy Acquisition (ELLA- R305P030032) which targeted Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) receiving services in English immersion and bilingual program models. The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive power of Spanish phonemic awareness in kindergarten on Spanish reading ability in first grade among Spanish-speaking ELLs. Fifty-five students from typical practice bilingual classrooms were included in this study. Phonemic awareness skills were measured using blending phonemes and segmenting words, two subtests from Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (C-TOPP). Reading ability was measured using letter-word identification and passage comprehension, two subtests from Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery-Revised (WLPB-R). Data of phonemic awareness skills were collected at the beginning and end of kindergarten and data of reading ability were collected at the beginning and end of first grade. Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were performed to address the research questions. The data from this study present a picture of a predictive power of phonemic awareness skills on reading comprehension in Spanish. Results from this study suggest that both skill areas of phonemic awareness in kindergarten have a moderate predictive effect on reading ability at the beginning of first grade. However, phonemic awareness skills in kindergarten did not show a statistically significant relationship to Spanish literacy at the end of first grade. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

This dissertation is an examination phonemic awareness and its relationship to reading ability in literate adults. Phonemic awareness is an indisputable predictor of reading ability in children, but whether the same relationship between phonemic awareness and reading exists in adult readers is unknown. All alphabetically literate adults are understood to be phonemically aware to a certain degree. Moreover, adults pay attention to sound/symbol relationships when reading. Yet, the relationship between phonemic awareness and reading ability in alphabetically literate adults has not been explicitly studied, even though phonemic awareness is understood to be a key component of reading strategy and proficiency. A study was conducted on phonemic and syllabic awareness in adults. The results indicate that adults, despite years of alphabetic reading experience, are differentiated with regard to phonemic awareness and are more syllabically aware than phonemically aware. Additionally, the study demonstrates that phonemic awareness is associated with reading ability in adults, though syllabic awareness is not. Implications and directions for future study are discussed.

<p><strong>ABSTRACT</strong></p> <p>The majority of native English-speaking students who have difficulties in reading do not have a strong foundation in phonemic awareness skills which causes their overall reading ability to be hindered. Phonemic awareness is the knowledge that words are made up of different sounds and being able to manipulate those sounds in a variety of ways. About 70 to 80% of these students have difficulty recognizing the words on the page (Moats & Tolman, 2019). A master’s degree final project was created to address this reading issue.</p> <p>The master’s project had two major parts. The first part was a survey study on the evaluation of the newly developed reading lesson and assessment materials and the second was the training handbook for teachers working with students with disabilities in reading. The specific purpose of the survey was to obtain teachers’ evaluation of newly developed phonemic awareness lesson materials. The lesson materials that were evaluated by the participants included the Phonological Awareness Screening Test (PAST), reading passages, one and two-syllable word lists, and four example lesson plans.</p> <p>The following questions that guided this survey study were (1) How do the teachers evaluate the phonemic awareness lesson materials in regard to oral reading fluency, accuracy, and decoding of third-grade special education students with disabilities? (2) What lessons and activities are elementary teachers currently implementing for phonemic awareness instruction? (3) How do phonemic awareness lesson materials align with the goal of supporting third-grade special education students’ fluency, accuracy, and decoding skills? The measurement tool used in this study was a Qualtrics survey. The survey consisted of eleven rating scale questions with open-ended questions. The rating scale was a Likert scale (one being strongly disagreed to four being strongly agreed). Each rating scale question had the option for participants to explain the reason for their rating in an open-ended question. The last five questions were open-ended questions seeking teachers’ current practices and recommendations.</p> <p>A total of 22 teachers were recruited from one elementary school in a mid-western state. The results of the survey (N=1) indicated a need for the development of systematically designed phonemic awareness teaching materials for special education teachers and their third-grade students with disabilities. Based on the extensive review of the previously published phonemic awareness materials, this author found there is no comprehensive teacher training guide that includes key information on phonemic awareness, assessments, and intervention materials. A handbook on phonemic awareness instruction was developed to provide a guide for teachers providing reading intervention to students on what phonemic awareness and related literacy components (i.e., fluency, accuracy, and decoding) are, how to assess phonemic awareness needs in students with disabilities, and how to implement direct instruction of phonemic awareness skills to improve student learning. The handbook this author created also included a section on how to prepare an IRB application for teacher candidates/teachers who are interested in conducting IRB-approved studies in their own classrooms in order to fulfill their master’s or doctoral degree requirements. </p>

The purpose of this study was to identify relationships that exist between reading ability in 3rd grade and phonological awareness in kindergarten. A second purpose was to identify specific prereading skills that best predict later reading success. This study used a quantitative research design to answer the research questions posed. The population for this research was 244 fourth grade students enrolled in 3 primary schools in a school system in Southwest Virginia. The data used for this research study were obtained from each student's score on the kindergarten Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening and the 3rd grade Virginia Standards of Learning examination in reading. Four predictor variables (rhyme awareness, letter recognition, sound-letter relationships, and concept of word) were evaluated to determine their level of predictability for later reading success. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to determine whether a significant difference in the mean score of the PALS and SOL examination in reading existed between male and female students. Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to determine whether a statistically significant relationship existed between the PALS and the SOL examination in reading. Subsequent Pearson correlation coefficients were computed to determine if a significant relationship existed between the PALS and the SOL examination in reading for female and male students. Female students were found to have a higher mean score than male students on the kindergarten PALS. Female and male students tended to score about same on the 3rd grade SOL examination in reading. PALS score and SOL score were found to be significantly related suggesting that students with high phonological awareness scores in kindergarten tended to also have high scores on the 3rd grade Virginia SOL examination in reading. A Pearson correlation coefficient also indicated that female students with high kindergarten phonological awareness scores tended to have high scores on the 3rd grade Virginia SOL examination in reading. Rhyme awareness was identified as the best early predictor of later reading ability.

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