Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness

Phonological awareness- The sound structure of speech and the way the sounds of language operate and are produced. The phonological aspects of language include intonation, stress and timing as well as words, syllables, and phonemes (Hill, 2006, pp 116-119).
Phonemic awareness- The insight that every spoken word can be conceived as a sequence of phonemes. Phonemic awareness is important for understanding the alphabetic principle (Hill, 2006, pp117-119).
Phonological awareness can be developed by a student through word play with sounds in language such as, “make, lake, cake”. This enthralls many young students. This interest in sounds, continue as children listen and learn different nursery rhymes, jingles and songs. Their awareness and interest in sound helps them to identify and play with words and sounds.
Phonemic awareness is basically the awareness that phonemes exist and is a small but very important part of learning to read and write. There are 44 phonemes in the English language (Hill, 2006, pp 117-123).
Phonemes are usually written like this, /s/. For example the word, /h /a/ /t/, has 3 phonemes.



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(Hill, S 2006, Developing Early Literacy: Assessment and teaching, Eleanor Curtain Publishing, Prahran)
Picture - http://www.rourkeclassroom.com/friendly-phonics/samples.html