Integrating Letters into Phoneme Awareness Instruction

Research Integrating Letters into Phoneme Awareness Instruction Phoneme awareness is an insight into oral language . As such, teachers should design lessons and activities that guide children to notice and reflect on speech, specifically the sounds of speech . Many activities conducted entirely orally or make use of manipulatives can prompt and heighten this attention . Yet, it is also valuable to integrate letters into phoneme awareness instruction (Foorman et al . 2016); in fact, doing so can advance and refine both children’s letter knowledge and their phoneme awareness . When letters are included, phoneme awareness and phonics instruction are co-occurring . We need to offer a caution here . It is crucial teachers understand that simply teaching lettersound correspondences or having an activity focus primarily on letters with little attention to sounds as a part of oral language is not the same as teaching phoneme awareness . For the latter to be occurring, attention must be devoted to sounds within speech . In fact, Moats (2020) suggests that teachers “work with phonemes, not letters, until you are sure [children] can ‘tune into’ speech” (Moats 2020, p . 81) . Shanahan (2020) states that inclusion of letters is beneficial, but children need to be able to “perceive . . .phonemes by ear alone . ” We provide options for letter connections in the phoneme awareness section of this book . We encourage teachers to use the activities without letters initially to ensure a focus on spoken sounds . Once children begin to learn about letters, incorporate them into the activities as suggested . However, don’t hesitate to continue using the oral-only versions on occasion . Consider using them during a designated time for phonemic awareness development as well as during transition times or in locations where no letter cards are available, such as on the playground or in a cafeteria . Guidance on letter-sound instruction is beyond the scope of this book . However, we share two features of letters here that may be beneficial when you integrate letters into phoneme awareness instruction . Phonological Awareness Development (cont.) sample m a t 22

Research

Integrating Letters into Phoneme

Awareness Instruction (cont.) First, relationships between a letter’s name and the sound it represents vary . Some letter names begin with the sound the letter commonly represents . For example, the letter name for the symbol t is pronounced with an initial /t/—/tē/ . Some letter names end with the sound they commonly represent . For example, the letter name for the symbol f is pronounced with the /f/ sound in the final position—/ĕf/ . And, some letter names do not contain the sound the letter commonly represents at all . For example, the letter name h does not include the /h/ sound—it is pronounced /āch/ . What does this mean for instruction? Research suggests that letter-sound correspondences are generally more difficult to learn in cases where the letter name does not contain the relevant phoneme . When the letter name does contain the relevant phoneme, letter-sound correspondences in which the sound is in the initial position of the letter name are easier to learn than when it is in the final position (Treiman et al . 2008) . The following chart displays these differences in order from easier (first row) to more difficult (last row) to learn . Teachers should anticipate cases where more support is likely needed .

Letter names that begin with the letter sound

b, d, j, k, p, t, v, z, c (when representing /s/ as in city) g (when representing /j/ as in giant)

Letter names that end with the letter sound f, l, m, n, r, s, x

Letter names that do not contain the letter sound

c (exception noted above), g (exception noted above), h, q, w, y The second feature of letters that is beneficial for teachers to know is that some letters are visually quite similar . Consider the lowercase letters b, d, p, and q; t and f; or h, m, and n . Uppercase examples are M, N, and W; C and G; or O and Q . Initially, use letter connections in which the letters are visually dissimilar to avoid confusion . Phonological Awareness Development (cont.) sample