Myth #7 -- Phoneme awareness is
a consequence (not a cause) of reading acquisition
The evidence showing the importance
of phoneme awareness to literacy acquisition is overwhelming. Still,
there are some that argue that teaching children to develop phoneme awareness
is not necessary or even beneficial. It is often argued that children
develop phoneme awareness as they learn to read, but phoneme awareness
is nothing more than a byproduct of reading acquisition. Some hold
the view that phoneme awareness instruction is "inauthentic" and "unnatural,"
and that it is completely unnecessary because phoneme awareness arises
as a result of learning to decode words -- not the other way around.
The research evidence, however,
does not support this view. It is quite clear that phoneme awareness
is a necessary pre-requisite for developing decoding skills in an alphabetic
writing system such as English. Phoneme awareness in the early grades is
one of the best predictors of future reading success. All successful
readers have phoneme awareness. People who do not have phoneme awareness
are always poor readers, and poor readers almost never have phoneme awareness
(almost never -- phoneme awareness is necessary but not sufficient for
reading success). However, the most compelling evidence for the importance
of phoneme awareness stems from the research that has shown that when children
are taught to develop phoneme awareness, they are more likely to develop
good word decoding skills, and they develop those skills faster and earlier
than children who are not taught to be aware of phonemes in spoken words.
Given the importance of finding
developmentally appropriate ways of helping children to develop foundational
reading skills as early as possible (see the Matthew Effect discussion
in Myth #2), assessment of phoneme awareness should begin early, and games
and lessons that help children to develop an awareness of phonemes in speech
should be used to help those that need it.
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