One complicated extended family: the influence of alphabetic knowledge and vocabulary on phonemic awareness

Abstract

This research evaluated possible sources of individual differences in early explicit, smaller segment phonological awareness. In particular, the unique contributions of oral vocabulary and alphabetic knowledge to phonemic awareness acquisition were examined across the first year of school. A total of 57 participants were tested in kindergarten (mean age 5 years, 8 months) and again 1 year later midway through Grade 1. Results revealed that oral vocabulary and alphabetic knowledge were correlated with concurrent larger segment phonological awareness and phonemic blending in kindergarten whereas oral vocabulary was the only measure that predicted unique variance in phonemic awareness into Grade 1. Further, this pattern of results was most pronounced for analytic (segmenting), as opposed to synthetic (blending), phonemic awareness. These results highlight the importance of different component processes to explicit, smaller segment awareness depending upon the developmental period under study and also accentuate the need to separate analytic from synthetic phonemic awareness in literacy research.

Screening Protocol for Early Identification of Brazilian Children at Risk for Dyslexia

“…With regard to Phonemic awareness, as mentioned by Silvén et al (2002) , this finding may support the assumption that conscious access to speech patterns is influenced, at least indirectly, by advances in implicit phonetic and phonotactic representations that can be related to language development during the 1st year of life. Ouellette and Haley (2013) stated that the principal motivation for considering the role of vocabulary in the emergence of phonemic awareness could be associated with the first words stored in mental lexicon. As new words are added, segmental representation becomes necessary so that similar sounding items are not confused with each other.…”

“…Thus, the 2nd factor was comprised the following tests: Phonemic Synthesis, Phonemic analysis, Rapid Naming Speed using pictures, and Reading of words and non-words. As described by Ouellette and Haley (2013) , phonemic awareness can also be categorized based on how it is being used. Specifically, explicit awareness at the level of the phoneme includes both analytic (ability to break a word down into constituent sounds) and synthetic skills (combining sounds together to make a larger segment, such as word).…”

Facilitadores del proceso de aprendizaje de la escritura en las primeras edades

“…We have found that the implemented program helped to increase the development of the different components of oral language (form, content and use), a fact highlighted as there are numerous studies indicating that written language is based on the domain of spoken language (Defior 2008;Ouellette and Haley, 2013;Guarneros and Vega, 2014), so that the higher the oral language level, the easier it will be to access the segmental units of spoken language and association of the phoneme-grapheme correspondence processes.…”

Testing the model of reading literacy

“…These are phonological awareness, letter-speech-sound processing and rapid automatized naming (RAN). Phonological awareness has been in the focus of much research as a key element in early literacy acquisition and an important and reliable predictor of later reading ability (Furnes & Samuelsson, 2011;Oulette & Haley, 2013;Shanahan, 2012). Phonological awareness is an umbrella term (Goswami & Bryant, 1990) used to refer to sensitivity to the sound structure of oral language and the ability to identify, discriminate and manipulate units of oral language (Sénéchal, Ouellette, & Young, 2004).…”

“…It develops from the ability to manipulate larger linguistic units (e.g., syllables) to eventual smaller phonological segment awareness (Carroll, Snowling, Hulme, & Stevenson, 2003;Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). Sensitivity to the smaller segments of individual speech sounds is referred to as phonemic awareness, distinguishing it from the more encompassing term, phonological awareness (Oulette & Haley, 2013). Phonemic awareness also encompasses "rudimentary phonological skills" (Anthony & Francis, 2005, p. 255), such as recognizing that two words rhyme and have a sound in common (Anthony & Francis, 2005;Goswami & Bryant, 1990).…”