Both phonological and phonemic awareness are essential for developing reading and writing skills but differentiating between them isn’t always straightforward. As a Grade 4 teacher always on the lookout for effective literacy resources, understanding the difference between the two is crucial to helping my students, especially those who are below the reading benchmark.
Spotlight on Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness zeroes in on the smallest units of sound in spoken words: the phonemes. The English language has 44 phonemes represented by each letter of the alphabet and the combination of letters, such as /sh/ or /ee/. Strong phonemic awareness, or hearing and identifying individual sounds within a word, is a key predictor of later reading success because it directly impacts your students’ ability to decode words. For example, I teach students to isolate the /t/ sound at the beginning of tag, the /ă/ sound in the middle and the /g/ sound at the end, and blend them together to say tag. Only when students grasp phonemes well can they effectively manipulate the sounds to form and re-form words.
| KEY DIFFERENCES | Phonemic Awareness | Phonological Awareness |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Narrower and focuses on the manipulation of individual phonemes | Broader and includes different types of sound awareness |
| Complexity | Requires more advanced manipulation of sounds—critical for learning to read and spell | Activities like rhyming or syllable counting |
| Instructional Focus | Activities are more directly tied to improving reading and spelling abilities | Provides the foundation for phonemic awareness |
Practical Application in the Classroom
In our teaching journey, we often start with vowels because they’re centrally placed in most words, then move on to consonants. This combination naturally leads to creating CVC words, and later on, more complex structures like CVVC (consonant–vowel–vowel–consonant) words like beak. Tricky sounds such as ought or -tion are also part of this learning curve.
Word families are incredibly useful here. By teaching students to move consonants and vowels around, they become adept at recognizing patterns and applying their skills flexibly. Auditory reinforcement—hearing and saying words aloud—plays a significant role too.
During whole class or small group instruction, we practice routines such as identifying the sound /sh/ in shack. I encourage students to say the word out loud, then break it down. We stop, think, and manipulate these sounds, which is a crucial routine and skill that builds strong phonological awareness over time.
It’s incredibly rewarding to see students make connections, manipulate sounds, and become more confident readers. By focusing on phonemic and phonological awareness, we can empower our students with the foundational skills they need to succeed.
