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Phonemes are the smallest units in spoken language that change the meaning of words,
for example /b/ and /h/ in
bat
and
hat
. Phonemes represent distinct sounds in words,
eg the word
go
has two phonemes /g/ and o, the spoken word
check
has three phonemes
/ch/ /e/ /ck/ (National Inquiry 2005).
Teachers should place particular emphasis on the following aspects of phonemic awareness:
• joining phonemes together to make words (blending) which is particularly important
to reading
• segmenting words into phonemes which is particularly important for spelling (CIERA 2002).
Once students have acquired some letter–sound relationships, teachers should program
phonemic awareness activities that correspond with reading and spelling. This assists students
to develop a knowledge of the relationship between sounds and their printed representation
(DET 2009).
The following are examples of effective procedures for teaching oral blending and segmenting.
Blending
The teacher:
• explains that oral blending will help students to join sounds together to make words
• models how to blend sounds, eg ‘Listen to these sounds /r
/
/a
/
/n
/
.
I’ll join them together fast to make a word … rrraaannn. The word is ran.’
• provides students with opportunities to practise blending, starting with easier sounds,
progressing to more difficult sounds, for example:
– continuous sounds such as /r/, /l/, /s/, /z/, /f/, /v/, /n/, /m/, /ng/ and
vowel sounds, eg run and ran
– stop sounds such as /t/, /p/, /b/, /c/ and vowel sounds (eg cat, bat, pat)
Note:
It is more difficult to blend stop sounds at the beginning of a word.
– a combination of continuous and stop sounds, and vowels
•
This assists students to understand the relationship between phonemes and graphemes
(letters that represent phonemes) (National Inquiry 2005)
• provides opportunities for students to blend sounds to make easier words (eg vc, cvc),
progressing to more difficult words (eg ccvc, cvcc, etc)
• provides students with multiple and varied examples to assist with generalisation.
Segmenting
Students should be provided with opportunities to segment words without pauses
(stretching a word), prior to opportunities to segment with a pause between each unit of
sound. This is because segmenting without a pause is easier than segmenting with a pause
between each phoneme (Carnine et al 2010).
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Support Materials for Students with Special Education Needs
English K–6
R
eading
IMPLEMENTATION