I find using analogies helpful when I am teaching. I recently shared one of the ones I have used with my students in the past with other educators and it received a positive response. The response from that conversation gave me the inspiration to write this post!

 

What are Phonemes?

Before discussing my analogy, let’s have a brief review of what phonemes are and why phonemic awareness is so important.

 

The English language is an alphabetic writing system and that means it uses alphabetic letters to represent the individual sounds (phonemes) found in words. English has roughly 44 phonemes and each of these phonemes in isolation is pronounced in a predictable consistent way (the number of phonemes varies depending on who you talk to and what dialect is spoken).

 

Someone is considered to be phonemically aware if they are able to focus on and manipulate the sounds in words.

 

Numerous studies over decades of research have shown how important phonemic awareness is to reading development and how it is one of the best predictors of later reading development during the first two years of formal education (e.g. Share, Jorm, Maclean & Matthews, 1984).

 

Phonemic awareness is a skill that does not develop on its own until children begin to learn how to read (e.g. Adams, 1991; Liberman, Rubin, Duques & Carlisle, 1985; Mann, 1986).

 

Many students need to be directly taught the skills needed to be considered phonemically aware. This is where the analogy between phonemes and colours comes in.

 

Remember when I said that in isolation, phonemes have one way the mouth forms to pronounce them. Individuals who struggle with phonemic awareness may have to be shown what position their mouth needs to make in order to make the sound.
Unfortunately, when we speak these phonemes in words, the manner in which we say them is not as precise because they are influenced by the sounds around them.

 

How Phonemes and Colours are related

This is where my analogy comes in.

When I talk to students about phonemes, I like to tell them that phonemes are like colours. They can sound (look different) depending on the sounds (colours) around them.

When we say them on their own, we pronounce them in their ‘true’ form.

When we put them beside other phonemes the sound can be made a little different because we are blending it together with the other sounds in the word ‘colours’ the sound of the phoneme.

While practicing the example below, make sure you also pay attention to the Garforth Education image in the square.

For example, look in the mirror when you say the sound /s/.

Now look in the mirror when you say the word ‘see’. Even though it starts with the phoneme /s/, your lips form more of a smile when you say the first phoneme in ‘see’.

 

Now look in the mirror when you say the word ‘so’. Again, even though it starts with the /s/ phoneme, your mouth is rounder than it was when you just pronounced the /s/ by itself.

 

Do you think the logo in the different coloured squares is the same each time? I can promise you that it is, all I did was change the background colour. This can give the illusion of the logo being a different colour because of the background.

This is the same thing that happens with phonemes in words.

 

Reference:
Adams, M. J. (1991). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. MIT press.

Liberman, I. Y., Rubin, H., Duques, S., & Carlisle, J. (1985). Linguistic abilities and spelling proficiency in kindergartners and adult poor spellers. Biobehavioral measures of dyslexia, 1, 163-176.

Mann, V. A. (1993). Phoneme awareness and future reading ability. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 26(4), 259-269.

Moats, L. C. (2020). Speech to print: Language Essentials for Teachers (3rd Ed). Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Seidenberg, M. (2017). Language at the Speed of Sight: How we Read, Why so Many CanÕt, and what can be done about it. Basic Books.

Share, D. L., Jorm, A. F., Maclean, R., & Matthews, R. (1984). Sources of individual differences in reading acquisition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(6), 1309.

Be sure to check out more graphics for these morphemes on our Facebook, InstagramPinterest, and Twitter pages.

If there is anything we can do or post to help you learn more about the importance of morphological awareness (or any other topic for that matter) please send an email to blog@garfortheducation.com

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