CASTRO, Kevin Cedrick R.

Bachelor on Secondary Education (English and SPED)

2010-06974 23 September 2011

Development of Phonological Awareness Jason L. Anthony and David J. Francis Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2005

I. INTRODUCTION

A childs language starts when he cries to ask for something from his mother. As time passes by, he shifted this cries into babbling or cooing, a sign that hes exploring the organs of speech that he has ever since. As days turn into months, the child slowly learns the concept of imitation, and as they become years, he starts engaging in what might be called linguistic experimentation. When the child grows older, he starts to notice the different significant units which turn out to be vital in acquiring the language. Thus, the term phonological awareness comes into action. Jason L. Anthony and David J. Francis summarized on their report, Development of Phonological Awareness, how ones phonological awareness, or the degree of sensitivity to the sound structure of oral language, develops in a normal manner. They have collated a number of multidisciplinary and cross-cultural researches and reports conducted and made by different authors who are eminent in the field of linguistics, and have come up with a summation on what really phonological awareness is, how the general sequence of phonological awareness development goes, and how oral and written language affects ones phonological awareness development.

II. SUMMARY

There are two overlapping patterns of phonological awareness evident according to Anthony and Francis. First, children become increasingly sensitive to much smaller units of the word as they grow older. Second, children can detect similar- and dissimilar-sounding words before they can manipulate sounds within words, and children, in general, can synthesize phonological information before they can analyze these. They also discern that children hone the phonological awareness skills they have already acquired while they are learning new one. The oral- and written-language experiences of the children, especially those which take place prior to their formal literacy instruction, highly influence the individuals rate of phonological awareness development. The saliency and complexity of word structures, phoneme positions, and articulatory factors are some of the oral-language features which affect a childs phonological awareness. With the written-language attributes, learning the names and sounds of letters and a words spelling-to-sound relation have an effect on their phonological awareness, especially the development of phoneme awareness, or the ability to manipulate individual sounds in words. The report also substantiates the reciprocity between learning to read and developing phonological awareness, stating that phonological awareness is at its peak when the child learns to decode the alphabet, and that reading and writing impart feedback which has great impact on his phonological awareness development.

III. REACTION

This article exhibits to us (through a number of case studies and researches) two theories on the nature of language development: John Watson and B.F. Skinners Behaviorist Theory and Jean Piagets Cognitive Theory. The Behaviorist Theory conveys to us that language, or the components of it, are learned through conditioning and reinforcement of the childs environment. In relation with the development of childs phonological awareness, the report clearly shows us how the linguistic environment affects the childs acquisition of phonological features through the concept of behaviorism. In understanding the Behaviorist Theory, one must keep in mind that languages differ from each other. Children who speak Turkish, Greek or Italian have acquired a different set of phonological, morphemic and syntactic information from those who have English or French as their language. Suffice to say, the parents of a child who speaks Italian will condition their child to the set of phonological rules intended only for the speakers of Italian. The parents of a child who speaks English will reinforce their child towards the mastery of the phonological information of the English language. With this logic, we can see the border line dividing the languages and the different phonological knowledge that children of different countries have acquired depending on the conditioning and reinforcement of their corresponding environment. This explains why children who speak Turkish, Greek, or Italian attain syllable awareness more quickly than children who speak French or English. This is due to the fact that the former have relatively simple syllable structures, more limited vowel repertoires, and better-marked syllable boundaries than the latter do. The rate of phonological awareness development of children differs due to what has been conditioned to their mind as speakers of a certain language. On the other hand, Jean Piagets Cognitive Theory shows that language is a form of cognition it follows a certain structure that a child must experience first before proceeding to the next area. This is apparent to the general sequence observed by linguists and researchers

on the development of phonological awareness. It is universal across languages the idea that phonological awareness develops from large units of sound to small units of sound. A child can perceive first a syllable before he can identify onsets (initial consonant or consonant cluster present in a word) and rimes (remaining vowel and consonant). A child can detect that cat and bat have the same sound ending before they can perceive that removing the sound s from the word sink will produce a new word, which is ink. This is true for the oral language of children since they cannot articulate yet what is left from a word if a sound is taken away from it until the age of 5. There are many conditions affecting ones language development, one of which is a persons social environment. Comprised of the people whom the child socializes with all the time (e.g. parents, caregiver, siblings, relatives and teachers) and of the media he is exposed to (e.g. books and television), the childs environment, as shown in Anthony and Francis paper, is significant to the childs phonological awareness development. His linguistic environment influences the rate in which a child will develop that skill of recognizing the sound structures of a certain language, may it be the most basal or more complicated ones. Even before the child starts going to school, he can still acquire different phonological skills if the environment permits him to do so. If the people around the child reinforces and conditions him to learn the letter sounds from the alphabet, development of phonological awareness takes place. Typically, phonological awareness develops when the child attends a school. Being an environment rich in oral and written language experiences, the school is truly a perfect place to develop ones phonological awareness. However, I do believe that it is better for a child to experience this phenomenon before he goes to school. Just like what I stated earlier, phonological awareness development will occur once the environment initiates and permits it. Even though children has the Language Acquisition Device, or most commonly known as LAD, the home must still make sure that children be exposed to various language experiences. The parents can converse with their child. Educational videos on how to pronounce word or on how

to write letters can also trigger the childs phonological awareness. The childs home must provide sufficient language experiences, may it be oral or written, before he attends formal classes in schools. I find the content of this report very beneficial for parents, teachers, and caregivers of children whose age ranges from 1 6 years old. The concepts in this 5-page report paper are presented in a way that even a person who has no background on linguistics will be able to grasp the whole idea of phonological awareness. The language used fits the language known by the majority of Filipino students. If the occurrence of technical terms and jargons cannot be avoided, the authors make sure that they explained these terms in a level that can be reached by lay people. After the concise yet comprehensive explanations of the development of phonological awareness, the authors concluded the article with the implications posed by phonological awareness development on literacy acquisition. It also points out the significance of assessing phonological awareness among children. This will serve as early identification of children who are at risk of having reading problems. Finally, improvement of literacy instruction is possible if educators have knowledge of such development. Phonological awareness and reading literacy are researched to be highly correlated with each other. With these in mind, I, as future educator, will keep in mind that developing this phonological awareness will also yield an improvement in the childs literacy. As part of the childs environment, we must reinforce them to acquire the mastery of these phonological skills. As part of the childs environment, we must make sure that the atmosphere of the community he belongs to promote total development of phonological awareness. As part of the childs environment, we must be responsible enough to facilitate his acquisition of language. Collaboration between the home, school, and the community will truly bring out the best for each and every child.