Why Phonological Awareness Is Important for Reading
and Spelling
By: Louisa Moats and Carol Tolman
Phonological awareness is critical
for learning to read any alphabetic writing system. And research shows that
difficulty with phoneme awareness and other phonological skills is a predictor
of poor reading and spelling development.
The phonological processor usually
works unconsciously when we listen and speak. It is designed to extract the
meaning of what is said, not to notice the speech sounds in the words. It is
designed to do its job automatically in the service of efficient
communication. But reading and spelling require a level of metalinguistic
speech that is not natural or easily acquired.
On the other hand, phonological
skill is not strongly related to intelligence. Some very intelligent people
have limitations of linguistic awareness, especially at the phonological level.
Take heart. If you find phonological tasks challenging, you are competent in
many other ways!
This fact is well proven:
Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read any alphabetic writing
system (Ehri, 2004; Rath, 2001; Troia, 2004). Phonological awareness is even
important for reading other kinds of writing systems, such as Chinese and
Japanese. There are several well-established lines of argument for the
importance of phonological skills to reading and spelling.
