Phonemics vs. Phonics

Word Identification Strategies, Barbara Fox

One thing I struggled with in the reading this week was the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics. After reading the explanation on page 28 several times,

“Phonemic awareness pertains to awareness of the sounds in spoken language, while phonics pertains to the relationship among letters and sounds…”

I was stumped. I read further in the chapter, then came back and still didn't understand. I finished the chapter, took a break, and finally came back to it later. It was then that I had an “aha” moment. It suddenly became clear that phonemic awareness pertains only to the sounds made by a single or multiple letters in words, not to the knowing the actual letters themselves. It is phonics that is the understanding how those sounds represent letters. Once I realized this, I re-read the chapter and it made much more sense until I got to this quote that once again left me puzzled.

“Phonemic awareness helps children realize that the sounds they hear in spoken words are represented by the letter in written words.” (p. 42)

So wait, doesn’t this just say the opposite of what page 28 said? Isn’t it phonics that helps kids learn that sounds are represented by letters when you write words down? I know that the development of phonemic awareness and phonics do feed each other so, maybe, this passage is really highlighting that relationship. I must think on this some more, which brings me to the question for Chapter 3 this week.

Based on your experience and your reading of this chapter, do you think "invented spelling" (in which children spell words the way they think they sound) helps or hinders young readers?

I think that “invented spelling” helps most young readers because it encourages them to think about words, sounds, and letters. Children who puzzle it out themselves will learn better than those who are just told how to spell a word. Those who try to figure it out themselves will spend time exercising their “cognitive muscles” to figure out the sounds they are hearing and think about what letters can represent those sounds. They are doing this in contexts that are (hopefully) relevant to them because they are writing something they want to express. They are engaged in learning. And so, like me with phonemic awareness and phonics, they will come to a deeper and, perhaps, more lasting understanding.

I will add one thing that I have found in working with young learners. For those students with speech problems, figuring out the sounds in words they want to write, as well as sounding out the letters in words they see in print, can be challenging when their pronunciation of the letter sound does not match with the actual letter sound.