LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:10 October 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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A Few Phonological Awareness Skills in 6-8 Year Old
Typically Developing English Speaking Children

Neethu Chacko
Satish Kumaraswamy

Abstract

This paper discusses the phonological awareness skills in 6-8 year old typically developing English speaking children. Phonological awareness is the ability to break words into separate sounds. A child who has phonological awareness can tell you when two words rhyme and when two words start with the same sound. Further development of phonological awareness will allow the child to tell you when two words end with the same sound (Eleanor, 2009). In the Indian context several studies relating to aspects of phonology have been studied extensively, but studies regarding phonological awareness skills have been explored to a lesser extent. This study aimed to describe phonological awareness skills (syllable blending and syllable segmentation) in typically developing children who are learning Indian English as L1. 20 Indian English speaking children in the range of 6-8 years were randomly selected from various schools in Mangalore. All subjects were monolingual and English was their medium of education. The study showed that within and across the age groups,younger children (6 years) were sensitive to larger linguistic units but less so to smaller linguistic units and older children (8 years) were sensitive to both larger and smaller linguistic units. Since these skills act as a precursor for learning to read and spell,it is very important to know the development of these skills in the age range of 6-8 years

Keywords: Phonological awareness skills, Indian studies on phonological awareness, monolingual, sensitivity to larger units and smaller units.

Introduction

Phonological awareness has been the topic of interest among researchers because of its intimate and intricate relationship with primary literacy acquisition skills such as reading and spelling. It is viewed as a bridge between language and literacy (Morais, 1989) and the enormous research progress achieved on this topic promoted to call it “a scientific success story” (Stanovich, 1988).

Phonological awareness is the ability to break words into separate sounds. A child who has phonological awareness can tell you when two words rhyme and when two words start with the same sound. Further development of phonological awareness will allow the child to tell you when two words end with the same sound (Eleanor, 2009).

Phonological awareness is the conscious sensitivity to the sound structure of language. It includes the ability to auditorily distinguish units of speech, such as a word's syllables and a syllable's individual phonemes. The ability to segment and blend phonemes is critical for the development of decoding skills, reading fluency and spelling. (http:// www.speech–language–development.com)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Neethu Chacko
Dr. M. V. Shetty College of Speech and Hearing
Malady Court
Kavoor, Mangalore – 575 015
Karnataka
India
neethususa@gmail.com

Satish Kumaraswamy
Assistant Professor and Research Scholar
Dr. M. V. Shetty College of Speech and Hearing
Malady Court
Kavoor, Mangalore – 575 015
Karnataka
India
Sat8378@yahoo.com
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