Introduction
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, recognize and maneuver phonemes which are the basic units of sound that help in meaning differentiation through the separation of a spoken word into distinct phonemes. Phonemic awareness helps children’s reading, comprehension as well as spelling. It also forms the basis for learning phonics but should not take the form of memorization. Phonics instruction on the other hand is a mode of teaching that emphasizes the attainment of letter-sound matching in reading and spelling with the view of helping beginners comprehend how letters are related to phonemes. (Chall, 1967)
Essay Body
Meta-analysis has revealed that phonics instruction creates substantial benefits for learners between grade six and kindergarten as well as those with learning difficulties in text decoding and oral spelling. It also improves the alphabetic knowledge of students with a low socio-economic background especially in kindergarten learners through an enjoyable, exciting and creative teaching mode. Phonemic awareness and instruction have the impacts of improving the acquisition of oral segmenting and blending; phoneme isolation, substitution and identity; onset-rime manipulation and sound removal. These two areas have also had a great impact on the knowledge of sound substitution and sound switching that involves the manipulation of phoneme order. (Chall, 1967)
Comprehension is the multifaceted cognitive process that involves the deliberate interaction between a learner and text so as to extract meaning. However comprehension requires common language understanding skills and the capacity to precisely and smoothly identify written words. Findings justify that vocabulary instructions determine the level of comprehension depending on the age and language abilities of the reader. Comprehension strategies are useful in improving levels of understanding and can be improved by teaching students to use specific cognitive strategies. Comprehension works best when learners are exposed to a combination of learning techniques. Comprehension is best taught when students are induced with an intensive understanding of fluency; phonics; vocabulary; and phonics awareness. Comprehension is also well taught using individualized plans that help determine areas of skill deficit, strengths and the degree of reading power of learners. Comprehension is also well taught when provisions are made for students with learning disabilities. (Chall, 1967)
Vocabulary is the understanding of explicit words presented in oral or written language. It gives the ability to gain meaning, understanding new concepts, and reading to learn. Vocabulary has the impact of giving learners the reception of words so as to be able to understand what is being presented in text. Another impact of vocabulary is that the need to understand words used by teachers or their surrogates is helpful in reading acquisition. Vocabulary has the impact of improving reading acquisition as learners get it indirectly from spoken language; listening to adults reading and direct reading. Repetitive exposure to sources of vocabulary contributes to a students reading acquisition and the exposure improves the reading capability of weaker students.
Vocabulary is best learnt through the exposure to a variety of sources that include text, oral and visual modes; and is helpful in sound instruction. Vocabulary is best taught based on standardized tests that also provide a baseline for its testing. The methodologies to be used also should be able to give accommodations for students with disabilities as well as allowing instructors to provide learners with many opportunities to read; both in and out of school especially the three types of words. Students should also be actively and directly involved in meaning construction rather than memorizing explanations as well as being aware of which learning task they are taking. (Baker & Brown, 1984)
Fluency is the capability to read writings automatically, with ease, correctly and without cognizant effort and concentration. The impacts that fluency has on reading reception include that it dictates the extent to which an individual can learn because it has a direct effect on the speed, rightness and effort used in reading. Fluency is acquired through personal silent reading therefore directly improves the levels of reading reception in the process. Developing fluency directly increases levels of comprehension there fore improving the levels of reading reception. Fluency is best taught based on standardized measures that can be used to monitor learners’ progress in this area. It should also be taught using methods that best accommodate the needs of learners with disabilities and also should involve one-on-one interaction with the learner so as to find out weakness areas of different students. Fluency is best taught clearly and analytically by giving learners a chance to re-read passages out loud, by using comprehensions that are within the learners decoding array and allowing students to listen to passages on tape. (Baker & Brown, 1984)
First grade is the first school year in primary education and is usually taken by students between 6 and 7 years. These students are normally taught the basics of literacy that include sentence reading, putting down very easy statements into writing and alphabet mastery. This class is characterized by phonemic awareness that forms the basis of learning where a child is taught understand that “a” corresponds to the sound “a” as in aunt. Listening forms the basic skill and it helps students understand that letters and sounds as associated before they understand that words are formed from this connectedness. After phonemic awareness phonics comes in to let the student learn that letters form words when coupled for example “c”, “a” and “b” to form “cab” through decoding and combination of sounds. After blending of words is achieved, reading words joined in sentences is achieved but meaning is given emphasis therefore introduction of vocabulary and its development. After this the level of comprehension is achieved after reading of sentences has been mastered. (Adams, Foorman, Lundberg, & Beeler, 1998)
Third grade is the third primary school year consisting of students 8 to 9 years old. Students in this class learn more on passage comprehension than decoding techniques; reading and differentiating between different genres like fiction and fantasy. The students in this class engage in reading that involves the cognitive process of symbol decoding for comprehension and meaning construction. In writing they engage in textual presentation of phonetic elements of speech, presenting ideas in drawings, paintings and language perception from non-textual media. At this level students are capable of using individual sounds to create words through phonemic awareness and have an improved understanding of phonics therefore capable of understanding the relationship between spoken sounds and written words in text comprehension. Fluency is better achieved at this stage than in first grade as the learners are capable of recognizing words automatically and capable of understanding short sentences and phrases. Vocabulary in this grade is better developed and comprehension is the area of concentration towards meaning construction. (Chall, 1967)
Fifth grade is the fifth primary school year and consists of students between 10 to 11 years old who in languages are taken through grammar which involves the composition of sentences and phrases through the use of phonetics and phonology. On the area of comprehension students should be able to determine and explain a writer’s view in writing the text they read. The vocabulary of fifth grade learners should be built enough to understand figurative language like similes and idioms through meaning connection. Fifth grade learners should have a deep knowledge on phonemic awareness; phonics and be fluent in reading and this can be determined from the high levels of vocabulary and comprehension. (Adams, Foorman, Lundberg, & Beeler, 1998)
Phonemic awareness development in first grade is minimal and limited to the formation of simple words like “cat”; while in third grade learners can form complex words like “train”. In fifth grade learners are capable of forming complex sentences from different sounds easily. (Adams, Foorman, Lundberg, & Beeler, 1998)
Phonics knowledge in first grade is limited to interpreting simple sounds into letters, while in third grade learners can relate complex sounds and letters in words enabling them to recognize familiar words. In fifth grade learners are able recognize complex words used in sentences. (Baker & Brown, 1984)
Reading fluency in first grade is limited to a few words the child is familiar to, like “mum” while in third grade learners can fluently read short sentences and phrases fluently. In fifth grade learners are excellent in reading written text and only have difficulties in reading very complex words. (Baker & Brown, 1984)
Vocabulary in first grade learners is limited to a few common words while in third grade learners vocabulary is built to understanding words and phrases on different topics. In fifth grade learners vocabulary is built in different genres like fiction and fantasy. (Baker & Brown, 1984)
Comprehension in first grade learners is very limited to words and simple sentences while in third grade comprehension of short sentences and phrases has been achieved. In fifth grade learners levels of comprehension are developed to the extent of understanding literal work like poems. (Armbruster, Anderson, & Meyer, 1991)
A first grade classroom would have beautifully colored names and pictures of common things like days, animals, nature, toys, houses, shapes, materials that are used for counting and a teacher’s desk within the class. A third grade would have desks set up to form tables for the purpose of group work; pictures and paintings of things like trees but generally the class is less colored and painted thus looking more formal. A third grade class will also have places designated for different groups and clubs activities and a teacher’s desk within the class. A fifth grade class will have desks arranged in a formal order, a board where the teacher writes, hangings of maps and other learning charts, paintings done by students, color charts and a teachers writing and rubbing materials. (Baker & Brown, 1984)
Conclusion
The five components of learning form a mode for learning and testing of learners levels of understanding and their efficient use affects the levels of reading attained by the different students. However the methods of teaching these components depend on the different need s of students and class being taught. As discussed these components also develop in a continuum through the different levels of study and this can also be seen from the different classroom settings.
Reference
Adams, M., Foorman, B., Lundberg, I., & Beeler, T. (1998) Phonemic awareness in young children. Baltimore: Brookes.
Armbruster, B., Anderson, T., & Meyer, J. (1991). Improving content-area reading using instructional graphics. Reading Research Quarterly, 26(4), 393–416.
Baker, L., & Brown, A. (1984). Metacognitive skills and reading. In P. Pearson, M. Kamil, R. Barr, & P. Mosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of reading research. New York: Longman.
Chall, J. (1967). Learning to read: The great debate. New York: McGraw Hill.