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Date Posted: 19:54:49 06/13/07 Wed
Author: Marianna Muzzi NOITE
Subject: TASK FOUR MARIANNA MUZZI NOITE

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Faculdade de Letras
Disciplina: Produção de Texto – Inglês
Aluna: Marianna Amoroso Lima Muzzi
TASK FOUR
Learning a skill – Reading difficulties

The importance of phonological awareness

Information has a high value in today’s world and people are always seeking to get in touch with updated news. And the best way to have access to it is through written language. Because of that, many people learn a second language in order to be able to read in that language. However, reading a text is not a simple task. Many students run into difficulties when reading texts in English. They might have a good lexical or grammatical knowledge, but they do not establish phonological awareness, which is the key factor to successful reading.
To a certain extent lexical and grammatical knowledge have an important role in reading comprehension. As Hennings (2000) affirms words are build blocks of meaning. “Research indicates that knowledge of words, ability to access that knowledge efficiently, and ability to integrate new concepts into existing conceptual schemata are key factors in reading and listening comprehension.” Hirsch (2003) states that vocabulary shows a close relationship with reading and oral comprehension. Besides that, knowing grammatical structures is also important to develop reading skills.
However, opponents of this idea claim that reading is not just a matter of understanding the meaning of the words and grammatical structures. They sustain that phonological awareness is more important than this. Carroll, Snowling, Hulme & Stevenson (2003) affirm that “Phonological awareness is one of the most important predictors of reading”. According to Yopp (2000) “Phonological awareness is the awareness of the sound structure of a language in general”. Gombert (1992) suggests that phonological awareness can be separated into epilinguistic awareness and metalinguistic awareness. The “epilinguistic awareness consists of a global sensitivity to similarities between speech sounds, and metalinguistic awareness consists of a conscious awareness of phonological segments within words, normally phonemes”.
They have a point in thinking like that. Most second language students do not understand the whole text, but they do understand its global meaning. Therefore, “They use global sound-processing strategies when solving phonological awareness tasks” (Carroll, Snowling, Hulme & Stevenson, 2003). By being able to identify the sounds of a language, the reader will be able to identify familiar words within other words, or even to create new ones. These will help him during the process of reading.
Having said this, we view vocabulary and grammar as an important tool to the reader, but the evidences suggest that phonological awareness plays a more significant role in the process.

Bibliography and References
BERNARDINO J., José Antonio et al . “Aquisição de leitura e escrita como resultado do ensino de habilidades de consciência fonológica.” Rev. bras. educ. espec., Marília, v. 12, n. 3, 2006. Available at: . Accessed June 13, 2007.
Carroll, J. M., Snowling, M. J., Hulme. C. & Stevenson, J. “The Development of Phonological Awarenss in Preschool Children.” Development Psychology. Vol. 39, 2003, n. 5, 913-923.
Deneman, M. “Individual Differences in Reading Skills.” In Handbook of Reading Research, Vol. 2. Edited by R. Barr, M. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, and P.D. Pearson, White Plains, NY: Longman, 1991.
Ferreira, S. P. A., Dias, M. G. B. B. “Reading, Sense Production and the Inferential Process.” Available at: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/pe/v9n3/v9n3a11.pdf . Accessed May 01, 2007.
Gombert, J. E. “Metalinguistic Development.” Chicago: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992.
Hennings, Dorothy Grant. “Contextually Relevant Word Study.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 44 (November 2000): 268-279. Available at: http://www.reading.org/publications/journals/jaal/archives.html . Accessed May 01, 2007.
---. “Words are Wonderful. An Interactive Approach to Vocabulary”. Educators Publishing Service. Available at: http://www.epsbooks.com/downloads/research_papers/WAW_research.pdf . Accessed May 01, 2007.

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