Four critical responses to an article, "The Role of Phonology and Phonologically Related Skills in Reading Instruction for Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing" (Wang, Trezek, Luckner, & Paul, 2008), are presented. Issue is taken with the conclusions of the article by Wang and colleagues regarding the "necessary" condition of phonological…

As a result of the Reading First Program of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the view of reading has narrowed. Individual state's Reading First professional development programs, and hence reading teachers across the United States, have spent the six years since the funding of the program in 2002 focusing beginning and developmental reading on…

The five "phones" of reading--phonics, phonetic spelling, phoneme awareness, phonological awareness, and phonology--all share the same "phon" root, so they are easy to confuse, but they are definitely different, and each very important to reading education. Phonics is an instructional approach that emphasizes the letter-sound…

Reviews the conception of early literacy acquisition as a social-cognitive activity, sketches the evolution of phonemic awareness, and discusses how psychological research might contribute to understanding and applying this construct. The paper suggests the importance of synergy between previously warring factions and highlights the need for…

Examines two independent data sets to support argument that although onset-rime sensitivity typically predicts school entrants' later word reading skills, phoneme sensitivity predicts more variation. Maintains that multiple regression analyses do not reveal level of phonological sensitivity needed to understand alphabetic reading instruction and…

Describes the concept of phonemic awareness and offers suggestions to classroom teachers on how to enhance phonemic awareness in their students. (PRA)

Discusses conventional theory of speech and attempts to prove that it is implausible and likely to mislead the reading researcher or teacher who follows it. Offers and supports an alternative theory that is more plausible and less conventional which argues that phonologic structures developed early in life provide a basis for reading…

To answer the question of how phonemic awareness works to facilitate reading acquisition, this paper explores the fundamental connection between phonemic awareness, the alphabetic principle, and phonics in learning to read. The paper undertook a literature review to prove that phonemic awareness is an essential element in the path to literacy. It…

Notes that preceding commentaries raise several issues, including which variables need to be controlled to demonstrate a specific relationship between phoneme-level skills and reading ability and whether prereaders can perform phonemic awareness tasks. Maintains that none of the commentaries casts doubt on the basic conclusion that phonemic-level…

Argues that learning how to read in an alphabetic system requires children to understand the complex relationship between print and speech. Suggests that prereading and beginning reading instruction should be designed to facilitate the acquisition of phonemic awareness. Recommends specific practices for reading instruction. (RS)

Introduces the articles in the special issue as sharing a concern with the role of morphological skills in the learning of alphabetic orthographies. Discusses how the articles offer a cross-section of different perspectives, techniques and populations. Notes several pieces of evidence that morphological awareness, while related to phoneme…

Suggesting that the contention that phonemic awareness must be taught directly and that children need explicit systematic instruction in phonics is less of a scientific "fact" than an exercise in political persuasion, this book presents the story of the political campaign that is taking place to change the minds of Americans about how…

Reiterates hypothesis that there are two routes from onset and rime awareness to reading: one indirect and one direct. Asserts that the evidence that Hulme et al. present against the hypothesis is not convincing, partly because the hypothesis predicts most of the Hulme et al. results and partly because of weaknesses in the design of Hulme et al.'s…

Argues that the phoneme is a meaning-bearing unit--not a sound--and must be used in conjunction with semantic and syntactic information. (AEW)

States research shows that decoding skills are associated with phonological awareness, the ability to segment and manipulate sounds in words. Suggests this ability is associated with reading failure in many nonreaders, reading difficulties in poor readers, and individual differences among average readers. Considers that although phonological…