Understanding the relationships between letters, sounds, and words is essential for literacy development at all stages. Knowledge of phonological processing, including the alphabetic principle, enables the reading and spelling process by linking speech sounds with letters.
Helps to build awareness of speech sounds (Zeh, n.d.)
Growth in vocabulary due to recognition of morphological relationships (McCutchen & Stull, 2014)
Helps to learn unfamiliar words composed of familiar morphemes (McCutchen & Stull, 2014).
Fluent readers, read more texts which increases their vocabulary.
Larger word knowledge allows for more cognitive energy to be focused on detailed writing, rather than individual words.
Successful decoders retrieve meaning and in-turn strengthen form-meaning connection (McKeown & Kucan, 2010).
Decoding a word that is known strengthens the connection between the orthographic form and its meaning (McKeown & Kucan, 2010).
Reading Comprehension
Morphological Awareness
Morphemes
The small units help with pronunciation, spelling and meaning of words (Kirby et al, 2011).
Building blocks of words: roots, prefixes and suffixes (Kirby et al, 2011).
Reading Fluency
Automatically recognize and pronounce words.
More cognitive energy is available for comprehension when decoding is automatic (Rasinski & Samuels, 2011).
Read with expression
Expression connects fluency to comprehension and gives text meaning, tells the reader how fast to read, intonation and when to pause (Rasinski & Samuels, 2011).
Vocabulary
Background Knowledge
Vital in all stages of the literacy development process
Can decode (read words) and encode (spell words) without phonological awareness (ability to pronounce words), but the reading process becomes much more arduous.
Use knowledge of letter-sound relationship to help spell words.
Use knowledge of letter-sound relationship to pronounce words.
Sound out and blend letter sounds. Break apart sounds in a word to help with pronunciation. (Balanced help Literacy Diet, 2018).
Oral Language vocabulary knowledge supports the reading process and helps students to sound out words by matching the words on the page to their vocabulary knowledge in their head. (Reading Rockets, 2014).
Phonological Awareness
Encoding
Writing Fluency
Decoding
Read Aloud
Rhyme
Syllables
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemes
Smallest units of sound
Oral Language Development
Foundation for reading and writing skills, gives the knowledge of the sound system. Will affect students ability to make connections between oral language and print.
Phonological Processing
Alphabetic Principle: Letter-sound relationships
Understanding the links between speech sounds and letters, begins the reading and spelling process.
