2. Learning Objectives
To learn the nature of phonemes in words
To use phonemic awareness to help us spell and
speak better.
3. Introduction
Do you face any of the following challenges
when you read and spell:
1) Slow down when you face bigger words
2) Say out a big word when you spell
3) Confused between letter sounds, such as 'en' or
'on' , 'ir' or 'er', 'tion' or 'sion', when you spell
If you do, that's because your knowledge of
letter sounds is yet incomplete!
You can easily read and spell when you are
familiar with letter sounds.
4. Phonemic Awareness
Therefore, to read and spell effectively, you must
be familiar with letter sounds.
Letter sounds are called Phonemes.
A Phoneme is the smallest sound unit in a word.
For example, all these words have 3 sounds each:
1) cat - /c/ /a/ /t/
2) pin - /p/ /i/ /n/
3) ton - /t/ /o/ /n/
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Phonemes are represented by backward slashes.
5. Phonemes
In English, there is a total of 44 phonemes from
26 alphabets – 5 vowels and 21 consonants.
5 vowels – 20 phonemes
21 consonants – 24 phonemes
These 44 phonemes represent 95% of all
English words as they are spoken. For example,
for the letter 'a', these are different phonemes:
/a/ nt ban /a/ na sw /a/ n
b /a/ by zebr /a/ b /a/ ll
6. Applying Phonemic Awareness
When you have a strong sense of Phonemic
Awareness, you are break up a word into its
phonemes:
1) Break – /br/ /ea/ /k/
2) Class – /cl/ /a/ /ss/
3) Teacher – /t/ /ea/ /ch/ /er/
4) Sleep - /sl/ /ee/ /p/
Q: You have learnt about Digraphs, Trigraphs and
Blends. Can you spot them above?
7. Phonemes – Voiced & Unvoiced
Some Phonemes are Voiced and some, Unvoiced.
Place your index and middle finger on your throat
and try these phonemes:
1)Voiced Phonemes- when your vocal cords vibrate.
P, V, Z, /th/umb
2) Unvoiced Phonemes- when your vocal cords
don't vibrate.
B, F, S, Fea/th/er
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Q: Vowel Phonemes are all voiced. Can you try
sounding /a/, /e/ , /i/, /o/ & /u/ ?
8. Learning Activity
What are the phonemes in these words?
1) Capture
2) Fashion
3) Horrify
4) Garden
5) Suddenly
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Hint: Use your knowledge of digraphs and
trigraphs to help you.
10. Discussion
What are phonemes?
Why is it important to have strong phonemic
awareness?
How do we apply this knowledge?
11. Discussion
Phonemes are letter sounds.
Phonemic awareness can help us to sound the
phonemes in words so we can spell and read
better.
We break up a word into its phonemes.