Phonological awareness

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the field of educational psychology and reading research in general, the term phonological awareness describes a certain form of language awareness and represents the most important sub-area of ​​so-called "phonological information processing". It describes the ability to record, process, retrieve and store linguistic information Information to use knowledge about the phonetic structure of language (Wagner / Torgesen 1987). To do this, children have to detach themselves from the meaning of the language and understand that sentences are made up of words , words are made up of syllables and syllables are made up of sounds , that some words are longer and others are shorter. It's about grasping what the first sound of a word is, how it ends and that some words rhyme .

A distinction is made between two essential aspects: Phonological awareness in the broader sense includes the ability to break down words into syllables and to combine syllables into one word. Phonological awareness in the narrower sense, on the other hand, refers to the ability to recognize initial sounds, to form a word from sounds or to split a word into its sounds.

Development of phonological awareness

It can be assumed that phonological awareness skills in a broader sense are learned first. This includes identifying rhymes and segmenting syllables, for example. These skills are often acquired spontaneously, whereas phonological awareness skills in the narrower sense are usually acquired through explicit guidance, e.g. B. in school. If children master the ability to determine individual sounds from words before they start school, for example, or to form a word from several sounds, this indicates an insight into the phoneme-grapheme correspondence.

Importance in early detection

When a child starts school, it is not the “zero hour” in terms of written language acquisition. Instead, learning to read and write is linked to previous skills that are differently developed for children at the beginning of the first grade. The phonological information processing and especially the phonological awareness are of particular importance.

The ability to analyze the sound structure of words and, if necessary, to manipulate them, is significantly promoted by school lessons. But it already plays an enormous role when starting school. Children who have problems in this area towards the end of kindergarten are also at risk of developing reading and spelling difficulties ( dyslexia ).

Phonological awareness is the most important single predictor (= characteristic with predictive power) of reading development (Elbro 1996) and a close connection between it and spelling performance has been demonstrated (Schneider / Näslund 1999; Elbro 1996; Wagner / Torgesen 1987). About 2/3 of the children who later develop a reading and spelling disorder can already be identified in preschool age or at the time of school enrollment based on weaknesses in phonological awareness (Barth / Gomm 2004; Jansen et al. 1999).

For this reason, the early diagnosis of problems in the area of ​​phonological awareness has been recognized by many researchers as a special role in prevention. However, a number of more recent studies relativize the diagnostic and prognostic power of tests for phonological awareness - as well as the necessity and effectiveness of their promotion before the beginning of the initial lessons in reading and writing (see the summaries in Brügelmann 2005/2009, Rackwitz 2008 and 2011 and Valtin 2010.)

Diagnosis

There are several tests for recording phonological awareness at the beginning of schooling, of which the Bielefeld Screening (BISC, Jansen et al. 1999) is certainly the best known. The BISC is a single test (it is only carried out with one child at a time) and takes about 30 minutes. The “group test for the early detection of reading and spelling difficulties” has also been available since 2004 and can be carried out in small groups of a maximum of 10 to 12 children (Barth / Gomm 2004).

The test includes the six sections of rhyme recognition, syllable segmentation , initial sound analysis, sound synthesis, detection of word length and identification of the final sound. The processing time is 45 (kindergarten) or 60 minutes (school entry phase). The test manual contains cut-off criteria (threshold values) from which a risk for reading and spelling difficulties must be assumed. With the help of the group test, 84.7% of the children were correctly classified in the test evaluation.

The sensitivity was 63%, the specificity 87.1%, i.e. H. 63% of the later affected and 87.1% of the later non-affected children were correctly identified as such. The majority of children at risk can thus receive special support measures in good time and the children who are wrongly classified as children at risk will certainly not suffer any harm from the additional support measures. However, since not all children at risk are recognized by a long way, the teacher should remain vigilant in the first reading lesson.

In addition to the two procedures mentioned, there are a number of other screenings for preschool and primary school:

  1. Differentiation sample by Breuer and Weuffen (1994)
  2. "The tour through Hörhausen" by Martschinke u. a. (2001) and the associated training program "Learning to read and write more easily with the witch Susi" by Forster and Martschinke (2001)
  3. Basic skills for reading and writing skills (BAKO) from Stock u. a. (2004)

Prevention options before and at the beginning of the written language acquisition

As early as the 1980s, a preschool training program was developed in Sweden, the effectiveness of which has been scientifically proven (Lundberg et al. 1988). Children who participated in this training program had significant advantages in later learning the written language. This program was adapted to the German-speaking area by Küspert and Schneider (2003, 4th edition) under the name “Hören, Lauschen, Lern” and its effectiveness has been checked in several longitudinal studies.

Children who were classified as children at risk at pre-school age on the basis of the Bielefeld Screening (Jansen et a. 1999) achieved almost identical results in reading and spelling in school after completing the training as the unsupported children of an unread control group. It was thus possible to largely compensate for risks through training in the last half of the kindergarten year (Küspert 1998). But not only children at risk benefit from this training program. Even among children with normal talent, there was a clear improvement in the acquisition of written language and a significant increase in reading and writing performance (Schneider et al. 1998).

The program is designed for a duration of 20 weeks and comprises 6 sections (eavesdropping, rhymes, sentences and words, syllables, initials and phonemes ) with a total of 57 exercise units. Two exercise units of 5 minutes each are planned for each day. The order of the exercises is given and the tasks are graded according to increasing difficulty. The optimal application period is the last half year of kindergarten and the schooling phase. The application is unproblematic and after a short training period, for. B. can also be carried out by educators.

In addition to the exemplary theoretical foundation and the proven effectiveness of the program, the child-friendly implementation and ease of use should be emphasized (Souvignier 2003). Nonetheless, other studies show that alternative funding programs do not fare worse - and that there is a very large spread within the individual programs (cf. Brügelmann, for example Franzkowiak 2008, Lenel 2005, Rackwitz 2008 and the overview by Hans Brügelmann 2005/2009).

See also

bibliography

  • K. Barth, B. Gomm: Group test for the early detection of reading and spelling difficulties . Ernst Reinhardt, Munich 2004, DNB 972355154 .
  • H. Breuer, M. Weuffen: Learning difficulties at the beginning of school. School entrance diagnostics for early detection and early support . Beltz, Weinheim 1994, ISBN 3-407-62170-1 .
  • H. Brügelmann: The prognostic risk of risk prognoses - an opportunity for “children at risk”? In: B. Hofmann, A. Sasse (Ed.): Transitions. Children and writing between kindergarten and school. Report on the annual meeting of the German Society for Reading and Writing. German Society for Reading and Writing, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-9809663-2-1 , pp. 146–172. (updated 2009 under pdf online )
  • C. Elbro: Early linguistic abilities and reading development: A review and a hypothesis. In: Reading and Writing. 8 (1996), pp. 453-485.
  • M. Forster, S. Martschinke: Learn to read and write more easily with the witch Susi. Exercises and games to promote phonological awareness . Auer, Donauwörth 2001, ISBN 3-403-03483-6 .
  • T. Franzkowiak: From the BLISS symbol to alphabetical writing. Development and testing of a preschool support approach to prevent learning difficulties in the acquisition of written language. Dissertation. Siegen 2008, DNB 989767124 . (online at: dokumentix.ub.uni-siegen.de )
  • H. Jansen, G. Mannhaupt, H. Marx, H. Skowronek: Bielefelder Screening for Early Detection of Reading and Spelling Difficulties (BISC) . Hogrefe, Göttingen 1999, DNB 956302297 .
  • P. Küspert: Phonological awareness and written language acquisition: On the effects of preschool promotion of phonological awareness on the acquisition of reading and spelling. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-631-32529-0 .
  • P. Küspert, W. Schneider: Hear, listen, learn. 4th edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2003.
  • A. Lenel: Acquisition of writing in preschool age - a longitudinal study of developmental psychology. Beltz, Weinheim 2005.
  • I. Lundberg, J. Frost, O. Petersen: Effects of an extensive training program for stimulating phonological awareness in preschool children . In: Reading Research Quarterly. 23: 263-284 (1988).
  • S. Martschinke, E. Kirschhock, A. Frank: Tour of Hörhausen. Survey procedure for phonological awareness. Diagnosis and promotion of written language acquisition . Auer, Donauwörth 2001.
  • R.-P. Rackwitz: Is phonological awareness really a prerequisite for successful written language acquisition? In: Educational science and educational research controversial. 2008. (online at: nbn-resolving.de )
  • R.-P. Rackwitz: Phonological awareness: “necessary” prerequisite for the successful acquisition of literacy? Lecture at the Reading Conference Mons 2011. ( 17th European Reading Conference in Mons / Belgium. On: dgls.de )
  • W. Schneider, J. Näslund: The impact of early metalinguistic competencies and memory capacity on reading and spelling in elementary school: Results of the Munich Longitudinal Study on the Genesis of Individuel Competencies (LOGIC) . In: European Journal of Psychology of Education. 8 (1999), pp. 273-288.
  • E. Souvignier: Listen, listen, learn - language games for preschool children . In: HP Langfeldt (Ed.): Training programs for school support. Beltz, Weinheim 2003, pp. 85-106.
  • C. Stock, P. Marx, W. Schneider: BAKO 1-4: Basic skills for reading and writing skills . Hogrefe, Göttingen 2004, OCLC 314168530 .
  • R. Valtin: Phonological awareness - a necessary requirement for learning to read and write? 2010. (online at: leseforum.ch ) (PDF; 245 kB)
  • R. Wagner, J. Torgesen: The nature of phonological processing and its causal role in the acquisition of reading skills . In: Psychological Bulletin. 101: 192-212 (1987).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Marx: Reading and Spelling Acquisition . Schöningh, Paderborn (among others) 2007.