Abstract:
This paper explores the importance of integrating phonemic awareness
(PA) into Activity-Based Oral English (ABOE) for Grade 1 and 2 students at
state schools in Sri Lanka. It argues that such integration would lay a vital
foundation for developing reading and writing skills in Grade-3 onwards.
Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to hear, identify and manipulate
individual sounds in spoken words and syllables, including recognising how
sounds change depending on the sounds in close proximity in a particular
utterance. Currently, the ABOE approach in Grades 1 and 2 is rooted in rote
memorisation of words and sentences, without emphasising the underlying
speech sounds. This approach, while cognitively demanding, does not
effectively prepare students for systematic reading and writing in later grades.
Research shows that early difficulties in recognising and manipulating sounds
within words predict later reading struggles. Developing PA helps children
understand that words are made of individual sounds and that letters
systematically represent these sounds. Early exposure to PA equips students
with strategies to decode unfamiliar words, improving future reading skills.
Inculcating phonemic knowledge in students of earlier Grades, therefore, will
make them better learners as they will begin formal reading and writing from
Grade-3 forth. To support this shift, students need to understand that written
letters represent abstract speech sounds and be able to recognise differences
and similarities in these sounds, as letter names and sounds do not always
align. Through a review of existing literature on phonemic awareness, this
paper demonstrates how incorporating PA into ABOE can improve students’
understanding of speech sounds, helping them better decode words, read
print and grasp orthography by linking sounds to the corresponding letter or
letter combinations.
