According
to research at McGill University, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University
of British Columbia, infants can identify foreign-language sounds, recognize
accent patterns of different languages and distinguish between facial
expressions produced by speaking different languages. However, by 8 months of age, infants lose these multilingual
abilities because their brain is focusing only on the sounds of the language
spoken daily. Results from the research
indicate that the best way to introduce a second language is full immersion at
a few months—not years—old. For
further information go to http://news.therecord.com/article/227130
Phonological
Awareness
Phonological
Awareness is
the ability to examine and manipulate language independent of meaning. It includes the following skills:
Rhyme
recognizing and producing
Identifying
the number of words in a sentence
Judging
word length-short or long
Blending
syllables
Segmenting
a word into syllables
Deleting
a syllable
And
Phonemic
Awareness--the awareness that words are composed of individual sounds and the
ability to manipulate individual sounds in those words.
I
wanted to share with you a handout from a conference I attended on
Literacy. It is adapted from a
presentation given by Sally Grimes, Ed.M.
Summary of
Phoneme Awareness Development
By
the end of the year:
Kindergartners should be able to (1)
rhyme (2) identify beginning and ending sounds
First graders should be able to (1) count phonemes
(2) segment phonemes (3) delete beginning phonemes (4) recognize beginning,
middle and ending phonemes in simple 3 phoneme words.