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The state of reading research today, more than ever before, is bringing us closer to an understanding of the cognitive processes that underlie learning to read (Snowling & Hulme, 2005). Reading emerges from child’s oral language. Oral language is important for reading, and it continues to serve reading development (Hiebert, Pearson, Taylor, Richardson, & Paris 1998). Hiebert et al., (1998) quoted that, to comprehend decoded text the readers need to extract the meaning (semantics) and structure (syntax) of spoken language. In addition, children who exhibit reading difficulty generally lack the ability to process and manipulate speech sounds, and therefore, the link among oral language, phonological skills and reading development appear to have been well established (Sonali & Snowling, 2005).
Phonological awareness and reading
Majority of the research in early reading has been reported from the Western countries. Consequently, the language that was studied extensively was English that emphasize the significant contribution of phonological sensitivity to early reading skills. Phonological awareness (term used alternative to “phonological sensitivity” in the present paper) refers to the broad range of skills in the awareness and manipulation of sound structures at the syllable, onset/rime and phonemic level (e.g. counting of syllables, rhyming and isolating initial phonemes). Phonological awareness has been found to influence early reading in English that has alphabetic script (Ehri, 1999; Lonigan, Burgess, Anthony, & Barker, 1998; Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1994; Wood & Terrell, 1998). |
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