Arkansas Foundations of Reading Test (FORT)

What is the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness?

1. Phonological awareness is broader, including the manipulation of sounds in spoken language, while phonemic awareness specifically focuses on sounds at the phoneme level.

2. Phonemic awareness is broader, including the manipulation of all sounds, while phonological awareness focuses on sounds at the word level.

3. Phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are the same.

4. Phonological awareness focuses on written language, whereas phonemic awareness focuses on spoken language.

The correct answer is: Phonological awareness is broader, including the manipulation of sounds in spoken language, while phonemic awareness specifically focuses on sounds at the phoneme level.

The correct answer highlights that phonological awareness encompasses a wider range of skills related to the manipulation of sounds in spoken language. This includes not only phonemes, which are the smallest units of sound in a language, but also larger sound units such as syllables, onsets, and rimes. Phonemic awareness is indeed a subset of phonological awareness, focusing specifically on the ability to identify and manipulate individual phonemes. Understanding this distinction is vital for educators, as it informs the approaches they use to develop reading skills in young learners. Phonological awareness activities can range from recognizing rhymes to breaking words into syllables, while phonemic awareness specifically hones in on sound manipulation tasks such as blending, segmenting, and substituting sounds.