Dividing words up into syllables and using sounds, such as tapping a pencil, clapping your hands or snapping your fingers, emphasizes each syllable. Repetition is important to a non-English speaker’s ultimate understanding of sounds and syllables. Rhyming words are especially helpful as repetition devices.
Word blending requires the learner to take separate syllables and put them together to form words. A fun way to promote word blending is to use puppets. One puppet will say a syllable, and another puppet will say a different syllable. Start off saying the syllables slowly and eventually say them fast enough to blend the sounds together and form a word.
Spelling words phonetically aids in understanding what each syllable should sound like. Some languages, such as Spanish, already spell words closer to phonetics. Sorting words according to similar sounds, in the first, middle or last syllable, helps emphasize word similarities.
The importance of separating syllables with phonological awareness strategies has been established. Building on that concept is the ability to put those syllables in the proper order. The learner is exposed to an entire word then soon after, a single sound within that word. Phonological sequencing involves putting the syllable sound in the proper place within the word.