What is the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics?
Phonemic awareness is related to speech sounds (not written letters) that occur in language, whereas phonics is the visual connection of a sound to a corresponding letter. Students must be aware that separate sounds (phonemes) exist within whole words, and they must have the ability to manipulate those speech sounds in order to read and write in an alphabetic symbol system such as English. A helpful way to remember which is which is to remember that phonemic awareness activities could take place in the darkonly sound is needed, while phonics must have a visual symbol (letter) connection.
