ABSTRACT
The ability to segment sounds, or phonological awareness 1 , is considered to be an essential skill for reading acquisition. Phonological awareness refers to the ability to consciously think about a spoken word in terms of sublexical elements such as syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes, and to manipulate these elements in a range of metaphonological tasks, from rhyme recognition to phonemic analysis. Learning to read and write in a language that employs an alphabetic orthography requires that novices come to understand the way that the components of spoken language are represented by the orthographic system in question.
