Access to Syllable Structure in Language and Learning

In what follows, I refer to “access” to phonological structure, rather than “awareness.” As Treiman and Zukowski point out, the levels of phonological awareness are degrees of accessibility of linguistic units to judgments and manipulations. Access is perhaps a less misleading term, with no suggestion of conscious linguistic analysis (Mattingly, 1984; Read, 1978). However, neither term adequately suggests the complex relationship between a reader and the linguistic units represented in writing.