Teaching children how to manipulate speech sounds substantially improves literacy achievement when training in phonological sensitivity is coupled with instruction in graphophonemic knowledge (Bradley & Bryant, 1983).
Readers must possess explicit awareness of the segmental nature of speech and that speech comprises discrete sounds; deeper levels of phonological sensitivity are presumably more difficult to attain because smaller segments of speech are less perceptually salient than syllables (Liberman,1982); there is a strong correlation between working memory and phonological awareness (Liberman, 1984).
Morphology:
Morphological awareness is a good predictor of word-reading skill. In addition, linguistic awareness influences word reading in general. Finally, awareness of morphological units helps poor readers (Shiffler, 2010, October).
Morphological awareness can be developed in children as young a kindergarten if the concept is explicitly taught and modeled, but there are few valid, reliable studies investigating the impact of morphology instruction (Carlisle, 2010)
Morphological awareness is affected by word frequency and structural transparency (phonological structure - sound, orthographic structure - spelling, semantic content- meaning). (Carlisle, 2004)
Syntax:
“Resolved that the National Teachers of English affirm the position that the use of isolated grammar and usage exercises not supported by theory and research is a deterrent to the improvement of students’ speaking and writing and that, in order to improve both of these, class time at all levels must be devoted to opportunities for meaningful listening, speaking, reading, and writing; and that NCTE urge the discontinuance of testing practices that encourage the teaching of grammar rather than English language arts instruction.” (NCTE, 1985)
During the last 50 years, syntax has received more attention than any other aspect of linguistics. (Parker & Riley, 2010)
Semantics:
Metalinguistic awareness including awareness of phonology, morphology and syntax affect word learning and is still developing in the upper elementary grade students. Some aspects of metalinguistic awareness which effect word learning are not even fully developed in many adults (Scarborough, Ehri, Olson, & Fowler, 1998 as cited in Nagy & Scott, 2008).
Complexity of word knowledge according to Nagy and Scott (2008) includes: (a) incrementality – knowing a word is a matter of degrees, (b) multidimensionality – several qualitatively different types of word knowledge, (c) polysemy – words often have multiple meanings, (d) interrelatedness – knowledge of one word is NOT independent of knowledge of other words, and (e) heterogeneity – what it means to know a word differs substantially based on the type of word it is.
Pragmatics:
Speech acts occur in both oral conversations that occur between students, between students and teachers but also among characters in a texts that children encounter in school- especially as the books that they are reading become more complete
Oral language competence leads to positive social relationships and increased engagement in the classroom (Byrnes & Wasik, 2009)