What is French Phonological Awareness? 5 Essential Reading Skills

Heard of phonological awareness? It’s become a big issue in Canadian education as school boards put a stronger emphasis on teaching aligned with the science of reading. Rather than relying on traditional techniques, the boards want an evidence-based approach to teaching.

Unless you have a background in language acquisition and reading, the terms may sound foreign to you. What is French phonological awareness? What’s a phoneme? And why do they matter?

I’m here to go through these key terms, providing a basic understanding of phonological awareness in French. I’ve also got a free French phonological awareness cheat sheet for you that comes with a screening tool for your students.

What is French Phonological Awareness?

So your first question might be what exactly is French phonological awareness? Essentially, it refers to the recognition and manipulation of sound structures in the French language. But you can apply the concept to any language!

This covers several different skills that comprise the French science of reading – from breaking down sentences and compound words into syllables to playing with rhymes and tinkering with the onset and rime of words.

Phonological awareness in French involves skills like segmenting words into syllables, creating and recognizing rhymes, and manipulating the sounds within words. It’s easy to confuse this with phonemic awareness. However, there’s a slight difference. Phonemic awareness is specifically about the smallest units of sound, known as phonemes, and how to handle them in speech.

Why Is It Important to Teach Phonological Awareness Skills?

A fundamental grounding in phonological awareness is critical for developing strong literacy skills. Strong phonological awareness is essential for reading and spelling, as it underpins the ability to decode words, expand vocabulary, and enhance reading comprehension.

It also promotes overall language development and builds confidence in literacy skills. Soon enough, children are reading confidently and independently thanks to this reading technique.

Part of the French science of reading, phonological awareness helps identify gaps in a student’s learning, acting as a predictive tool for reading success. As a rule, students who have excellent phonological awareness are more likely to excel in reading.

Words and Sentences

When teaching French phonological awareness, it’s critical to start with words and sentences. Begin by helping students understand that sentences are built from different words. One effective method is to have students repeat sentences and then count the words in each sentence.

Next, introduce compound words, such as “casse-tête,” which are formed by combining two words (e.g., casse + tête). Show students how the two words can come together to create a new meaning and even new sounds. Then, break down the compound word.

People often skip this step. However, it helps learners grasp larger units of language rather than just sounds and syllables.

Syllables

Syllables are the building blocks of words. Usually composed of a vowel sound combined with consonants, understanding syllables is key to developing phonological awareness. Syllables in French don’t always have consonant sounds included, but they always include one vowel sound.

You can have more than one consonant sound in a French syllable, but you cannot have more than one vowel sound per syllable. For example, the word “lac” has one syllable, while “avion” contains three. Students need to master both blending syllables to form words and segmenting words into their constituent syllables.

Students can then practice breaking down unfamiliar words into syllables, helping to improve their reading. If you’re looking to practice this skill, check out my blog post with 10 French syllable activities. It’s a fantastic way to work on French phonological awareness skills, which in turn will help to boost reading proficiency.

Be sure to check out our syllable resources for more tools and tips – syllables worksheets and syllables sort!

Rhyming Words

What about rhyming words? As you might imagine, they’re important for French phonological awareness as well. These are words that end in similar sounds, ranging from sharing just one sound, like “ballon” and “chaton,” to sharing multiple sounds, as in “gâteau” and “château,” where the difference lies only in the initial sound.

Because of the immediate effect rhyming has, it helps students to see the similarities and relationships both inside and between words.

There are four main ways to work on French rhyming words:

1. Does it rhyme? Ask students for a simple yes or no.
2. Matching rhyming words: Present options (e.g., does “dos” rhyme with “beau” or “mon?”), guiding them to match based on the ending sound.
3. Which one doesn’t rhyme? Challenge students to identify the odd one out without a hint of the ending sound (e.g., which 2 words rhyme? Lit, crie, bras.)
4. Generating rhymes: Encourage students to come up with rhyming words independently.

Try out these helpful resources – rhyming worksheets and rhyming sorts.

Onset and Rime

Onset and rime are core concepts in the French science of reading. Onset refers to the beginning sound, and rime is the ending sound of a word. Understanding these two components of a word further helps students to break down words into smaller chunks, which, in turn, makes it easier to blend and segment sounds. A necessary skill for decoding (reading) and encoding (writing).

Start with teaching beginning sounds, progressing to ending sounds once students are comfortable. Practical activities include having students blend sounds into words, like combining ‘v-‘ with ‘-ache’ to form “vache,” or doing the opposite to identify the ending sound.

Looking for activities? Check out my literacy centres for beginning sounds and ending sounds. I’ve also got a dedicated blog post that goes into more detail on how to teach onset and rime to your students.

Phonemes

Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in language. Unlike syllables, which are clusters of sounds, phonemes require students to identify and isolate sounds throughout the entire word. This skill is required for decoding unfamiliar words effectively.

Activities to enhance phonemic awareness include identifying missing phonemes in words (e.g., fill in the blank: l_c – lac), blending phonemes to form words (e.g., k-i-w-i), determining the presence of specific sounds in words (e.g., does “banane” contain the sound /o/?), segmenting words into individual phonemes (e.g., sel – s-e-l), and counting the phonemes in words. These exercises can be performed orally or through reading practice.

Looking for activities to work on phonemes? Check out this bundle of phoneme activities, including an assessment!

Phoneme Manipulation

Phoneme manipulation involves changing phonemes to create new words. This can be done by:

• Addition: Adding a phoneme to a word, such as /er/ to “aime” to create “aimer.”
• Subtraction: Removing a phoneme, like /b/, from “belle” to get “elle.”
• Substitution: Changing one phoneme for another, changing /b/ in “blé” to a /c/ to make “clé.”

Want to check out the resources listed?

All the links above lead to TPT, but the resources are also available on our website. Here are the resources available here for purchase in CAD. Don’t forget you can also buy credits for an additional discount (up to $15 off).

Don’t forget to download my free phonological awareness assessment screener to use with your students!