Phonological Awareness and Literacy in Brazilian Children: How Have Relationships Developed?

Abstract

Phonological awareness is a metalinguistic ability, widely acknowledged in the literature as basic for the understanding of the alphabetic principle. Several studies show that interventions that involve the training of the ability do not merely favor the literacy process but are also potentially capable of preventing and treating language difficulties. Current paper explores the relationship between phonological awareness and learning to read and write in Brazilian scientific literature. Current research is based on a course conclusion monograph on the theme by designing a research project of social and scientific relevance. All papers on phonological aware written in Portuguese between 2005 and 2016 were investigated. The Brazilian state-of-the-art on the theme is presented on the issues within the consolidation phase, disagreements and progresses in the literature. In fact, phonological awareness is the most researched metalinguistic theme and the most investigated ability in specialized literature. Other abilities that contribute towards literacy are researched, coupled to the level of importance within the process.