According to Fraser, Goswawmi, and Ramsden(2010), the greatest predictor to determine an individual becoming a successful reader is phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is the ability of a student learning to read to recognize sounds, language patterns that are oral and combine these with the sounds of the alphabetic creating a the written word. However, according to Trehearne and Healy (2003) by the time a child becomes a student in kindergarten at least 20% of those entering will struggle with phonological awareness and 10 % will have difficulties in reading.
Research shows that the age of three to four is the best time developmentally for students learning to read to establish phonological awareness skills to become
successful readers(Metsala, 2011). Therefore, researchers show that teachers in the field of teaching phonological awareness skills must be mindful of performing an early intervention of phonological awareness skills when students are having reading difficulties (Bandini, Santos, & Souza, 2013). Murphy and Fink (2012), suggest that a teacher's professional background, educational background and their viewpoint of the phonological awareness role in reading achievement and environmental influence will affect phonological awareness and its impact on teaching . H
However, looking for answers that address this deficiency are lacking due to lack of research on early literacy education in teaching phonological awareness. Research has established how essential phonological awareness is when teaching reading, but research has failed to look at how teachers are applying the skill when teaching students in their beginning school years (Wells, 2012).