This awareness
of the native
language strengthens immensely during the preschool years, extending from
sounds to more complex forms
of phonetic awareness, such as the ability to tell you how many syllables are in a certain word.
Knowing what I do about the English
language and its spelling, and how it came about, I would not dream
of advocating that English spelling should be made completely
phonetic, with one - to - one relationships between
sounds and letters, with merely 44 spellings for the 44 English
sounds.