predicting what is likely to happen next, clarifying the meaning of particular words and
phrases - all these kinds of talk help the child to make connections between the meanings
and language forms of the text and his or her actual experiences, including the use of
language in other familiar contexts. As the child gets older, talk about the text typically
begins to include attention to the written representation itself - the visual appearance of
interesting words and the forms of the letters and their correspondence to the sounds of
speech. Described technically as "phonemic awareness", the knowledge about the
relationship between spoken and written language that a child gains in this way is
certainly an important aspect of becoming literate; indeed, it is argued by some to be a
prerequisite for learning to read and write.