Phonological awareness has little, if anything, to do with reading or the acquisition of literacy. Learned opinion has been divided as to the relationship of phonological awareness and reading. Some scholars hold that the ability to analyze speech into discrete phonic segments is a precursor to, even a cause of, successful reading acquisition, while others claim that it is a result of learning to deal with language in terms of an alphabetic script. Scholars do not agree on a definition of "reading" or of "phonological awareness." Numerous studies have shown that adult native speakers who are not literate are not able to perform phonological awareness tasks while readers of alphabetic scripts are able to do these tasks. Research has also shown that phonological awareness is a result, and a very limited one, of acquiring alphabetic literacy. While some studies attempt to show that phonological awareness training improves students' decoding skills, no study has demonstrated that phonological awareness improves/enhances/predicts a child's ability to understand a written text. Attempts to enhance reading skills in children by training in phonological awareness typically fail. It is surprising that the belief in a phonological basis for reading development and skill is so "stubbornly maintained" in the face of common sense and scientific evidence. (Contains 31 references and a table of data.) (RS)