Phoneme on/off mental image realisation

Modern linguists’ claim phonemes are distinctive sound units capable of distinguishing a word from other words. An empirical   research on twenty-four elementary students aged between five and seven pointed out phoneme (the smallest unit in phonology) is realized as reflection of already constructed images in mind. Evidences from students who can identify alphabets of Malayalam (L1), Arabic, Hindi and English (L2) as well as numbers (1-10 only) in their L1 and L2s showed ‘the differences’ on language units. When presented four different cards bearing a ‘phonetic element’ representing distinct sound(s) or numbers of L1 or L2s, a disagreement did arise among the candidates on ‘actuality’. Little realization of sameness/differences at the sight of ‘phonetic element’ did not support for ‘distinctiveness of sounds’. It counter argued instead they (visualized phonetic element) are realized mental images