EDU 371: Phonics Based Reading & Decoding week 1 journal
2 Basic Concepts and Terminology
“I have to admit, sometimes I get mixed up about all the jargon and terms surrounding reading and I know my fellow teachers do also,” says Julia, a reading specialist in an elementary school. “Occasionally I will get into a conversation with some other teachers and the discussion will turn to some reading skill or element such as digraphs. Although digraphs is the topic, diphthongs and blends are provided as examples of digraphs. Boy! It’s confusing. I don’t think students need to know all this special vocabulary, but I think I should. How else can we talk about these things unless we agree on what they are and what they mean?”
Our colleague Julia is absolutely correct. Any discussion of issues related to phonics, word recognition, reading fluency, and reading instruction needs to begin with an understanding of the basic concepts and terminology that frame these skills and issues. Without this understanding, productive interchanges of ideas about issues related to phonics, word recognition, and reading fluency are difficult and often confusing. With this in mind, in this chapter we identify and define some essential concepts related to phonics, word recognition, and reading fluency using language understandable to teachers, parents, and other school audiences. A more comprehensive and technical presentation of definitions can be found in The Literacy Dictionary (Harris and Hodges 1995).
Affix A meaningful combination of letters that can be added to a base word in order to alter the meaning or grammatical function. Prefixes and suffixes are types of affixes.
Prefix An affix that is added in front of a base word to change the meaning (e.g., predetermine, disallow).
Suffix An affix that is added to the end of a base word that changes the meaning of the base word (e.g., instrumental, actor, containment).
Alphabetic Principle The notion that in certain languages, such as English, each speech sound or phoneme can be represented by a written symbol or set of written symbols.
Automaticity In reading, automaticity refers to the ability to recognize words in print quickly and effortlessly. It is a component of fluent reading and is marked by word recognition that is accurate and at an appropriate rate.
Balanced Literacy Instruction Literacy instruction that is marked by an equal emphasis on the nurturing of reading through authentic reading experiences with authentic reading materials and more direct instruction in strategies and skills needed for successful reading. It is a
decision‐making approach through which the teacher makes thoughtful choices each day about the best way to help each child become a better reader and writer. A balanced approach is not constrained by or reactive to a particular philosophy. It is responsive to new issues while maintaining what research and practice has already shown to be effective. (Spiegel, 1998, p. 116)
Consonants Refers to both letters and sounds. Consonant sounds represent all the letters of the alphabet except the vowels, a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y and w. The letters and letter combinations (blends and digraphs) that represent consonants do so with fairly good correspondence, especially at the beginning of words and syllables.
Consonant Blends Two or more consonant letters grouped together in which the sound of each of the consonants is retained (e.g., bl, cl, pr, tr, sm, st, scr, str).
Consonant Digraphs Two or more consonant letters grouped together that produce one sound. That sound can be a new sound not represented by any other letter or letter combination ( that), a sound represented by one of the grouped letters ( gnome, back ), or a sound represented by a letter not present in the group ( phone).
Context The linguistic environment. The words or phrases surrounding a written word. For word recognition, context refers to the meaning that precedes and follows words that are analyzed. Context can aid in the recognition of words in texts.
Decode To analyze graphic symbols (letters in written words and sentences) into their oral representation, which leads to meaning. Synonymous with word identification and word recognition.
Fluency To read expressively, meaningfully, in appropriate syntactic units (phrases, clauses), at appropriate rates, and without word recognition difficulty. Fluency has two major components: word recognition automaticity and prosody. Word recognition automaticity refers to the ability to recognize words effortlessly or automatically so that readers can attend to meaning while reading. Prosody refers to reading with expression and phrasing that reflect the meaning of the passage read.
Grapheme A written letter or combination of letters that represents a phoneme.
Homographs Words that have the same spelling but different pronunciations and meanings (e.g., sow—a female pig; to plant seeds).
Homonyms Words that have the same spelling and pronunciation but different meanings (e.g., plain—flat land; ordinary looking).
Homophones Words that have the same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings (e.g., bare/bear, do/dew).
Morpheme The smallest unit of meaning in oral and written language (e.g., the word cars contains two morphemes—car, an automobile, and s, meaning more than one).
Orthography Refers to the symbols or letters in a writing system. Spelling is part of orthography.
Phoneme The smallest unit of speech that affects meaning of words (e.g., b in book vs. k in cook).
Phonemic Awareness The awareness of individual phonemes in spoken words; the ability to consciously manipulate (e.g., identify, segment, blend) individual phonemes in spoken language.
Phonics A method of teaching word recognition or decoding that emphasizes the relationships between written symbols (letters) and sounds that exist in a language. Phonics is usually employed in the beginning stages of reading instruction.
Analogical Phonics An approach to phonics in which learners are taught letter patterns found in words they recognize and apply that knowledge to new, unknown words. For example, if students know that at in bat has a particular sound, they can use that knowledge to help decode new words such as sat, cat, rattle, and Patrick. Word families or rimes and affixes are the most common letter patterns used in analogical phonics instruction.
Analytic Phonics An approach to phonics instruction that maintains a whole‐to‐part orientation. Students are initially taught a set of words by sight. Then, from these sight words, phonics generalizations (letter‐sound relationships) are identified and then applied to other words.
Synthetic Phonics In contrast to analytic phonics, synthetic phonics embodies a part‐to‐whole approach to phonics instruction. Students are directly taught specific individual sounds that are represented by letters and letter combinations. Students are then instructed in synthesizing or putting together multiple letters and sounds to decode or sound out a word.
Phonogram Also known as a rime or word family. See syllable.
Prosody The melodic qualities of oral language, including expression and phrasing during oral reading. A component of fluent reading.
Response to Intervention (RTI) A method of academic intervention and instruction. RTI seeks to prevent academic failure through early intervention, frequent progress measurement, and the employment of graduated and intensive research‐based instructional interventions for students who continue to have difficulty. Students who do not demonstrate a positive response to one level of intervention are referred for a more intensive intervention level.
Schwa The sound “uh” made by vowel in the unaccented syllables in a multisyllabic word (e.g., the vowel sound in the second syllable of secret, the vowel sound in the first syllable of about). As with many technical elements of language and reading, knowledge of the schwa is not essential to reading success.
Semantics The study of meaning in language (words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, entire texts); semantic knowledge can aid readers in decoding unknown words in context.
Sight Word A word that is recognized immediately as a whole with minimal effort and without detailed analysis. Sight words are recognized automatically. The collection of words recognized by sight is referred to as a person’s sight vocabulary.
Syllable A group of letters that are produced as a unit and contain one vowel sound (except in words containing vowel diphthongs). Some basic syllable patterns are described below (C = consonant, V = vowel):
CVC (also known as closed syllable)
Short vowel sound
cat, sit, shot, back, myth
CV (also known as open syllable)
Long vowel sound
be, because, she, try, total, label
CVVC
Often long vowel sound
beak, sail, coat
VCe
Long vowel sound
late, bite, tote
Cle
L controlled sound
maple, babble, stable
In addition to the information listed above, there are several patterns that guide readers in dividing longer words into individual syllables. These patterns include:
base word—base word (compound words)
cowboy
cow/boy
prefix—base word—suffix
unfit retool basement
un/fit re/tool base/ment
V/CV
bacon open baby
ba/con o/pen ba/by
VC/CV
temper carton ginger
tem/per car/ton gin/ger
Onset The part of a syllable that contains any consonants that precede the vowel (e.g., b in bat, sl in slack, t and p in temper, c and t in carton). The sound‐symbol relationship between onset letters and sounds is quite reliable.
Rime Also known as a phonogram or word family. The part of a syllable that contains the vowel and any consonants that follow the vowel. Letter rimes are easily recognized and are consistent in the sound or sound combination they represent (at in cat and ight in sight are rimes).
Syntax The pattern of word order in sentences, clauses, and phrases and the effect of word order on meaning. Syntactic knowledge can aid readers in decoding unknown words in context.
Vocabulary The stock of words for which a person knows or understands the meaning.
Vowels Refers to sounds and letters. The sounds represented by the letters a, e, i, o, u. The letter y can serve as a vowel when it is not in the initial position of a word (e.g., why). The w can function as a vowel when it follows a vowel (e.g., cow). Vowels are the most prominent sound in and defining feature of a syllable. Vowel letters typically represent more than one vowel sound. Vowel sounds can be represented by a variety of letter combinations (e.g., the long vowel a can also be represented by ai in bait, eigh in eight, and ay in day).
Long vowel sounds are associated with the letter name of a vowel. Long vowel sounds are often marked by a macron (¯):
make
broke
beak
unit
pie
Short vowel sounds are another group of sounds associated with the vowel letters. The short vowel is marked by a brev (˘), and the sound of each vowel letter is found in the following words:
bad
body
bed
bud
bid
L Controlled Vowels Occurs when the letter form of a vowel is followed by the letter l, which alters the vowel sound (e.g., when the letter a is followed by an l, a particular sound is produced, as in shallow and tall.)
R Controlled Vowels Occurs when a letter form of a vowel is followed by the letter r, which alters the sound of the vowel (e.g., star, her, sir, for, burr).
Vowel Digraphs Two adjacent vowels that represent one sound, usually the long sound of one of the vowel letters (e.g., bead, boat, beet, bay, sew, die, chief).
Vowel Diphthongs Also known as vowel blends. Diphthongs are sounds made up of the blending of two vowel sounds (e.g., oi as in boil, oy as in boy, ou as in ouch, ow as in how, and aw as in flaw).
Word Family Also known as phonogram or rime. See syllable.
Word Recognition The process of analyzing a word in print in order to determine its pronunciation. Same as decoding and word identification.
