Learning+to+read+and+Phonics

Learning to read and phonics: by Mikel Close
Learning to read and write are two of the most difficult and important disciplines that students ever undergo. There are many tools required in order to understand and utilise the many aspects of the English language. Some of these aspects include letter recognition, the alphabetic principle; the concept that letters contained in words generally represent specific sounds, spelling and phonics. Phonics is an integral part of understanding literature as it is the “instruction in the sound – letter relationship used in reading and writing, which involves understanding the alphabetic principle” (Hill p.210). According to Hill, Phonics can be divided into a five stage process. The stages are ‘letters of the alphabet, onset and rime word families, blends, digraphs, and a structural analysis of more complex words’. The first stage of learning to read is to have some understanding of the alphabet, and be able to recognize and say the names of the letters as well as the common sounds of each letter. This includes upper and lower case letters. It is possibly best to begin learning the alphabet with individual, easily recognizable (in sound as well as look), commonly used letters. Good examples of these letters are //s, m, a, p, t.// These letters are visually different from each other as well as being formed with different mouth shapes and having distinct sounds. A small group of letters should be practised before continuing to learn the next small group of letters. Some consonant letters have more than one sound such as //c// in cerebral, compared to the //c// in Casablanca. These sound comparisons can be described as ‘hard’ or ‘soft’, with cerebral containing the ‘soft’ sounding //c.// Vowel sounds often require the users mouth to change shape, for example //a// in anchor, //o// in //orange//. All five vowels have an array of sounds depending on their context. Each have a long sound as well as a short sound, such as //pure// ///but, park/pat, here/bet, high/hit, how/hot//. The second phase of learning to understand literature is to recognise word families, or onsets and rimes, as well as three letter words consisting of a consonant – vowel – consonant arrangement. Onset and rime is a way of dividing up words in a way that makes them sayable to a novice reader. The onset is the consonant or consonants that appear before a vowel. The rime is the vowel and the consonants that follow it. Words can easily be broken up using this method, for example the word //shark, sh-ark; prank, pr-ank; plant, pl-ant.// This also works for many more complex words containing two or more syllables such as //understand, und-erst-and; consonant, c-ons-on-ant; comparisons, c-omp-ar-is-ons,// although a beginner reader would not be subject to these words at this stage of reading development. The rime element of these simpler words can usually be found at the end of other similar words. The words //say, pay, gay, day, way, lay, ray and may// all have the same rime but a different onset. Other words that could be added to this list include //stay, pray, play, tray, clay and slay// but only after blends have been learnt, the third stage of phonics. Blends or clusters occur when two or three consonants are combined. Consonant blends generally occur at either the beginning or ending of words containing one syllable, and are grouped accordingly. When vocalizing clusters, all of the letters in the cluster are sounded. Examples of blends that start words are: //bl – blue, black, bleak; pr – prop, prep, prompt; gr – grass, green, grew; st – stray, stripe, stop; tw – two, twin, twig.// Examples of blends that finish words are: //rb – herb, orb, curb; mp – stomp, jump, pimp;// //rt – part, start, dart; nk – sink, pink, link; sk – ask, task, dusk.// More complex yet less common consonant blends contain three letters and can be found at the beginning, at the end and sometimes even within words. Some examples of three letter blends at the beginning of words are: //spl – splash, splurge; spr – spring, sprite, sprinkler; scr – screen, scream, scratch.// Three letter blends that conclude words include: //mpt – prompt; rst – first; rld – world.// Three letter blends found within words include: //str – frustrate, castrate; spr – osprey, hairspray; scr – escrow.// Stage four of learning to read can be divided into three or four sections beginning with digraphs, vowel digraphs, and most other usable letter combinations. The vowel digraphs are divided into two sections because many have more than one pronunciation. Digraphs are different combinations of pairs of letters that make one sound. Consonant digraphs combine two consonant letters to represent one different sound. Common examples of these are //sh, ch, ph, th// and //ck.// Most of these can occur at either the beginning or end of words: //ship – lash, church, photo – graph, thin – bath.// Vowel digraphs follow the basic structure of consonant digraphs but have vowels instead. Apart from //th// which has two ways of saying it (either //thick// or //there//), consonant digraphs generally represent only one sound, whereas vowel digraphs often represent more than one sound. An example of vowel digraphs that sound the same is: //oe, o-e, o, oa, ow,// as in //toe, rove, go, throat, slow//. These five words sound similar but achieve their sounds with different letter combinations. Some of these letter combinations represent multiple sounds, such as: //oe – toe, shoe; o – go, got; ow – tow, cow.// Other letter combinations include the remaining groups of letters that represent sounds. Some of these letter groups are ://air, ear, ould, ough,// and silent letters. The final stage of phonics involves syllables, and altering the structure of base words. This includes adding prefixes and suffixes, compound words, and word additions that alter the tense of words. Syllables are a useful tool for analysing word structures. Within each word there are as many syllables as there are vowel sounds. Each syllable is divided from the next either between two consonants, or when there is only one consonant, before it. For example: //con struc tion, ba na na, com pu ter.// This is not so in the cases of consonant blends and consonant digraphs, these words are split either before or after the cluster, such as: //preach er, ma chine// and // a gree//. Often the easiest way to learn about syllables is to think of them as the rhythmic beats of words. The amount of beats per word is also the amount of syllables. Certain suffixes can be quite difficult to learn due to multiple procedures being used in order to change the word. In cases where words end in ‘//e’,drop the ‘//e//’// when adding a suffix that begins with a vowel. For example: // bake – baker, baking, baked; race – racer, racing, raced, racist; pure – purist, purest, purer//. Another multistep rule in regards to suffixes is, when a word ends with a single consonant, and contains only one vowel sound, the consonant is usually doubled when a suffix is added that begins with a vowel, for example: //big – bigger, biggest; swim - swimmer, swimming; run – runner, running.// Prefixes add to the beginning of words. Some common prefixes are: //re – resell, reinstate, reenrol; un – undo, undress, unforgiving.// Contractions occur when two words are joined together to create one word, one or more of the letters are replaced by an apostrophe, and although the pronunciation has changed the meaning has not. The words //can’t, won’t, they’ve// and //wasn’t,// are the contractions of //can not, will not, they have and was not//. Compound words occur when two words are joined together to create a new word. //Football, footrot// and //foothold// are all compound words consisting of the word //foot//, added to the words //ball, rot// and //hold//. Each new word has its’ own meaning.