Phonics and Reading: Key Concept
· Phonics?
Phon-ics
/’faniks’/
Noun:
o The relationship between letters and sounds,
o Phonics is one method of teaching children how to read. Children are taught how to “sound out” new words by learning the following items:
· Phonemes:
Pho-nime
/’fonem/
Noun=Phonetics
Plural noun: phonemes
o Phonemic cognizance is the capability to hear, recognize, and operate individual sounds-
o any of the perceptually different units of sound in a identified language that differentiate one word from another, for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat.
o Words are prepared up from small units of sound called phonemes.
o There are 44 phonemes in English
o The two major phoneme categories are vowels and consonants.
· Consonants sound:
o All the letters in the alphabet except a, e, i, o and u (called vowels) are identified as consonants.
o Consonant letters sounds: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z
o Blend sounds: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, wr, bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl, scr, str, sm, sn, sp, sc, sk,
o A consonant is a talking sound that is not a vowel. It also denotes to letters of the alphabet that represent those sounds: z, b, t, g and h are all consonants. Consonants are all the non-vowel sounds, or their matching letters: a, e, I, o and u sometimes Y is not consonants. In hat, h and t are consonants.
o The 21 consonant letters in the English alphabet are b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z, and generally w and y.
o A consonant is a letter of the alphabet which represents a rudimentary speech sound produced by blocking the breath in the vocal tract. For example:
§ T is pronounced consuming the tongue (front part)
§ K is pronounced consuming the tongue (back part)
§ B is pronounced by the lips
§ H is pronounced in the throat
§ F is pronounced by pushing air through a narrow gap
§ M is pronounced using the nasal
· Vowel:
Vow-el
/’vou(a)l/
o vowel sounds are the sounds that give words their volume
o Five of the 26 symbols letters are vowels: a, e, i, o, and u the letter y is from time to time measured a sixth vowel because it can sound like other vowels. Not like consonants, each of the vowel letters has more than one kind of sound or can even be silent with no sound at all.
o In phonics: a vowel is a sound pronounced with an open vocal tract, so that the tongue does not bit the lips, teeth, or roof of the mouth, such as the English “ah” /ɑː/ or “oh” /oʊ/.
· Short vowel sounds:
o Short vowels sounds are a, e, I, o, u
o Always teach short vowel sounds first: a – apple, e – elephant, i- igloo, o – octopus, u – umbrella)
o When there is one vowel in a word, either at the beginning or between two consonants, it usually has the short vowel sound. “fat, bed, fish, spot, luck”.
o Short vowel words that end in ‘ck’ such as black, suck, knock, duck, sick etc.
o When a vowel is followed by a consonant, the vowel is short such as in, it, at, egg, ink, etc.
o When there is only one vowel in a word and it is anywhere except at the end of a word, it usually has a short sound.
o When a word has a vowel followed by two of the same consonants in a row (called a double consonant), a short sound is used for the vowel.
o When one-syllable words have a vowel in the middle, the vowel usually has a short sound. Examples: cat, dog, man, hat etc.
o Some other three-lettered words that are considered short vowel words are:
· Short “a” Words
o act, apt, ask, bat, bad, bag, cat, cap, cab, dad, dab, Dan, fan, fat, fad, gap, gab, gal, gas, ham, has, had, hat, jab, jam, lab, lad, lag, lap, man, mad, mat, map, nap, pan, Pam, pad, pal, ran, ram, rag, rat, Sam, sad, sag, sat, sap, tab, tan, tad, tag, tap, van, vat, yam, zap
· Short “e” Words
o Ben, bed, beg, bet, den, fed, gem, get, gel, hen, hem, jet, Ken, keg, led, leg, let, men, met, net, pen, peg, pet, red, set, ten, Ted, vet, yet, wed, wet
· Short “ i” Words
o bin, bid, big, bit, dim, did, dig, dip, fin, fig, fit, gin, gig, him, his, hid, hit, hip, jib, Jim, jig, jip, kin, Kim, kid, kit, lid, lit, lip, nip, pin, pig, pit, rim, rid, rig, rip, sin, sit, sip, tin, tip, win, wit, zip, zit
· Short “o” Words
o bop, con, cod, cog, cot, cop, Don, dog, dot, fog, God, got, hog, hot, jog, jot, lob, log, lot, lop, mob, mom, mop, nod, not, pod, pot, rod, rot, son, sod, ton, Tom, tot, top, won
· Short “u” Words
o bun, bum, bus, bud, bug, but, cud, cut, cup, dug, fun, gun, gum, Gus, gut, hum, hug, hut, jug, jut, lug, mug, nun, nut, pun, pug, pup, rub, run, rum, rug, rut, sub, sun, sum, tug
· Long vowel sounds:
o When a word has two vowels, generally the first vowel says its name and the second vowel is quiet.
§ Such as mail, gain, bake, ape, paint, grey, cake, tape, rain, make, hate, sea, tea, reach, hide, bike
o If a word has one vowel and it comes at the end of the word, that word usually has a long vowel sound. Such as he, we, why, me, by, go, she, no, be
o The vowel i and o have the long vowel sound when tracked by two or more consonants usually has a long vowel sound. Such as child, mind, light, cold, fold, most, post, hold, told
o When a syllable ends in a silent “e”, the silent “e” is a signal that the vowel in front of it is long. Examples: “Make gene, kite, rope, and use”.
o When a vowel is followed by an “r” in the same syllable, that vowel is “r-controlled”. It is neither long nor short. “R-controlled “er,ir,and ur” often sound the same (like “er”). Examples: “term, sir, fir, fur, far, for, su/gar, or/der”.
o When there are two or more vowels and the word ends with the vowel ‘E’, two things happen. The ending vowel ‘E’ is silent, and the vowel that comes before it has a long sound.
o When two vowel letters are together, the first vowel letter has a long sound and the second vowel letter is silent.
o A vowel is usually short when there is only one vowel in a word or syllable, as in cat, bed, and hot. However, there are exceptions to this rule, such as with irregular vowels. There is both a long and short sound to “oo”. The short sound appears as in the words book, booth, and took.
o Where there is only one vowel and it comes at the end of the word, it usually has a long sound. Such as he, she etc.
o When ‘O’ is a double vowel, it makes different sounds. Such as book, took etc. are long sounds.
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With the long “A” sound
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face
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fatal
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Alien
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Brave
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Graze
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Hesitate
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Inflate
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Name
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Place
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Rate
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State
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Vibrate
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Acorn
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Flaky
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Game
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Change
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With the long “AI” sound
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Aid
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Bail
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Bait
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Chain
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Braid
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Drain
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Fail
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Frail
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Gait
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Hail
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Jail
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Maintain
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Maid
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Nail
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Plain
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Quail
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Raid
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Sail
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Sprain
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Strait
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Nail
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Trait
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Wait
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vain
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With the long “AY” sound
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Day
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Away
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Always
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Betray
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Clay
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Lay
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May
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Pay
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Say
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Stray
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Slay
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Spray
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Sway
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Tray
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Way
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Stay
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With the long “E” sound
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Be
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Me
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She
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Even
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These
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Complete
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We
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He
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· Vowels pairs:
o A vowel pair is two vowel letters together, that make just one sound. For example, in the words “each” and “fear” the [ea] makes just one vowel sound, so this is a vowel pair. However, in “idea” and “create” the [ea] is not a vowel pair – there are two vowel sounds, and those two sounds are in different syllables.
· Vowels blends:
o Vowel digraphs are: ai, au, aw, ay, ea, ee, ei, ew, ie, oa, oo, ou, ow. 10. Initial consonant Blends: A consonant blend is two or more consonants that come together in a word. Their sounds blend together, but each sound is heard.
o R controlled vowel sounds: ar, er, ir, or, ur
o Notice that er,ir and ur make the same sound.
· Digraphs:
di-graph
/’di,graf/
Noun:
o Combination of two letters that one sound, as in ph and ey are called digraphs.
o Digraphs that spell consonant sounds comprise of the letter sets sh, ch, th, wh, ck, ph, ng.
o Digraphs that spell vowel sounds contain the letter set ai, ay, ee, ea, ie, ei, oo, ou. ow, oe, oo, ue, ey, ay, oy, oi, au, aw.
· Trigraphs:
Tri-graph
/’tri-graf/
Noun:
o A trigraph is comprised of three letters that make one sound. for example: In the word ‘match’, the three letters ‘tch’ at the end make only one sound.
· Diphthongs:
o Diphthongs are vowel sounds/ semi-vowel sounds that combine two separate sounds into a single unbroken sound.
o Words having two letters together with one vowel and making one sound are called diphthongs.
o Two common dipthongs in English are /ow/ sound as in the word cow, how, now, wow, owl, gown, allow, and the /oy/ sound as in the word boy, toy, joy, royal, enjoy.
A consonant blends:
o When we combine two or three consonants that make consonant cluster words, cluster means group, bunch, or collection. such as “bl” or “spl.” Consonant digraphs include bl, br, ch, ck, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gh, gl, gr, ng, ph, pl, pr, qu, sc, sh, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, th, tr, tw, wh, wr.
· Hard and Soft sound of “C” and “G”:
o “C” followed by “e, i or y” usually has the soft sound of “s”. Examples: “cyst”, “central”, and “city”.
o “G” followed by “e, i or y” usually has the soft sound of “j”. Example: “gem”, “gym”, and “gist”.
o Usually, a c or g sound is hard or soft depending on the vowel that follows it. Here’s the general rule:
o When c or g meets a, o, or u, its sound is hard.
Cap, cave, colt, comedy, curly, cuddle
Gas, gather, goblet, goddess, gum, gutter
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