The English Alphabetic Code
The English language has a
fascinating history – but this has resulted in a complex
alphabetic code
for the writing system whereby the 26 letters of the alphabet reprent
the 44 or so smallest sounds identifiable in English speech in three complicated ways:
1.
one sound (
phoneme
) can be reprented by one, two, three or four letters
: e.g.
/
a / a
, /
f / ph ,
/igh / igh , /oa / ough 2. one sound can be reprented by multiple spelling alternatives (graphemes ): e.g. /oa /: o , oa , ow , oe , o-e , eau , ough
3. one grapheme (letter or letter group) can reprent multiple sounds : e.g. ‘ough’: /oa / th ough , /or / th ough t, long /oo / thr ough , /ou / pl ough , /u / thor ough On this Alphabetic Code Chart , the units of sound (phonemes or combined phonemes) are shown in slash marks. Vowel sounds are shown in red and consonant sounds are shown in blue. The vowel sounds provide the main volume and depth in spoken words whereas the consonant sounds are generally much quieter and sometimes very high-pitched such as /s / and /t /. Teachers need to teach the parate units of sounds carefully, avoiding the added ‘schwa’ or “uh ” sound: e.g. “sss ” not “suh ”; “t ” not “tuh ”.
units of sound simple code
key words complex code graphemes or spelling alternatives + key words which are code for the sounds
information
/a / a
a pple
The Synthetic Phonics Teaching Principles
Teach the KNOWLEDGE of the alphabetic code ; that is, the
letter/s-sound correspondences.
Teach the THREE CORE SKILLS :
1. DECODING : Sound out and blend all-through-the-printed-word for reading unknown words.
2. ENCODING : Orally gment (identify) the sounds all-through-the-spoken-word for spelling; then lect the correct graphemes AS CODE FOR the identified sounds in that particular word.
3. HANDWRITING : Hold the pencil with the tripod grip and form correctly the 26 upper ca and 26 lower ca letters on writing lines .
/e / e
e gg
-ea
h ea d -ai
s ai d ag ai n
/i / i
i nct
-y
c y mbals /o / o o ctopus
w a w a tch
qu a qu a lify a lt s a lt
/u / u u mbrella
o s o n -ou t ou ch -ough no thor ough fare
/ai / ai
first ai d
-ay tr ay a t a ble -ae sund ae a -e c a k e
-
ey pr ey
-ea br ea k
eigh eigh t
-aigh
str aigh t ______
/ ee ea
ey
igh ie -y
fl y e ei
der
ow oe e ough eau
nicorn u-e eu
pn eu matic drill
oo oul
ue u-e ew ui
ou o ough
ntment
oy
ow
-al f
h al f
or oar oor ore our aw au ar
drobe
ar augh ough
thday ur
n ur
or
our -ar
coll ar
or / air are -ear
b ear
ere
/ eer ear ere ier
oor ure
bb
ck ch
ch ameleon
que / d dd
le
ed
eathers
ph
otogra ph
gh
gg gu gh
ge
ge
dge
le
mm -mb
thu mb
mn
nn kn ng
nk nc
qu
een ard
rr wr
nake ss ce c i
c ity sc
issors
ps
eudonym tt ed bt
ve
/ w wh
