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:
< sound (phoneme) can be reprented by one, two, three or four letters: e.g. /a/ a, /f/ ph, /igh/ igh, /oa/ ough
< sound can be reprented by multiple spelling alternatives (graphemes): e.g. /oa/: o, oa, ow, oe, o-e, eau, ough
< 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
thor ough fare
/ai/ ai
first ai d -ay
tr ay
a
t a ble
-ae
sund ae
a-e
c a k e s -ey
pr ey
-ea
br ea k
eigh
eigh t
-aigh
str aigh t
/ee/ ee
ee l ea
ea t
e
e mu
e-e
concr e t e
Teach a simple code (basic or
transparent) first; that is, mainly one
spelling for each sound at a rate of
two to five letter/s-sound
correspondences per week. The
simple code is part of the complex
code – a first step towards
teaching the alphabetic code.
Keep the simple code revid and
begin to introduce spelling and
pronunciation alternatives of
the complex code (extended,
advanced or opaque code) at a rate
appropriate to the age, stage and
ability of the learners.
APPLICATION
Provide a cumulative bank of words,
ntences and texts at code level:
< model blending, gmenting
for spelling, and handwriting
2.for each learner to practi
his or her growing skills of blending,
gmenting and handwriting
increasingly independently.
Provide cumulative, decodable
reading books at code level.
‘Two-pronged’
teaching approach
Teach a systematic, planned
synthetic phonics programme
alongside incidental teaching of
any letter/s-sound correspondences
as required for differentiation, wider
reading and spelling and for the
wider curriculum - for individuals,
groups and whole class.
-ey
k ey
-ie
ch ie f
-i ne
sard i nes
between
/i and ee/ -y
sunn y -ey
monk ey
-ie
mov ie
/igh/ -igh
n igh t -ie
t ie
i
beh i nd
-y
fl y
i-e
b i k e
ei
ei der duck
/oa/ oa
oa k tree ow
b ow
o
y o-y o
-oe
ob oe
o-e
r o p e -ough
d ough
-eau
plat eau
/y+oo/ -ue
barbec ue u
u nicorn
u-e
t u b e
ew
n ew
eu
pn eu matic
short /oo/ -oo
b oo k -oul
sh oul d
-u
p u sh
long /oo/ oo
m oo n -ue
bl ue
u-e
fl u t e
-ew
cr ew
-ui
fr ui t -ou
s ou p
-o
m o ve
-ough
thr ough
/oi/ oi
oi ntment oy t oy
/ou/ ou
ou ch !ow
ow l
-ough
pl ough
Accents
Teaching the English alphabetic
code is not an ‘exact science’ and
accents need to be taken into
account at all times along with the
notion of ‘tweaking’ (modifying)
pronunciation when decoding to
reach the correct target word or
preferred pronunciation.
Schwa effect for reading
Modifying pronunciation also helps
to rai awareness of the schwa
effect (unstresd syllables) whereby,
in reality, a sound clo to /u/ is the
spoken translation of the written
code in words such as ‘sof a’ (sof u),
‘fast er’ (fast u), ‘litt le’ (litt u l),
‘a round’ (u round). This is common.
Schwa effect for spelling
Be aware of the schwa effect when
gmenting spoken words for
spelling.
The ability to spell accurately relies
on a growing awareness of
spelling alternatives and
knowledge of spelling word
banks (words with the same
spelling and sound). This knowledge
takes much longer to acquire.
Emphasi the process for spelling of
SOUND-TO-PRINT rather than
relying on visual memory and recall
of letter order and letter names.
Decoding is the rever process:
PRINT-TO-SOUND.
/ar/ ar
ar tist a
f a ther
al m
p al m
-al f
h al f
-al ves
c al ves
/or/ or /aw/ dependent upon regional or national accents or
f or k
oar
oar s
-oor
d oor
ore
sn ore
-our
f our aw
d aw n
au
s au ce
-al
ch al k
w ar
w ar drobe
qu ar
qu ar ter augh
c augh t
ough
th ough t
/ur/ or can be /er/er
m er maid
ir
b ir thday
ur
n ur
ear
ear th
w or
w or ld
schwa /u/ or ‘schwa /er/ ’ -er
mix er
-
our
hum our
-re
theat re
-ar
coll ar
-or
sail or
/air/ air
h air -are
h are
-
ear
b ear
-ere
wh ere
/eer/ eer
d eer ear
ear s
-ere
adh ere
-ier
cash ier
/
oor/ -oor
p oor -ure s ure
/y+oor/ -ure
p ure
units of sound simple code
key words
complex code graphemes or spelling alternatives
+ key words which are code for the sounds information
/b/ b
b at -bb
ra bb it
bu
bu ilding
The notion of a ‘code’
Root all the teaching for decoding
and encoding in the CODE - that is,
the relationship between the sounds
of speech and their spelling
alternatives (the graphemes). This
means avoiding the following ideas:
*that letters ‘say’ sounds - they say
nothing, they simply prompt us to
generate the sounds either ‘aloud’
or silently ‘in our heads’
*that there are ‘silent’ letters as in
‘k n’, ‘w r’, ‘m b’, ‘g n’ and so on –
the are simply further graphemes
which ARE CODE FOR the sounds –
this is consistent, for example, with
saying that the grapheme ‘igh’ is
code for the /igh/ sound (we don’t
suggest that ‘gh’ are ‘silent letters’
in the grapheme ‘igh’)
*that the end letter ‘e’ of split
digraphs a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e and u-e
“make the preceding vowel SAY ITS
NAME” – this is inconsistent with
modern synthetic phonics teaching
rooted in the ‘alphabetic code’.
To work out ‘the code’, start
from a whole spoken word said
slowly. Orally gment the word
into its sounds and map tho onto
the graphemes in the written word.
/
k/ k
k it c
c at
-ck
du ck
ch
ch ameleon
qu
bou qu et
que
pla que
/
d/ d
d ig -dd
pu dd le
-ed
rain ed
/f/ f
f eathers -ff
cli ff
ph
ph otogra ph
-gh
lau gh
/g/ g
g irl -gg
ju gg le
gu
gu itar
gh
gh ost
-gue
catalo gue
/h/ h
h at wh wh o
/j/ j
j ug -ge
cabba ge
g e
g erbil
g i
g iraffe
g y
g ymnast
-dge
fri dge
/l/ l
l adder -ll she ll
/u+l/ -le
kett le -il
penc il
-al
hospit al
-el
cam el
/m/ m
m ap -mm
ha mm er
-me
welco me
-mb
thu mb
-mn
colu mn s
/n/ n
n et -nn
bo nn et
kn
kn ot
gn
gn ome
-ne
engi ne
THE SUB-SKILLS OF THE
THREE CORE SKILLS
DECODING SUB-SKILLS:
Without print – hear the
individual sounds of a word and
‘discern’ the word (= oral
blending): hear /z/ /i/ /p/, say “zip”;
hear /k/ /oa/ /t/, say “coat”
With print – e the graphemes
and say the sounds to automaticity;
e s, say /s/; e oa, say /oa/; e
ph, say /f/
U capital letter resources – not
just lower ca letters. Capital
letters ARE THE SAME CODE AS
lower ca letters.
ENCODING SUB-SKILLS:
Without print – hear the whole
spoken word said slowly, train the
learner to split the word into its
constituent sounds from beginning
to end (= oral gmenting): “zip”
“/z/ /i/ /p/”; “coat” “/k/ /oa/ /t/” (with
no print, you can u any sounds)
-u the left hand, palm facing to
tally the parate sounds onto the
thumb and fingers from left to right
With print – lect grapheme tiles
or magnetic letters, or write the
letters, to spell the sounds identified
[U manipulatives, such as
grapheme tiles, at the basic code
stage for young learners as they get
to grips with handwriting skills –
then focus on handwriting to spell.]
/ng/ -ng
go ng -n ju n gle
/n g+k/ -nk
i nk -nc u nc le
/p/ p
p an -pp pu pp et
/k+w/ qu
qu een kw aw kw ard
/r/ r
r at -rr
a rr ow
wr
wr ite
rh
rh inoceros
/s/ s
s nake -ss
gla ss
-ce
pala ce
c e
c ents
c i
c ity
c y
bi c ycle -
hou
sc
sc issors
-st-
ca st le
ps
ps eudonym
/t/ t
t en t -tt
le tt er
-
ed
skipp ed
pt
pt erodactyl
-bt
de bt
/v/ v
v iolin -ve do ve
/w/ w
w eb wh
wh eel
-
u
peng u in
