Phonics Terms for English Language Teachers

 WHAT is PHONICS?

Phonics is a teaching method for reading that emphasizes letter-sound relationships. It focuses on the alphabetic principle. Learning the relationship between written letters and spoken sounds allows new readers to decode words for reading and encode words for spelling.

Note: Teaching phonics is a 'part to whole' method which works well for most learning styles. However, students who think and learn from 'whole to part' require an individualized approach to phonics.

Alphabetic Principle

The alphabetic principle is the concept that letters and letter combinations represent phonemes (sounds) of a spoken language. English is a phonetic language that also employs many patterns.

1. Alphabet: The ordered set of letters of a language. English consists of 26 letters, A to Z.

Note - Literate students from alphabetic languages may experience first-language (L1) interference if their L1 letters have different sounds.

Note -  Some countries teach the alphabet as sounds. Students from these countries need to learn the names of the letters.

2. Phoneme: a sound. English has 44 phonemes, 24 consonant sounds plus 20 vowel sounds. As shown below, one phoneme can be represented by one or more letters.

3. Grapheme/Phonogram:  A letter or group of letters representing one phoneme (sound). A grapheme may be one, two, three, or four letters in length.

• 1 letter grapheme: b, f, a, i = 1 phoneme
• 2-letter grapheme: sh, ch, th, ai, ee, oi = 1 phoneme
• 3-letter grapheme: tch, igh, dge = 1 phoneme
• 4-letter grapheme: eigh (weight), ough (bough) = 1 phoneme

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE

The greatest difference between teaching native English speakers and English learners is the background knowledge of phonemes (sounds), graphemes (letter/letter combinations), vocabulary, and age. 

Knowledge of Phonemes

A five-year-old English speaker has heard and practiced English phonemes (sounds) since birth and can easily pronounce, hear, and distinguish various sounds. An English learner will have trouble hearing, producing, and distinguishing sounds not found in their language/s.

Knowledge of Graphemes

Most English-speaking kindergarten students are familiar with English letters. These are seen everywhere, in books and stores, on signs, computers, and television. English letters may appear as squiggles to an English learner who is unfamiliar with them. More will be discussed under the concept of print.

Knowledge of Vocabulary

A five-year-old English speaker has a vocabulary of about 3,500 words. By comparison, an English learner may know only a few words of English. 

Age

Lastly, there is a wide difference in the age of the students. An English learner may be five, 15, or 55 when they begin to learn English. Many phonics materials are designed for young learners and may be unsuitable for older students.

CONCEPT of PRINT

The concept of print is a person's understanding that written or printed words carry meaning, and that reading and writing are ways to communicate information.

The concept of print is an awareness of how printed symbols work and can be categorized into four main components:

• Concept of Text: letters, words, and sentences
• Directionality: left to right and top to bottom for English
• Mechanics/Punctuation: pause with a comma and full stop with a period
• Concept of a Book: parts of a book

English learners who are learning to read can be divided into three groups.

• Nonliterate: These students have lived in an environment without print. They do not have a concept of text representing language. They need repeated exposure to print and more time to acquire the concept of text.
• Preliterate: These students are familiar with print and have observed people reading. They often have very limited or no schooling. They may have a basic concept of text and reading. Preliterate students usually learn to read more quickly than nonliterate students.
• Literate: These students can read and write in their own language/s. However, they still need to learn the letter-sound correspondence and mechanics of English. They can transfer many reading skills from their first language to English. Literate students are the quickest to learn to read in English.

Note - It is challenging for literate students whose languages track from right to left to become accustomed to reading in the opposite direction. 

• Handwriting is an important component of learning to read. If a student comes from a different writing system, they must be taught how to write both letters and numbers. Handwriting helps connect the phoneme (auditory sound) with the grapheme (visual letter) in the brain. This reinforces the concept of text.

 Handwriting by Strokes is a unique method of teaching handwriting quickly and efficiently for older students.

CONSONANTS

Consonants are marked by constriction or closure in the breath channel. There are 24 consonant phonemes in English: b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z, th (voiced), th (unvoiced), ch, sh, /zh/, /ng/. x represents two sounds /ks/.

A consonant may be a new concept for students from syllabic and logographic languages. Many consonants can be learned with an alphabet chart. The Quick Consonants chart groups consonants by how the sounds are produced. It is a fast and efficient method for teaching older students both consonants and consonant digraphs.

For more information on teaching the pronunciation of individual consonant sounds, read Teaching Consonant Pronunciation.

Consonant Digraphs

 A consonant digraph is two consecutive consonants that represent one phoneme (sound).  These can appear at the beginning, middle, and end of a word. Some digraphs appear only at the beginning of a word, whereas others appear only at the end of a word.

• All positions: that, mother, math
• Beginning position: when, write, knee
• Final position: watch, bridge, neck, sing

Some digraphs produce unique sounds (ch, sh, th), while others reduce to one of the letter sounds( ck, wr, kn). 

• Different sounds from its letters: th, sh, ch, ph, ng, gh (laugh), and dge
• Reduced to one sound: wh, wr, kn, tch, ck, and gh (ghost, cough)
• No sound: gh (high)

Consonant Blends (Teams / Clusters)

Two or more consecutive consonants commonly found together that retain their individual sounds. Blends are a common element in English.

• Initial Blends are found at the beginning of words. "bl" in blank
• Final blends are found at the end of words. "nk" in blank

A. Initial Blends: Two or three consecutive consonants frequently found together at the beginning of a word. Each letter says its own sound. There are three groups of beginning blends. 

• L Blends: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl 
• R Blends: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, spr, str, thr, tr,
• S Blends: sc, sk, sm, sn,  sp, st, sw, sch, sph 
• tw: twin, twice
• qu = /kw/: quit, quiet

B. Final Consonant Blends: Two consecutive consonants that are frequently found together at the end of a word. Each letter says its own sound. There are four groups of final blends. 

• N/M Blends: nd, nk, nt, mp
• S Blends: sk, sp, st
• L Blends: ld, lf, lk, lm, lp, lt
• T Blends: ct, ft, pt 
  

VOWELS

A vowel is a phoneme where air flows through the mouth unobstructed. The letters a, e, i, o, and u are the five major vowels. Vowel sounds can also be represented by the consonant y or a combination of vowels and consonants.

The concept of a vowel may be foreign to an English learner. Their language may not use written vowels or may not be taught with an emphasis on vowels.

Likewise, many languages use one vowel to represent one sound. English uses single vowels (can, top, but), combinations (bee, know, cloud), and patterns (make, told) to represent vowel sounds.

Most languages lack one or more of the English vowel sounds. This makes it difficult for English learners to hear and pronounce certain vowels. For example, Spanish does not have ou/ow, au/aw, or oo vowels. 

• Standard Vowels: a, e, i, o, u
• Y as a Vowel: gym, fly, type, carry
• Combinations for Vowels:
• aw: draw, straw
• ow: now, grow
• ar: car, star
• or: for, corn
• igh: light, night
• eigh: eight, weight 

Unwritten Vowels

All languages contain vowels, but some do not write their vowels. Arabic and Hebrew are alphabetic languages that do not include written vowels. Syllabic languages, like Japanese, have one symbol for a consonant + vowel combination. Logographic languages, like Chinese, use one symbol for each word. Students from these languages sometimes forget to write vowels in English.

Types of Vowels

English often divides its vowels into four different groups. Each group is discussed below.

1. Short Vowels:  The short vowel sounds are the most common vowels in English. These are often introduced first to native English speakers. These are followed by one or more final consonants (man, send, witch).

Short vowels are often more difficult for English learners because they are unfamiliar with these sounds. English learners become familiar with long vowels when they learn the letters in the alphabet. 

There are 5 short vowel sounds in English. The American "short a" is pronounced differently from the British "short a". Some short vowels are digraphs, two letters that make one sound.

• Short A: pat, man, and
• Short E: let, desk, rest
• Short I: it, bin, 
• Short O: on, dog, got
• Short U: but, jump, bus
  

Short Vowel Digraphs: Two letters that represent one vowel phoneme are vowel digraphs. Short vowel digraphs are rare and taught as exceptions.

• EA (Short E): head, bread, thread
• OU (Short O): cough
• OU (Short U): rough

Short Vowel Patterns

There are five basic short patterns. In these patterns, a C stands for a Consonant and a V stands for a Vowel. Words with the vowel + tch pattern are also common.

• VC: an, in, on, up
• CVC: van, met, tip, not, mud
• CCVC: clap. them. chip, plot, drum
• CVCC: hand, neck, fish, lock, jump
• CCVCC: black, check, drink, clock, crush
• V+tch: patch, fetch, witch, botch, hutch

Schwa: the vowel sound of an unstressed syllable in English represented by an upside-down e. Any vowel can make a schwa sound. It is considered a short vowel by linguists.

• 'a' in balloon (bəl-loon)
• 'o' in wagon (wag-ən)
• 'e' in elephant (el-ə-phant)

2. Long Vowels: These vowels say the name of the letter. These are usually taught to English speakers after short vowels. They are often taught first to English learners because they have been learned through the alphabet. 

European language speakers will have L1 interference with long vowels. The Great Vowel Shift changed English vowel sounds, making them different from European vowel sounds. Long U may be pronounced with or without a preceding y sound (use, June).

Written Patterns for Long Vowels

There are four different written patterns for writing long vowels: Silent e, vowel teams, open syllables, and vowel plus two consonants. 

• Long A: name, rain, ta-ble
• Long E: these, week, be-gin
• Long I: time, pie, ti-ger,  child
• Long O: home, boat, o-pen, sold
• Long U: tube, fruit, cu-bic, truth

Usually, Silent E words are introduced first, followed by vowel teams. Some curricula refer to silent e vowels as split digraphs. The Vowel + 2 consonants is common in English and is primarily used for long I and O words. Open syllables are taught with other syllables.

• Silent E: make, these, wide, stone, tune
• Vowel Teams: rain, beat, tie, coat, glue
• Open Syllable: ta-ble, be-gin, ti-tle, to-tal, flu-id
• Vowel + 2 consonants: find, pint, sign, old, sold, told, bolt, both, truth

Long Vowel Digraphs: Two letters that represent a long vowel phoneme (sound).  Long vowel digraphs, usually referred to as  Vowel Teams, are taught after the Silent E pattern.

Vowel Teams

• Long A: ai-rain, ay-day, eigh-weight, ei-their, ey-they, ea-great
• Long E: ee-tree, ea - eat, ey-key, ie-piece, ei-deceive
• Long I: igh-light, ie-tie, ye-bye
• Long O: oa-boat, ow-know, oe-toe
• Long U: ue-glue, ui-suit, ew-new, oo-soon, ou-you

3. Unique Digraph Vowels. Two letters that represent a unique vowel phoneme (sound). These are usually taught as a separate group from vowel teams. However, some curricula teach all digraph vowels together.

• Short OO: book, hood, look
• Long OO: too, boot, pool
• AU / AW: daughter, draw
• OI / OY: join, point, boy, toy
• OU / OW: house, cloud, brown, cow

4. R Controlled Vowels: When a vowel is followed by an "r", the vowel is changed. Common r-controlled vowels are: ar, er, ir, or, ur. The /er/ sound can be written with er, ir, ur, ear, and wor. A "w" before an r-controlled vowel changes the sound.

• /er/: her, shirt, turn, early, word, work
• ar: car, star
• or: corn, short, four, door, war
• air: hair, care
  
• ear: hear, deer, fear

5. Y as a Vowel Rule: Y in the middle of a word can be pronounced as either Short I or Long I. At the end of a one-syllable word, y says the Long I sound. At the end of a multisyllable word, y says the Long E sound. If y is at the end of a multisyllable word and the last syllable is stressed, it says Long I.

• Middle of Word: short-gym, myth / long-type, rhyme
• 1 Syllable, Long I: try, fly, cry
• Multisyllable, Long E: carry, happy, penny
• Multisyllable, last syllable stressed, Long I: reply, supply

6. Vowel Diphthong:  A vowel sound that slides from one sound to another. These are sometimes called a “gliding vowel.” The sound begins as one vowel sound and moves towards another. The mouth changes positions when making the sound. The two most common diphthongs in the English language are the letter combinations oy/oi and ow/ou. However, several long vowels slide from one vowel to another.

• OI / OY: oil, point, boy, toy
• OU / OW: house, cloud, brown, cow
• Long A slides from long a to long e (play)
• Long I slides from long i to long e (five)
• Long O slides from long o to long oo (know)
• Long U may slide from a "y" to long oo (few)

DECODING TERMS

Once the letter-sound correspondence has been learned, students can begin to learn decoding. Decoding is the ability to translate a word from print to speech by using the knowledge of letter-sound correspondence and spelling patterns. It is the act of deciphering a new word by sounding it out. The terms listed below will help English Language educators gain a better understanding of this process. Encoding is the process of spelling using letter-sound correspondence. The other processes of reading will be covered under 'Basic Reading Terms'.

WORD PARTS

Letters, onsets, rimes, syllables that when combined, result in words. Other word parts include prefixes, suffixes, base words, and word roots. (See Vocabulary Terms for more information.) The ability to recognize various word parts in multi-syllabic words is beneficial in decoding words.

1. Onset: the consonant/s before the vowel in a word. Onsets are useful for teaching sounds of individual letters, digraphs, and blends.

• c: cat, cake. count, coat, cut
• p: pad, pat, pants, pen, put
• sh: shake, shut, show, shoe, shout
• bl: blue, black, blow, blood, blank 

2. Rime: the vowel and consonants that follow an onset. These are often used to teach word families.

• -at: bat, cat, fat, mat, pat, sat, that
• -ine: dine, fine, line, mine, pine, wine
• -ow: cow, how, now, pow

3. Syllable: English has six syllable patterns. When teaching English learners, it is a good idea to teach Vowel Teams separately from Digraph Teams.

• Closed: has a short vowel and ends with one or more consonants.
  • am, in, but, did, end, sent, length
• Open: ends with a long vowel.
  • I, be, go, flu
• Silent E: has a long internal vowel and a silent e at the end.
  • Make, like, cope, tune
• Cle: ends with a consonant + le.
  • ta-ble, ti-tle, cy-cle
• R Vowel: contains an R-Vowel.
  • car, girl, mar-ker, bur-ger
• Vowel Team: contains a vowel team that makes a long vowel sound.
  • main, team, light, coat, suit
• Digraph Team: has a digraph vowel in it.
  • auto, book, tool, now, house

Note - Prefixes and suffixes usually form one syllable.

DECODING PROCESSES

The ability to translate a word from print to speech by using the knowledge of letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns. 

1. Blending: Combining the units of sound to pronounce a word.

• phonemes: s+n+a+p, blended, reads snap
• onset and rime: c+at, blended, reads cat
• syllables: yes+ter+day, blended, reads yesterday

2. Chunking: Breaking words into manageable parts for decoding or spelling. This can be done for phonemes, blends, digraphs, and syllables.

• Phonemes: m-a-n
• Blends: bl-e-nd 
• Digraphs: th-i-ng
• Syllables: yes-ter-day.

OTHER TERMS

1. Decodable Words: Words containing phonic elements that have been previously learned.

2. Decodable Text: Text in which a high proportion of words comprise sound–letter relationships that have already been learned. Decodable texts provide practice applying decoding skills and building fluency with known patterns and words.

3. Sight Words:  These are words that are recognized automatically. They may be spelled phonetically or irregularly.

Note - If an English learner is not taught phonics, they will memorize every word. In essence, they are reading logograms, similar to reading Chinese.

Often, new vocabulary is taught only as a whole word. It is helpful for English learners to break down new words into syllables.

4. Word Lists

Dolch Word List:  This list of 220 high-frequency sight words was published in 1936. It is for beginning readers in kindergarten to second grade. A list of 95 nouns has been added to the original list. It is based on the whole-word method.

Fry Word List:  This list contains 1000 high-frequency words compiled by Dr. Edward Fry in 1957 and updated in 1980. Fry words are divided into groups of 100 words to enable learning. It is based on the "American Heritage Word Frequency Book" and the whole word method.