Chapter 7:
Irregular Word Reading
By Cheryl Fuller
WHAT ARE IRREGULAR WORDS?
• IRREGULAR WORDS: Not all words can be
read by sounding them out. Students have
to learn to identify these words as wholes, or
automatically by sight.
– Permanently irregular words contain one or more
sound/spellings that are not pronounced
conventionally and are unique to that word or a
few words.
– Temporarily irregular words become decodable
words as students are taught and learn all the
sound/spellings in a word.
• HIGH-FREQUENCY WORDS: Only
100 words account for approximately
50% of words in text used in schools
and colleges.
– 25% are permanently irregular
*They appear often in printed text.
*They are crucial for comprehension.
*They include function words (articles,
prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions)
and are the glue that holds sentences
together.
CONNECTING TO THEORY
From the following list of most frequent words
in school and college text, identify five words
that could be considered permanently irregular.
is
they
the for
of
you that with
it
be
and he
was his
to
on
from at
a
as
had or
I
in
are
ANSWER KEY
Depending on the program’s phonics scope &
sequence, the words in orange could be
considered permanently irregular.
is
they
the for
of
you that with
it
be
and he
was his
to
on
from at
a
as
had or
I
in
are
WHAT IRREGULAR WORDS ARE TAUGHT?
Select irregular words for instruction from
upcoming stories, passages, or other connected
texts that students will be reading.
SEQUENCE OF INTRODUCTION (Carnine et al.
(2006):
-Word Frequency – Introduce high-frequency irregular
words before low-frequency irregular words.
-Word Similarity – Pairs of words such as of-off, theretheir, were-where should be introduced at different times
allowing the needed time for a student to master the first
word of the pair.
-Word Relationship – When irregular words belong to the
same word family (containing similar letter patterns, or
phonograms) they should be introduced in sets.
WHY TEACH IRREGULAR WORDS?
• RESEARCH FINDINGS:
– O’Connor, 2007 – The rewards for learning (highfrequency) words thoroughly and reliably are smoother,
less effortful reading and perhaps a greater inclination to
read independently (which in turn may also increase a
student’s store of instantly recognized words).
– Pikulski, 2006 - …if developing readers cannot instantly
identify (high-frequency) words, they are unlikely to
become fluent because of the widespread presence of
these words.
– Blevins, 2006 - …children don’t learn “irregular” words as
easily or quickly as they do “regular “ words … Therefore,
children need to be taught “irregular” high-frequency
words with explicit instruction.
WHEN TO TEACH IRREGULAR WORDS?
Introduce irregular words after students can
read regular CVC words at a rate of about one
word every 3 seconds.
-This strengthens students’ reliance on
identifying a word by sounding it out rather
than by identifying it as a whole. (Carnine et
al. 2006)
Student performance should determine the right
number of irregular words to introduce at one time.
-It is important not to overwhelm children with
too rapid an introduction of irregular words.
(Carnine et al. 2006)
When to Assess Irregular Words?
• Teachers should frequently assess
students’ mastery of high-frequency
regular and irregular words to inform
classroom instruction.
• Each type of word should be monitored
separately.
• Simply ask students to read aloud from a
set of previously introduced irregular
words.
• Also keep a record of any irregular words
students have problems with while
reading connected text.
HOW TO TEACH IRREGULAR WORDS?
• SOUND-OUT STRATEGY:
Students examine all the letters in a word and then point
out the irregularity in one or more of the word’s
sound/spelling patterns.
-Introduce Irregular Words - Display the word. Point to the
word. Say the word. Ask what the word is. Sound out
the word using each letter’s most common sound. “That
is how we sound out the word, but this is the way we say
it.” Pronounce the word correctly.
-Practice Irregular Words - Using magnetic letters and dryerase boards with markers, have students practice
spelling the word many different ways. Students should
identify and read the word, touching each letter in the
word while spelling it outloud. Students should write the
word big, small, in uppercase letters, in lowercase
letters, and finally by memory.
-Word Reading Practice for Automaticity Using a word recognition grid, have students
practice reading irregular words sweeping
across each row and then down each
column.
was
do
said
do
said
was
said
was
do
-Apply to Decodable Text - Provide
students with connected reading materials
in which most of the words are wholly
decodable and the majority of the
remaining words are previously taught
irregular words.
-Corrective Feedback – For an incorrect
pronunciation of a word, stop immediately
and model the correct pronunciation. For
errors, such as saying “wăăăsss” for
“wuz”, point to the ear and say, “We
actually say /wuz/.
• SPELL-OUT STRATEGY:
Explain that irregular words cannot be sounded out in the
regular way.
-Introduce Irregular Words – The teacher displays the word,
reads the word, and uses the word in a sentence. Then the
students read, spell, read, spell, read the word. Quickly
sweep your finger under the whole word when asking the
student to read the word and point to each letter as the
student spells the word.
-Practice Irregular Words – Use same procedure as SoundOut Strategy
-Word Reading Practice for Automaticity – Use same
procedure as Sound-Out Strategy.
-Apply to Decodable Text – Use the same procedure as
Sound-Out Strategy.
-Corrective Feedback – If a student pronounces a word
incorrectly, simply tell them the correct pronunciation.
Conclusion
Decoding is a highly reliable strategy for
identifying regular words, but not all words
are regular, or can be read by sounding them
out. Beginning readers do not learn irregular
words as quickly or accurately as regular
words. Irregular words need to be
systematically introduced in a reasonable
order, practiced, and then cumulatively
reviewed.
Information provided in this presentation is referenced from
Chapter 7 of the Teaching Reading Sourcebook by Honig,
Diamond, & Gutlohn.