Sounds and Letters
• How many speech sounds are in the
following words?
– ox
– thank
– though
boil
straight
king
shout
• Underline the consonant blends: doubt,
known, first, pumpkin, squawk, scratch.
Linguistics
This is the formal study of language and
how it works. You do not have to be a
linguist to be an effective teacher of reading
and writing.
With a basic knowledge of phonics and
linguistics you’ll be able to help students by
• Interpreting and responding to student errors.
• Choosing the best examples for teaching decoding
and spelling.
• Organizing and sequencing information for
instruction.
• Using your knowledge of morphology to explain
spellings.
• Integrating the components of language
instruction.
Definitions
• A phoneme is a speech sound. It is the
smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one
word from another. Men has three
phonemes: /m/ /e/ /n/
• A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning
in language
• A Grapheme is the written representation of
one sound. Ex: /b/ = b, /ch/ = ch
• There are 44 phonemes in the English language
(although this is debated).
• They are represented by 26 letters
• A letter can sometimes represent more than one
sound. Ex. a sounds differently in the following
words: at, ate, all, was.
• There are hundreds of spellings that can be used to
represent the phonemes. Only the most common
need to be taught.
Consonants
• Consonants can be categorized according to
– How they are produced
– Where they are produced in the mouth
– Whether they are voiced or unvoiced.
• The 5 major categories of consonants based on
their manner of articulation include the following:
–
–
–
–
–
plosives (stops) /b/,/p/,/d/,/t/,
Fricatives /f/,/v/,/th/ /z/
Nasals /m/,/n/,/ng/
Liquids /l/,/r/
Glides /w/,/y/,/h/
Vowels
• 19 of the 44 English phonemes are vowel
phonemes.
• The consonants w and y often act as vowels.
Y acts as a vowel when it appears at the end
of a word or syllable. W acts as a vowel
when it is used in combination with another
vowel.
In basal readers vowels are generally
classified into the following categories
• Long-vowel sounds. These are also referred
to as glided sounds.
• Short-vowel sounds. These are also
referred to as unglided sounds
• Other vowel sounds. These include
diphthongs, schwa, and the r-controlled
vowels.
Diphthongs
/oi/ (boil, boy), /ou/ (house,cow)
These are vowel sounds that are formed by a
gliding action in the mouth.
R-controlled vowels
/ar/ (chair), /ur/ (fern, bird, hurt), /ar/ (park)
The letter r affects the sound of the vowel
that precedes it in many ways.
• Schwa
(alone, happen, direct, gallop, circus)
Not all linguists consider this a separate
sound. The schwa is also known as as
murmur or neutral sound. Up to 22
different spellings of the schwa sound have
been identified.
A good phonics lesson:
• Uses a logical sequence
• is explicit in the introduction of sound-spelling
relationships
• Provides frequent, daily lessons
• Keeps the lessons relatively brief and fast-paced
• Keeps the lesson focused
• Begins with what children know
• Creates a classroom environment in which children
become active word watchers
• Provides a built in review of previously taught soundspellings.
Components of a good lesson
• Repeated readings
• Phonemic awareness exercises
• Explicit introduction of sound/spelling
relationship
• Blending opportunities
• Word-building opportunities
• Controlled text reading opportunities
• Dictation