AAA_Training_The English Alphabetic Code

8/12/2019 AAA_Training_The English Alphabetic Code

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The English Alphabetic CodeThe English language has afascinating history but this has resulted in a complex alphabetic codefor the writing system whereby the 26 letters of the alphabet

represent the 44 or so smallest sounds identifiable in English speech in three complicated ways:

1. one sound (phoneme) can be represented by one, two, three or four letters: e.g. /a/ a,/f/ ph,/igh/ igh,/oa/ ough2. one sound can be represented by multiplespelling alternatives(graphemes): e.g. /oa/:o,oa,ow,oe,o-e,eau,ough3. one grapheme (letter or letter group) can represent multiplesounds: e.g. ough:/oa/ though,/or/ thought,long/oo/ through,/ou/ plough,/u/ thorough

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 soundsare 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 veryhigh-pitched such as /s/ and /t/. Teachers need to teach the separate 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

appleThe Synthetic Phonics

Teaching Principles

Teach the KNOWLEDGEof thealphabetic code; that is, the

letter/s-sound correspondences.

Teach the THREE CORE SKILLS:

1. DECODING: Sound out andblendall-through-the-printed-word

for reading unknown words.

2. ENCODING: Orally segment(identify) the sounds all-through-the-spoken-word for spelling; then selectthe correct graphemes AS CODEFORthe identified sounds in thatparticular word.

3. HANDWRITING: Hold the

pencil with the tripod gripand formcorrectly the 26 upper case and 26lower case letters on writing lines.

/e/ eegg

-eahead

-aisaid again/i/ i

insect-ycymbals

/o/ ooctopus

wawatch

quaqualify

altsalt

/u/ uumbrella

oson

-outouch

-oughthoroughfare

/ai/ aifirst aid

-aytray

atable

-aesundae

a-ecakes

-eyprey

-eabreak

eigheight

-aighstraight

Copyright Debbie Hepplewhite 2012 Page 1 of 6


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/ee/ eeeel

eaeat

eemu

e-econcrete

Teach a simplecode(basicortransparent) first; that is, mainly onespelling for each sound at a rate oftwo to five letter/s-soundcorrespondences per week. Thesimple code ispart ofthe complexcode afirst steptowardsteaching the alphabetic code.

Keep the simple code revised andbegin to introduce spelling andpronunciation alternativesofthe complexcode(extended,

advancedoropaque code) at a rateappropriate to the age, stage andability of the learners.

APPLICATIONProvidea cumulativebank of words,sentences and texts at code level:1.to modelblending, segmenting

for spelling, and handwriting2.for each learner to practisehis or her growing skills of blending,segmenting and handwritingincreasingly independently.Providecumulative,decodablereading booksat code level.

Two-prongedteaching approach

Teach a systematic, plannedsynthetic phonics programmealongsideincidentalteaching ofany letter/s-sound correspondencesas requiredfor differentiation, wider

reading and spelling and for thewider curriculum - for individuals,groups and whole classes.

-eykey -iechief -inesardinesbetween

/iand ee/ -ysunny-eymonkey

-iemovie

/igh/ -ighnight

-ietie

ibehind

-yfly

i-ebike

eieider duck

/oa/ oaoak tree

owbow

oyo-yo

-oeoboe

o-erope

-oughdough

-eauplateau/y+oo/ -ue

barbecueuunicorn

u-etube

ewnew

eupneumatic

short /oo/ -oobook

-oulshould

-upush

long /oo/ oo

moon-ueblue

u-eflute

-ewcrew

-uifruit

-ousoup

-omove

-oughthrough

/oi/ oiointment

oytoy



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/ou/ ououch !

owowl

-oughplough

AccentsTeaching the English alphabeticcode is not an exact science andaccents need to be taken intoaccount at all times along with thenotion of tweaking (modifying)pronunciation when decoding toreach the correct target word orpreferred pronunciation.

Schwa effect for readingModifyingpronunciation also helpsto raise awareness of the schwa

effect (unstressed syllables) whereby,in reality, a sound close to /u/ is thespoken translation of the writtencode in words such as sofa (sofu),faster (fastu), little (littul),around (uround). This is common.

Schwa effect for spelling

Be aware of the schwa effect whensegmenting spoken words forspelling.

The ability to spell accurately relieson a growing awareness ofspelling alternativesand

knowledge ofspelling wordbanks(words with the samespelling and sound). This knowledgetakes much longer to acquire.Emphasise the process for spelling ofSOUND-TO-PRINTrather thanrelying on visual memory and recallof letter order and letter names.

Decoding is the reverse process:PRINT-TO-SOUND.

/ar/ arartist afather almpalm -alfhalf -alvescalves/or/

or /aw/dependent uponregional ornational accents

orfork

oaroars

-oordoor

oresnore

-ourfour

awdawn

ausauce

-alchalk

warwardrobe

quarquarter

aughcaught

oughthought

/ur/or can be /er/

ermermaid

irbirthday

urnurse

earearth

worworld

schwa /u/or schwa /er/

-ermixer

-ourhunour

-retheatre

-arcollar

-orsailor

/air/ airhair

-arehare

-earbear

-erewhere

/eer/ eerdeer

earears

-ereadhere

-iercashier

/oor/ -oorpoor

-uresure

/y+oor/ -urepure



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units ofsound

simple codekey words

complex code graphemes or spelling alternatives+ key words which are code for the sounds information

/b/ bbat -bbrabbit bubuilding

The notion of a code

Root all the teaching for decodingand encoding in the CODE- that is,the relationship between the soundsof speech and their spellingalternatives (the graphemes). Thismeans avoidingthe following ideas:

*that letters say sounds - they saynothing, they simply promptustogenerate the sounds either aloudor silently in our heads

*that there are silent letters as inkn, wr, mb, gn and so on these are simply further graphemes

which ARE CODE FORthe sounds this is consistent, for example, withsaying that the grapheme igh iscode for the /igh/ sound (we dontsuggest that gh are silent lettersin the grapheme igh)

*that the end letter eof split

digraphs a-e,e-e,i-e,o-e and u-emake the preceding vowel SAY ITSNAME this is inconsistent withmodern synthetic phonics teachingrooted in the alphabetic code.

To work out the code, startfrom a whole spoken word saidslowly. Orally segment the wordinto its sounds and map those ontothe graphemes in the written word.

/k/ kkit

ccat

-ckduck

chchameleon

qubouquet

queplaque

/d/ ddig

-ddpuddle

-edrained

/f/ ffeathers

-ffcliff

phphotograph

-ghlaugh

/g/ ggirl

-ggjuggle

guguitar

ghghost

-guecatalogue/h/ h

hatwhwho

/j/ jjug

-gecabbage

gegerbil

gigiraffe

gygymnast

-dgefridge

/l/ lladder

-llshell

/u+l/ -lekettle

-ilpencil

-alhospital

-elcamel

/m/ mmap

-mmhammer

-mewelcome

-mbthumb

-mncolumns



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/n/ nnet

-nnbonnet

knknot

gngnome

-neengine

THE SUB-SKILLSOF THETHREE CORE SKILLS

DECODING SUB-SKILLS:Without print hear theindividual sounds of a word anddiscern the word (= oralblending): hear /z/ /i/ /p/, say zip;hear /k/ /oa/ /t/, say coatWith print see the graphemesand say the sounds to automaticity;see s, say /s/; see oa, say /oa/; see

ph, say /f/

Use capital letter resources notjust lower case letters. Capitalletters ARE THE SAME CODE ASlower case letters.

ENCODING SUB-SKILLS:

Without print hear the wholespoken word said slowly, train thelearner to split the word into itsconstituent sounds from beginningto end (= oral segmenting): zip/z/ /i/ /p/; coat /k/ /oa/ /t/ (withno print, you can use any sounds)

-use the left hand, palm facing totally the separate sounds onto thethumb and fingers from left to rightWith print select grapheme tilesor magnetic letters, or write theletters, to spell the sounds identified[Use manipulatives, such asgrapheme tiles, at the basic code

stage for young learners as they getto grips with handwriting skills then focus on handwritingto spell.]

/ng/ -nggong -njungle/ng+k/ -nk

ink-ncuncle

/p/ ppan

-pppuppet

/k+w/ ququeen

kwawkward

/r/ rrat

-rrarrow

wrwrite

rhrhinoceros/s/ s

snake-ssglass

-cepalace

cecents

cicity

cybicycle

-sehouse

scscissors

-st-castle

pspseudonym

/t/ ttent

-ttletter

-edskipped

ptpterodactyl

-btdebt

/v/ vviolin

-vedove

/w/ wweb

whwheel

-upenguin



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AAA_Training_The English Alphabetic Code