TOPIC 10. Los códigos ortográficos de la lengua inglesa. Relación sonido-grafía.

Propuestas par ala didáctica del código escrito. Aplicaciones de la ortografía en las
producciones escritas.

1. INTRODUCTION

2. ORTHOGRAPHIC CODES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

1.1. SPELLING RULES

3. SOUND-GRAPHEME RELATIONSHIPS

a. Vowels

b. Consonants and semi-consonants

c. Silent letters

4. TEACHING THE WRITTEN CODE: DIDACTIC SUGGESTIONS

4.1. PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

5. SPELLING IN WRITTEN PRODUCTIONS

4.1. WORD-RECOGNITION ACTIVITIES

4.2. ACTIVITIES AT WORD LEVEL

4.3. ACTIVITIES AT SENTENCE LEVEL

4.4. ACTIVITIES AT PARAGRAPH LEVEL

1. INTRODUCTION

Human language is the main vehicle to convey our thoughts, needs and feelings. It has two basic manifestations: oral and
written language. Writing in English must not be seen merely as transcribed speech, since the sounds of the language do not
correspond exactly to the letters of the alphabet. Therefore, the sound-grapheme relationships need to be worked on in the
English-classroom.

Based on this view, we will concentrate on explaining the English-spelling code, paying attention to its main spelling rules.
Afterwards we will continue analysing the sound-grapheme relationships in English. In addition, we will pay attention to the
teaching of the written code, suggesting several activities to do so. This essay will be finished with a conclusion and some
bibliographic references.

We deal with an essential topic since the goal of Foreign Language Teaching in Primary Education is the acquisition of
communicative competence. One of the competences derived from this is grammatical competence, which refers to the correct
use of the linguistic code. In addition to that, the Foreign Language Curriculum for Primary Education emphasizes the
significance of this topic by including in its second block of contents the association of letters to the sounds of the alphabet.

2. ORTOGRAPHIC CODES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The writing system of English is phonologic, which means that a correspondence exist between phonemes and graphemes, that
is, spelling represents the sounds of the language. However, English spelling is considered difficult and unpredictable. Recent
studies show that English is approximately 75% regular. The problem is that the irregular spellings are among the most
frequently used words. This gives the impression of irregularity.
English spelling can be better understood by looking at a brief history of the language.

In the Anglo-Saxon period an alphabet of 24 graphemes, Old English, had to cope with a sound system of 40 phonemes.
Consequently, many sounds had to be indicated by combinations of letters. The printing process caused problems because
many early printers were foreign and used their own spelling rules.
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The Norman invasion in 1066 established the end of old times and the beginning of the medieval age or “Middle English”.
The arrival of the Norman involved on one hand, the establishment of French language as the official language. On the other
hand, it English remained as the language of the people, but the introduction of the French alphabet, and its spelling
conventions, produced important changes and influence in the Old English alphabet system. A great arbitrariness and chaos
took place that Barber summarised in his writings in the following way:

“…For three centuries there was no single form of English recognized as a norm, and every man wrote in his own dialect.
Early Middle English texts give the impression of a chaos of dialects, without many common conventions in pronunciation or
spelling, and with wide divergences in grammar and vocabulary…”

In the 15th century, the Great Vowel Shift, a massive sound change affecting the long vowels, was the main reason for the
diversity of vowel spellings. Some letters also became silent during this period, such as the <k> of know. In the 16 th century a
new trend appeared: Latin and Greek etymology was reflected in the spelling of words. For example, a <g> was added in reign.
In the 17th century a good amount of words were borrowed from French, Spanish or Italian. This caused new patterns of
spelling, like <ll> in armadillo.

SPELLING RULES

In English, some words are always written with capital letters. They are the days of the week, months and holidays; proper
names and place names, nationalities and languages and titles of books, films and magazines.

Many English words double their last consonant before endings -ed, -ing, -er and -est. It happens when the consonant is after a
vowel and the stress falls on the last syllable (omit / omitted). The only exception in British English is that the final -l is
doubled even is the syllable is not stressed (travel / travelled).

In English, only nouns have plural. There are several plural formation rules:
1. Most nouns add -s to the singular: cat / cats.
2. If the singular ends in -s, -ch, -sh, -ss, -x or -z, the plural ending is -es.
3. If the singular ends in -o, the plural ending is usually -es. There are some exceptions like photo / photos.
4. If the singular ends in consonant followed by -y, this is replaced by i, so the plural ending is -ies.
5. If the singular ends in -f or -fe, the plural ending changes to -ves.
6. Other nouns have an irregular plural: child/children, man/men, person / people...

Adjectives usually change into adverbs by adding -ly: nice / nicely. Sometimes the adjective changes its spelling:
1. Final -y changes to -i: happy / happily.
2. If the adjective ends in -le, -ly is used instead of -lely: possible / possibly.
3. If the adjective ends in -ic, the adverb ends in -ically: domestic / domestically.
Exceptions: truly, wholly, fully, shyly.

3. SOUND-GRAPHEME RELATIONSHIPS

In this section, we will look at the main correspondences between the sound of vowels and consonants( phonemes) and their
spelling( graphemes). The following rules do not intend to be exhaustive; unfortunately, there are many exceptions.

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VOWELS

or horse
ee tree aw saw
e complete ou bought
/ iː/ ie piece / ɔː / a talk
ea sea ore before
ey key oor door
ou four
i, y rich, city
u sugar
e pretty
o woman
/ɪ/ a village /ʊ/
oo good
ie ladies
ou could
u busy
oo food
o do
e set
ou group
ea dead
u rude
/e/ a many / uː /
ew knew
ay says
ue blue
ie friend
ui juice
oe shoe
u sun
o son
a cat
/æ/ /ʌ/ ou country
ai plait
oo blood
oe does
a pass
ir, yr bird
ar car
er, ear her
ear heart
/ ɑː/ / ɜː / ur turn
er clerk
wor word
al palm
our journey
au aunt
i possible
e gentlemen
o gone a vegetable
a was u difficult
/ɒ/ /ə/
ou cough ar particular
au because er mother
or doctor
ure furniture

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CONSONANTS AND SEMI-CONSONANTS

pp apple
/p/ /b/ b ball
p play
t tea
tt utter d day
/t/ /d/
th Thomas dd daddy
-ed past jumped
k kind
c cake
g ago
/k/ cc occur /g/
gh ghos
qu conquer
ch Christmas
ch chain
j jam
tch watch
g gin
/ tʃ / ture nature / dƷ /
dg bridge
teous righteous
gg suggest
stion question
f foot
v violet
ff off
/f/ /v/ f of
ph photo
ph nephew
gh enough
/θ/ th thief /ð/ th there
s so
s roses
ss pass
/s/ /z/ z zoo
c niece
zz dizzy
sc science
sh shoe
ch machine
s sure
ss Russian si vision
/ʃ/ ti nation /Ʒ/ s measure
si mansion ge prestige
sci conscience
ci special
ce ocean
h hat m mum
/h/ /m/
wh who mm swimming
n nose ng sing
nn funny nk sink
/n/ /ŋ/
kn know ck uncle
gn foreign nx anxious
r rat
l colour rr carry
/l/ /r/
ll yellow wr wrong
rh rhythm
y yes w west
i onion wh white
/j/ /w/
u union qu quick
ew new gu language
SILENT LETTERS

B (mb, bt) comb, debt, doubt, plumber

C in muscle, Connecticut
G (gm, gn) foreign, gnaw
H in heir, honest, honour, hour, rhythm, vehicle
K (kn) knee, know
L (lk, lm, ld) chalk, salmon, could
N (mn) autumn
S in aisle, island, isle
T (stle, sten) castle, fasten; also mortgage, postpone
W (wr, wh) wrong, who; also answer, sword

/////**********
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- The sound-spelling relationship in consonant graphemes

The majority enjoy a regular correspondence:

The graphemes <p>, <t>, <k> with the corresponding voiceless plosive consonants.
<b>,<d> with the sonorous plosives
<f>,<v> with fricatives
<m>,<n> with nasal
< l > with lateral
The graphemes <z> and <j> correspond to the single phoneme /z/ and /dg/ respectively, but this is not the case in Spanish.

The grapheme <h> generally represents an aspiration, /h/ (ham, hot,…) even though they may also be silent( honour,
vehicle,…)

A number of graphemes also exist that correspond to various sounds, for example:
<c> -> /k/ : Car, cut,… /s/ : City,…

<g> -> /g/: Begin, gas,… /dg/: Gym, genius,…

<s> -> /s/: Some, sun,… /z/ : Loose, knees, peas,…

Finally, some of these graphemes do not represent any sound in some words. These are called silent letters. Some of them are:
<b> debt , doubt <c> muscle <g> foreign, assign
<k> knee, know <l> walk, should <s> island
<t> castle, often

- The sound-spelling relationship in vowel graphemes

In this case, it is remarkable an irregular character, for every grapheme corresponds several sounds: ( a completar en clase)

<a> /ae/ hat /ei/ make

/a:/ far / / tall
/wa/ squash

<e> / e / bed / / region

/ uː / few / /serve

<i> / / bit / /machine

/ /night / /fire
/ /girl

<o> / /not / /four

/ /do / /love
/ / women / /look
/ /food / /word

<u> / / put / /cut

/ / cute / /clue
/ /cure / /surf

******/////

4. TEACHING WRITTEN CODE: DIDACTIC SUGGESTIONS.

The Foreign Languages Curriculum for Primary Education, following the Natural Approach, stresses receptive over productive
skills, and oral skills over written skills. Therefore, learners need to develop a phonological awareness since every written item
has been introduced orally before.

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
http://www.k12reader.com/phonemic-awareness-vs-phonological-awareness/ ( INTERESANTE LINK PARA
COMPRENDER MEJOR PHONEMIC AND PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS)

( de esta parte se podría hacer un resumen, lo hablaremos en clase)

Children in the beginning stages of learning the written code need to learn that spoken words are composed of a limited
number of identifiable, individual sounds or phonemes. This understanding, often referred to as phonemic awareness, is a very
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important factor in success in learning to read. Phonemic awareness involves building associations between written letters and
speech sounds or phonemes. A phoneme is the smallest functional unit of sound (For example, the word cat contains three
distinctly different sounds). There are 44 phonemes in the English language, including letter combinations such as /th/.
/////******

At this point, the obvious question rises: How can we teach Phonemic awareness in our English classroom?
- Adams (1990) suggests that rhyming activities can help children develop phonemic awareness (The reading and re-reading of
books with clear, simple rhymes)
- Another way to teach phonemic awareness is through phonograms. A phonogram is a spelling pattern for one-syllable words
to which different initial consonants, or onsets, can be added. For example the phonogram “at” can be used to help students
recognise and read rhyming words such as bat, rat, cat, mat and pat. The phonogram “ake” can be used for words such as
lake, take, make, etc. There are about 40 most used phonograms that can be taught so children can learn to identify these sound
units. By mastering these 40 units, children can learn to read approximately 500 elementary or basic one-syllable words. In
addition to building phonemic awareness, providing instruction with phonograms also prepares children for reading words by
analogy. For example, a child who never saw the word rug in print but who knows initial consonant sounds and how to read
the word bug can very likely identify the new word if he or she has had practice manipulating onsets (initial consonants) and
rhymes.

In addition to identifying sounds, children must also be able to manipulate them. Word play involving segmenting words into
their constituent sounds, rhyming words, and blending (mezclar, combinar) sounds to make words is also essential to the
reading process: This is phonological awareness
*****/////

Phonological awareness refers to the knowledge of the phonological structure of sentences, phrases, words, syllables, onsets
and rimes. Phonological awareness skills do not concern knowledge of letters (phonemic awareness), it is related to identifying
and manipulating units of oral language ; a child can be completely phonologically aware and still be unable to understand
letters or the relationship between letters and sounds. Phonological skills are, however, an essential basis to the acquisition of
spelling and reading skills.

Phonological awareness does not develop naturally. There are several levels of phonological awareness skills. They develop in
a top-down fashion: learners begin at the level of the whole word and gradually move to smaller parts of the word. The levels
of phonological awareness can be classified into shallower, intermediate and deeper.

SHALLOWER PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS SKILLS

1. Awareness that sentences and phrases can be divided into single words.
2. Awareness that some words share sounds or sound sequences.

INTERMEDIATE PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS SKILLS

1. Awareness that a word can be divided into syllables.

2. Awareness that a syllable can be divided into onsets and rimes.

DEEP PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS SKILLS

1. Awareness that single sounds in a word can be changed, thus producing a new word.
2. Awareness that a word can be divided into single sounds (phonemes).
3. Segmentation: Ability to identify and pronounce the sounds in a word separately and in any order.
4. Manipulation: Ability to move single sounds in a word around, creating new words.
5. Blending: Ability to put single words together to form one or more words.

Opportunities to engage in phonological awareness activities should be plentiful, frequent, and fun. And, of course, exposure to
language at home and exposure to reading at an early age affect the ability of children to understand the phonological
distinctions on which language is built.
Children with learning disabilities have deficiencies in their ability to process phonological information. Thus, they do not
readily learn how to relate letters of the alphabet to the sounds of language, so their learning is slower and they require special
training. Children from culturally diverse backgrounds may also have particular difficulties with phonological awareness.

Phonological awareness training can be accomplished without any reference to letters or written words at all. Most
programmes begin such training by using pictures, nursery rhymes, songs and games of various sorts that involve only

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listening and speaking. Other programmes introduce letters fairly early, thus combining phonological awareness training with
letter/sound correspondence training.

Since phonological awareness is essential to written skills and it is not developed unless it is taught, many experts recommend
phonological awareness training as a prerequisite to early literacy training. Research has found a strong connection between
lack of phonological awareness and reading failure. This suggests that some people need phonological awareness training in
order to learn to read.

Finally, in order to finish this section, there is a classification, on teaching English orthographic code, according to a sensory-
style approach:
- Visual style: Learners respond to the shapes of words.
- Auditory style: Learners recognize the relationship between sounds and letters or groups of letters.
- Kinaesthetic style: Learners let the hand remember the kind of movements made when producing words.
- Linguistic style: Learners see the relationships between words based on grammar, meaning…

5. SPELLING IN WRITTEN PRODUCTIONS

It is very difficult for children to work with abstract concepts like sounds. In order to understand the sound-grapheme
relationship, they need to be familiar with the alphabet. In this way, they realize that letters, which are something real, are
related to the different sounds.
Phonemic awareness and phonological awareness are fundamental skills in order to know the written code, specially when we
refer to reading, but writing is more complex and, consequently, requires some other skills. The ability to write in English
includes five skill areas:
1. Mechanics: It refers to a writer’s ability to form letters, words, numbers and sentences that are legible; in other words,
the writer’s handwriting. Neatness is very important.
2. Production: Number of words, sentences and paragraphs that a writer is able to generate.
3. Conventions: Rules for capitalization, punctuation and spelling. If a writer has problems with these rules the written
product might be difficult to understand.
4. Linguistics: It consists in the ability to use varied vocabulary and correct grammar and syntax.
5. Cognition: It refers to the organizational aspect. It has to do with cohesion, coherence and logic

When selecting writing activities to practise spelling, the next sequence must be followed:

WORD-RECOGNITION ACTIVITIES

This is an initial stage in which students are given the words they need. They notice the word shapes and the number of letters
in them. They can make a mental picture of the words. Activities:
1. Read and match a picture with a word.
2. Word-squares.
3. Putting the letters of a word in order.
4. Back spelling, using given words.
5. Games like Bingo, Hangman, Odd Man Out...

ACTIVITIES AT WORD LEVEL

The teacher does not provide the pupils with the words they need. They think about the spelling of words by themselves. First
cycle reading-writing practice is focused at the word level. Activities:
1. Completing crosswords using picture clues.
2. Labelling items.
3. Making lists of vocabulary sets.
4. Completing missing words in texts, dialogues or songs.
5. Dictations of words to practise sound-spelling correspondences.

///***making lists, completing crosswords, matching labels to pictures, classifying words under headings, or making personal
dictionaries. These activities will also reinforce the learning of spelling and vocabulary***///

ACTIVITIES AT SENTENCE LEVEL

The second cycle is mostly centred in sentence level. In some of these activities children write the words they need. In others,
children have to work with given sentences. At this stage, the following types of activities can be used
1. Writing captions for pictures.
2. Answering questions.
3. Matching halves of sentences and copying.
4. Sequencing sentences and copying.

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5. Spotting mistakes in sentences.

////**** writing captions for pictures, and writing speech bubbles for cartoons, matching halves of sentences and copying,
answering questions, correcting mistakes in written sentences, writing sentences based on questionnaires, etc. These types of
activities will enable our students to construct sentences in English.****///

ACTIVITIES AT PARAGRAPH LEVEL

Third cycle will basically work on the sentence and paragraph-level, it is advisable to start by providing “model paragraphs”,
so students see a text and then use it as a basis for their own work. We must also help our students organise their reading and
writing clearly and coherently, using cohesive devices, such as links and connectors.

Imitation of models is a resource that must be applied along the three cycles. It is what J. Harmer (1983) calls " parallel
writing".
////******Our legislation establishes that when we are teaching a foreign language, our main goal is that children become
capable of communicating. J. Harmer divides written communicative activities into six groups: Exchanging letters and emails,
constructing stories, relaying instructions, fluency writing, writing games, writing reports and advertisements.
But we can add some others. For example, writing a personal diary, or even keeping a class diary. The most common type of
writing activities is perhaps composition writing. At the end of the 6th year of primary education children should be able to
write short compositions on topics that are relevant to their interests.
In general, we should agree that the organisation of unit vocabulary is a very important task, both as a learning to learn
strategy(BC7) and as a autonomy development(BC8) for students. In this respect, we should encourage them to organise
vocabulary in a personal way ( graphic spelling dictionaries, pictures, by topics...). Classroom vocabulary or words that appear
in class and that are used frequently can be practised and learnt by means of class dictionary, small posters or murals.

Creating a library or reading corner will be a useful way to engage children into reading giving them the posibility of choosing
the reading material according to their interest and their level. In this way we will have an instrument to adapt their learning to
each ones paces.
Usage of visual material in the classroom gives them the opportunity to have continuous eye contact to expresions, vocabulary,
etc.
*****////

(Notwithstanding the foregoing)

Previously to finish this topic we must reflect on what happens with error correction.
As spelling mistakes are often, the teacher must provide the students with strategies to check their spelling.
1. Using dictionaries (or picture dictionaries in the early stages).
2. Making personal dictionaries.
3. Classifying words according to the similarities in their spelling.
In addition, the teacher should establish different feedbacks during activities in order to allow correction stages and at different
levels (self-assessment, peer-assessment or teacher-assessment). However, we should not forget that the main aim when using
a language is to be able to communicate.

5. CONCLUSION

Conclusion( otra posible conclusión diferente enfoque a la que dimos en clase)

Learning to read and write is a critical achievement in life. To ensure that every child becomes a competent reader
and writer is a responsibility shared by teachers, families and communities. The role of educators in early literacy
instructions is very important for the teaching of basic skills and to provide rich, meaningful, engaging learning
environments, obviously supported by appropriate teaching practices. Each child comes to the classroom with
different literacy experiences and abilities, and teachers need to consider these aspects in order to provide balanced
programs with explicit instruction and meaningful reading and writing tasks, which must also work on the spelling-
writing aspects as well as help the development of children’s knowledge about the English orthography.

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6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

BREWSTER, J. et al. (2003): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Penguin English.
HARMER, J. (2003): The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman.
LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. (2003): Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.
VARELA, R. et al. (2003): All About Teaching English. Centro de Estudios Ramón Areces.