MAJOR TERMS IN PHONICS INSTRUCTION

BY TIMI HYACINTH
THE CHILDRENS RESOURCE CENTRE
3, PEREMABIRI STREET, D-LINE, PORT HARCOURT, E-MAIL: timipre@yahoo.com, TEL: 0802-3231499

PHONICS
Phonics is a method of teaching reading instruction which dates back to the 18th century. In this method, children are taught that words are made up of sounds which have letter equivalents. They learn to read by identifying the small units of speech sound and by blending them into pronounceable whole words.

THE WHOLE LANGUAGE APPROACH TO READING

The whole language approach to reading gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s and is the current type of reading instruction in Nigeria and many parts of the world today. Here children are taught to read by memorizing words as graphic images. Children did learn to read to a large extent by this method, but majority develop reading difficulties whenever they meet unfamiliar words.

PHONEMIC AWARENESS:
Recent research in the 21st century has discovered that children learn to read better when they are explicitly taught phonemic awareness. This is the understanding that words are made up of sound and that these sounds can be manipulated to form whole words. Children are taught that sounds can occur in three positions in a word; initial (beginning), medial (middle) and final (end).

PHONEMES
Phonemes are speech sounds. They are the smallest units of a word. Phonemes are usually written between two slanting line to show that they are speech sounds, not letters. The symbols that represent phonemes are different from those that represent letters.

EXAMPLES OF PHONEMES
/b/ /a/ /t/ /j/ /a/ /m/ /k/ /a/ /t/ /s/ /k/ /u:/ /l/ bat yam cat school

GRAPHEMES
Graphemes are the letter equivalents of phonemes. A grapheme is a symbol that represents a speech sound in writing. A grapheme may be one letter or two or more letters. A grapheme is a unit that carries one speech sound.

EXAMPLES OF GRAPHEMES
GRAPHEME GRAPHEME GRAPHEME WHOLE WORD

b s c r t

a igh a ai ea

bat sigh

tch n m

catch rain team

DECODING
Decoding is simply unlocking the written code in our writing system. It is only one part of reading instruction which includes: phonics, phonemic awareness instruction, vocabulary instruction, fluency instruction, and text comprehension instruction. Decoding can be done using the phonics method.

ENCODING
Encoding is the opposite of decoding. The child should be taught to also write the words he hears or thinks. Phonics is used to teach encoding skills. A child who can write has actually learned to master the writing code.

CONSONANT DIGRAPHS
Consonant digraphs are two letters that represent a single speech sound in writing. They are letters that are used to represent sounds for which English has no single letter equivalent. See examples on the next page.

SOME CONSONANT DIGRAPHS

Consonant digraph Words with consonant digraphs

ch sh th ng wh dg

chip sheep thin sing when dodge

VOWEL DIGRAPHS
These are two letters that are used to represent one single vowel sound. Please note that the English alphabet has only 26 letters which are representing about 44 distinct speech sounds. Two vowel letters are used to represent several English vowel sounds. See examples on the next page.

VOWEL DIGRAPHS

WORDS WITH VOWEL DIGRAPHS

ai ee ea oa ie ei ou oo

rain see pea road pie eight foul tool

CVC AND CCVCC

CVC: Vowel-consonant-vowel. For example : cat CCVCC: Consonant-consonant-vowel-consonantconsonant . For example: church

CONSONANT CLUSTERS OR CONSONANT BLENDS

Two consonants which are side by side in a word. They carry two distinct sounds and should be blended accordingly. They can occur in initial, medial or final position in some words.

EXAMPLES OF CONSONANT CLUSTERS

Consonant clusters/blends Words with consonant clusters

cr fl st pl dr br sl tr gr

cross flag stone play drive bring sleep tree greet

SEGMENTATION
This is a major part of phonemic and phonics instruction. Here the child is taught to break words he hears, thinks or reads into small distinct units. This helps the process of reading and writing.

BLENDING
This is the opposite of segmentation. Here the words which the child has identified as small units of speech sounds are blended together into pronounceable units or writeable units.

A PHONICS PROGRAMME
A Phonics programme is a wholesome method of teaching reading. It is a set of carefully outlined and explicit instructions for teaching reading, through a method of breaking words into speech sounds for easier recognition and fluent pronunciation. A good phonics programme provides ample opportunity for practising reading. It uses a multi-sensory approach in teaching, using several teaching aids and resources.

VISUAL DISCRIMINATION
For a child to learn phonics, he has to be able to visually discriminate letters/graphemes. He should know the letter shapes and be able to match letters.

AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION
This is the childs ability to distinguish between distinct speech sounds. It is also involves the ability to discriminate between two different sounds. This skill is necessary for successful phonics.

MULTISENSORY
This means involving the use of several senses. A good phonics programme should involve the use of most of the senses. E.g. seeing, singing, listening, story telling, pictures etc.