In using the alphabetic principle, students “blend” the sounds made by individual letters into a whole word. Teach Students To Read Words Using What They Know About The Sounds That Letters And Letter Combinations Make Teachers can sequence and deliver instruction in a way that helps students efficiently learn the “rules” for the different sounds that letters and letter combinations make. Notice that in the word “meat,” there is only one sound for “ea” even though there are two letters. In the word “meat” the “m” and “t” make the same sound as they do in “mat” and the “ea” letter combination makes its most common sound when these letters are together in a word. For example, each of the three letters in the word “mat” makes its most common sound. Teach Students To Connect Letters To Their Most Common Sound Or SoundsĪll 26 letters in English make at least one predictable or common sound depending on the other letters in the word. In some cases, the vowel is silent as the letter “u” is in the word, “que.” For example, Spanish vowels only make one sound. Letters typically make only one sound regardless of the word they are in and rule exceptions are very few compared to English. For example, English is quite complex-there are many rules and exceptions to those rules that need to be learned to read and write correctly.
However, alphabetic languages-English, Spanish, French, Turkish, Vietnamese, and many others-differ dramatically in their alphabetic principle complexity.
#Alphabetic principle plus
For students who struggle, highly systematic and explicit instruction plus lots of accuracy practice will be necessary for them to learn the alphabetic principle thoroughly.Īll alphabetic languages can be taught using phonics and the alphabetic principle to guide instruction. These same strategies can be used with children who struggle learning to read, including children with reading disabilities or dyslexia. Below are effective strategies for teaching the alphabetic principle.
#Alphabetic principle how to
Irregular words require a different teaching approach than teaching how to read words that follow a rule-based, letter-sound structure.ĭespite the presence of irregular words, learning the alphabetic principle thoroughly and using it to read unfamiliar words, is a much better strategy than trying to memorize how to accurately read each word as a whole word, or guessing what the word might be based on its first letter and the words before or after it in the text.Įxplicit phonics instruction-i.e., how the alphabetic principle works, step by step-and extensive practice enables most children to learn the alphabetic principle. Some words, called irregular words, cannot be read accurately using the alphabetic principle to “sound them out” (e.g., the words “was,” “is,” and “know” are not accurately pronounced using phonics rules).
In Spanish, by contrast, which also includes the vowel “a” in its alphabet, the /a/ sound is always pronounced the same way (e.g., the /a/ in “casa”) regardless what word it is in. Also, in English, the same letter can represent more than one sound, depending on the word (e.g., the /a/ sounds are different in the words “mat” and “mate”). There are many letters to learn the sounds of, and there are many ways to arrange the letters to produce the vast number of different words used in print. Learning and applying the alphabetic principle takes time and is difficult for most children. This allows them to focus their attention on understanding the meaning of the text, which is the primary purpose of reading. In typical reading development, children learn to use the alphabetic principle fluently and automatically. The alphabetic principle is critical in reading and understanding the meaning of text. Phonological recoding is knowing how to translate the letters in printed words into the sounds they make to read and pronounce the words accurately. Learning to read and write becomes easier when sounds associated with letters are recognized automatically.Īlphabetic understanding is knowing that words are made up of letters that represent the sounds of speech. To master the alphabetic principle, readers must have phonological awareness skills and be able to recognize individual sounds in spoken words. Letters in words tell us how to correctly “sound out” (i.e., read) and write words.
Connecting letters with their sounds to read and write is called the “ alphabetic principle.” For example, a child who knows that the written letter “m” makes the /mmm/ sound is demonstrating the alphabetic principle.
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