I think we are all familiar with The Jackson Five’s song “ABC,”
but is “ABC” really as “easy as one, two, three?” Phonics instruction is typically used in
schools to increase student literacy. Dow
and Baer define the purpose of phonics in their book Self-Paced Phonics as assisting “children in systematically
decoding words that are unknown to them by teaching them the relationships that
exist between letters and speech sounds.”
So, what are some of the basics of phonics?
A consonant blend
is two or more consonants coming together in which all sounds are heard
(examples: fl, br, and st).
A consonant digraph
is two consonants that represent one sound (examples: ch, ph, sh).
A vowel digraph
is 2 vowels that represent one of their sounds (examples: the “ee” in sheet and
the “ow” in crow).
A schwa is the
name of the short “u” vowel sound represented by the symbol “ə” (examples: the “a”
in about and the “i” in pencil).
A dipthong is two
vowels together that represent one sound (examples: the “oi” in coin, the “oy”
in toy, the “ou” in found, and the “ow” in cow).
The Open Syllable
Generalization states that when a
syllable ends with a vowel letter, the long sound is usually heard (examples: so,
hi).
The Closed Syllable
Generalization states that when a syllable ends with a consonant letter,
the short sound is usually heard (examples:
hot, call)
The r-controlled
vowel sound is when a single vowel is followed by the letter “r,” the vowel
sound is influenced (examples: car, stir).
These are just a few of the basics. Although there are still exceptions to the
rules of phonics and phonics is not always as “easy as one, two, three,”
phonics can still be helpful in increasing literacy in young children.
I still find it so interesting that the English language has all of these rules that really aren't rules, but patterns some of the time. For example, the rule that states "I before E, except after C". Some of the words that don't even follow this rule include beige, eight, conscience, forfeit, height, neighbor, science, and weird. It's no wonder that people trying to learn English have such a hard time! If most native English speakers can't even speak English properly, how are we supposed to expect those who have learned languages that actually follow their rules to try to learn and then forget the rules of the English language?
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