Improving Knowledge
and Understanding for
Effective Teaching
Improving Knowledge and Understanding for Effective Teaching
What teachers need to know
The Alphabetic Code
The English code is logical. Spoken words are segmented into small artificial units of sounds called phonemes. English has about 42 phonemes; the exact number depends on accent and analysis. To write words using the code, each phoneme is represented with a corresponding grapheme (letter or group of letters).
Because of its history, the English code is complex:
- A grapheme can consist of one or more letters (‘big’, ‘ship’, ‘rain’, ‘light’, ‘although’).
- The same phoneme can be represented with a range of graphemes (‘old’, ‘boat’, ‘crow’, ‘stone’).
- A grapheme can represent more than one phoneme (‘chip’, school’, ‘machine’)
It is impossible to read the tens of thousands of words necessary to access a secondary school curriculum without understanding most of the code. While some people learn the code subconsciously by reading widely, others cannot learn to read at all without direct teaching.
As Snow and Juel wrote in 2005,
“Explicit teaching of alphabetic decoding skills is helpful for all children, harmful for none, and crucial for some”
Phonics is the body of knowledge about the alphabetic code that is necessary for learning to read.
An alphabetic code chart –
not suitable for teaching children
|
Phonemes |
Words with graphemes (spellings) to correspond to the phonemes (sounds) |
|
/p/ |
pan, happy |
|
/t/ |
tap, letter, jumped, doubt |
|
/k/ |
cat, key, duck, school, queen, quay, antique (/ks/ box) |
|
/ch/ |
chip, watch |
|
/f/ |
fish, coffee, photo, rough |
|
/th/ |
thin |
|
/s/ |
sun, dress, house, prince, city, listen, science, psychology |
|
/sh/ |
ship, chef, station, magician, mission |
|
/hk/ |
loch |
|
/h/ |
hat, who |
|
/r/ |
run, cherry, write, rhino |
|
/l/ |
lip, bell (schwa followed by /l/ sample, fossil, pedal, tunnel) |
|
/b/ |
boy, rabbit, buy |
|
/d/ |
dog, ladder, opened |
|
/g/ |
go, bigger, guide, ghost, dialogue |
|
/j/ |
jet, giant, bridge |
|
/v/ |
vet, have, of |
|
/th/ |
that |
|
/z/ |
zip, fizz, is, cheese, sneeze |
|
/zh/ |
Asia, treasure, azure, camouflage |
|
/m/ |
man, hammer, comb, autumn |
|
/n/ |
nut, dinner, gone, knee, gnat |
|
/ng/ |
ring, sink |
|
/w/ |
wet, wheel, penguin |
|
/y/ |
yes (/yoo/ uniform, due, cube, few, neutral, beauty) |
|
/ee/ |
feet, beach, me, pony, evening, key, budgie, machine |
|
/i/ |
pig, gym, wanted |
|
/e/ |
egg, head, said |
|
/a/ |
mat |
|
/u/ |
up, come, tough |
|
/o/ |
on, want |
|
/oo/ |
book, would, put |
|
/oo/ |
moon, clue, flute, flew, fruit, soup, do, through |
|
/ae/ |
rain, play, baby, ape, they, eight, steak |
|
/ie/ |
light, mind, fly, pie, kite, eiderdown |
|
/ou/ |
out, down, bough |
|
/oe/ |
boat, snow, go, toe, bone, though, plateau |
|
/oi/ |
coin, boy |
|
/aw/ /or/ |
law, sauce, ball, caught, thought fork, board, door, store, four, warm |
|
/ar/ |
far regional: fast, palm |
|
/air/ |
hair, square, bear, there |
|
/er/ |
person, bird, burn, work, earth |
|
schwa |
suspend, yoga, the, animal, lemon, borough regional: bigger, doctor, polar, colour, centre +more |
The Simple View of Reading
According to “The Simple View of Reading”, reading is the product of decoding and comprehension (Gough and Tunmer 1986).
Decoding refers to reading unfamiliar words by saying the sounds corresponding to the letters in the words and then blending the sounds together. It also refers to reading familiar words accurately at a glance. Written language is a relatively recent cultural invention and very few people develop the ability to read words without direct teaching.
Comprehension refers to the way in which we understand words and the language we hear or read. Humans have evolved to learn to comprehend language.
We need both good word reading and good language comprehension to develop reading comprehension and become good readers.
A Similar View of Writing
Composition involves expressing what we want to say in spoken language, aloud or silently. Humans have evolved to learn to express themselves through talk.
Transcription involves putting spoken language into writing. Writing is a relatively recent cultural invention. First spoken words are written (encoded) and then they are read (decoded). Encoding (writing/spelling) involves starting with a spoken word, segmenting it into sounds (phonemes) and writing corresponding letters. It also refers to remembering the spelling of a familiar word and writing it automatically without going through the original process. Very few people learn to write without direct teaching.
For written composition, we need to be able to express ourselves using words (composition) and then transcribe those words into writing.
Teachers should be aware that composition and transcription require different sorts of teaching.
For more about The Simple View of Reading and the equivalent for writing, go to “The Reading Framework”, pp 16-19.
Evidence
Teachers have very busy schedules, making it difficult for them to find time to read up on research about teaching reading and writing. However, without any knowledge of reliable evidence, they may use ineffective methods, only because someone has told them to, or persuaded them to. In contrast, when teachers know that a teaching method is supported by evidence, they can use it with confidence.
Extensive research shows that the most effective way to teach word reading is to teach phonics (the alphabetic code) systematically. Further evidence suggests that the best way to teach phonics is to teach synthetic phonics systematically. Synthetic means blended. Teaching synthetic phonics means teaching how the letters in words correspond to sounds, and how to blend those sounds to say the words. Spelling is taught as the reverse of reading.
To teach systematic synthetic phonics (SSP), it is essential to follow a programme. However, as far as we know there is no reliable evidence to show which SSP programme is most effective, and it may be that one is more effective than another in particular circumstances. Nevertheless, it is undoubtedly true that when teachers understand The Simple View of Reading and the alphabetic code, they are in a better position to teach fundamental reading and writing skills effectively, whatever SSP programme they use.
The Reading Reform Foundation website provides links to a wealth of reliable evidence. We continue to review and add to it to keep it up to date. We refer to evidence in our literature and aim to make it as easy as possible for busy teachers to understand it.