What is letter-sound knowledge?
Letter-sound knowledge: is the combination of phonology (sounds in speech; phonemes) and orthography (spelling patterns; graphemes). Letter-sound knowledge is commonly known as Phonics. Since there is not just one thing that contributes to letter sound knowledge I will break the different parts down. Phonology is the study of sounds within speech. The smallest unit of phonology is a phoneme (a sound). Then there is orthographywhich is the study of spelling patterns in writing language. The smallest unit of orthography is a grapheme (a letter). When you put these two studies of speech together then they become letter-sound knowledge. Without the background of each individual part of speech, letter-sound recognition will not be able to fully develop. In order to completely understand letter-sound knowledge you must be aware of all the different concepts that complete the term (Letter-Sound Knowledge PowerPoint, 2012):
- Decoding: blending or combining the sounds of letters to read words.
- Digraphs: pairs of letters that represent a single phoneme.
- Trigraphs: three letters that are blended together to produce a single sound. (sch, igh, dge)
- Quadgraphs: four letters that represent a single phoneme. (eigh)
- Vowel digraphs: 2 vowels that represent a single sound. (nail, snow)
- Consonant digraphs: letter combinations for a single sound, represented by more than one letter. (sh, ch, ph, wh, th)
- Vowels: a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y and w. Vowels represent different sounds making there be long and short vowel sounds for each of the vowels.
- Consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z. Consonant blends are when two or three consonants are next to each other in a word and their sound runs together to produce one sound. (grass, belt, spring)
- Diphthongs: two letters that produce a single sound, but the sound is more like a glide or a “sound and a half”. (oi in soil, oy in boy, ow in cow)
- R-controlled vowels: a vowel precedes an r, the vowel sound in lost to the r sound.
- Onset: the consonant sound that precedes the vowel.
- Rime: vowel and any consonant sound that follows it.
- Letter b: B is unsounded when it precedes t as in doubt, or m as in comb.
- Letter h: H is often unsounded when it follows g,k,r, and any vowel.
- Schwa: the sound a vowel often makes in the unstressed syllable of a word.
Why is letter-sound knowledge important?
Letter-sound knowledge is important because is vital to literacy and becomes relevant during elementary and middle school years:
- It allows students to recognize that letters and sounds go together. Without this skill, students could not decode the most basic words. Even the word cat would be difficult if the child did not recognize that c makes the /k/ sound in this word, the a makes the /a/ sound, and t makes the /t/ sound.
- It helps students remember words they learned in the past. Without this particular skill, students would constantly have to decode words. They would not be able to use their store of knowledge of previous words to make reading more efficient.
- Finally, students would not be able to progress and decode new words. If they do not recognize previously seen words, then they will not be able to read new words using analogies. For example, if a child does not remember what breath looks like, then they would not be able use analogy to decode wreath.
How is letter-sound knowledge expected to develop?
Letter-sounds knowledge develops from not being aware of any alphabet letters or their names all the way to expert understanding of alphabet letter names and being able to decode more complicated words when they are present. There are many stages that go into the development of letter- sound knowledge including: sight word development, spelling development, and multiple cueing systems.
Sight word development (Ehri and McCormick, 2006):
- Students sight read when they relate graphemes that form the spelling of the word with the phonemes that form the pronunciation of the word.
- Letter-sound knowledge is necessary to be a proficient sight-reader because it enables the connection between the way a word is spelled and the way it is said. This connection is how students are able to remember so many sight words at a time.
- A sight word is any word that can be immediately read. The term high frequency word is used to describe common words, such as but or and. Sight words are specific to memory. For example, the word coincidence is a sight word to many students since it is one they are very familiar with.
Spelling development (Tompkins, 2010):
According to Tompkins, there are 5 stages of spelling development:
- Emergent spelling:
- They connect scribbles, letter-like forms, and letters together, but there is no association between graphemes and phonemes.
- For example, a child could write grf but not realize that they make the sound /g/ /r/ /f/.
- They do not have directionality when writing, sometimes writing left to right, right to left, and all over the page.
- Directionality is a skill acquired towards the end of this phase.
- They use both upper and lower case letters but tend to favor the uppercase.
- They learn the difference between drawing and writing words, how to make a few letters, and some letter-sound combinations.
- This stage is in the 3-5 year old range.
- They connect scribbles, letter-like forms, and letters together, but there is no association between graphemes and phonemes.
- Letter-name spelling:
- Children in this stage acquire the alphabetic principle, which means that they understand there is a relationship between letters and the sounds they make.
- At first, children in this phase spell using only the most important parts of the words. For example, a child could write C when they mean cat.
- They still tend to favor capital letters.
- Towards the end of the phase, children use the consonant found at the beginning and the end of a word and a vowel somewhere in each syllable.
- For example, they might spell milk as mik.
- Children in this stage are typically 5-7 years old.
- Within word pattern spelling:
- These children can spell most one syllable, short vowel words, and they learn how to spell long vowel patterns and r-controlled vowels.
- They begin to learn about complex consonant sounds, like dge in fudge, and not as common vowel patterns, like ou in fought.
- They may encounter some confusion with spelling patterns, or reverse the order of some letters.
- For example, a student may spell girl as gril.
- Students in this stage are 7-9 years old.
- Syllables and affixes spelling:
- Students use their knowledge about the spellings of one-syllable words and apply it to multi-syllable words.
- They also learn about inflectional endings, rules for adding inflectional endings, homophones, compound words, and affixes.
- Some inflectional endings are s, es, ed, and, ing. A common rule learned in this stage is whether to drop the e before adding the inflectional ending. For example, a student would learn to drop the e in seethe to spell seething.
- Homophones are two words that are pronounced the same but mean different things. An example is trunk, which could be a storage chest or the trunk of an elephant.
- Affixes include the suffixes and prefixes. The prefixes are added to the beginning of the word, and an example is un in unkind. A suffix comes at the end and an example is ly in kindly.
- Children in this stage are 9-11 years old.
- Derivational relations spelling:
- Students begin to realize the connection between the meaning and spelling of a word. They can use this connection to learn to spell words that are similar in meaning. For example, a student could use wise to spell wisdom.
- They learn Latin and Greek root words and affixes, and etymologies, or word origins.
- They also learn consonant- and vowel-alterations.
- For example, fast-fasten and please-pleasant
- Students in this stage are 11-14 years old.
Multiple Cueing System (Hughes, 2007):
According to Hughes, there are four cueing systems:
- Grapho-phonemic(knowing about print):
- Are related to the sounds we hear, the letters of the alphabet, and the conventions of print.
- Used all the time for students who are just learning how to read and write.
- Since there are 26 letters and 44 sounds we cannot rely on phonics to teach out students English.
- For example, teaching a student how to spell the long e sound: read, meet, we, people, etc.
- Struggling, beginners, and proficient writers all rely on the phonological system to spell words.
- For example, /k/ /a/ /t/ students need to know that when you say the word it is a /k/ sound for the letter c, and therefore you write the word as cat.
- Syntactic (knowing about language)
- Provides information about the form and structure of language.
- Involve identifying the function of the word (noun, verb, adverb, adjective) in the sentence.
- Students begin to realize sentences are usually ordered in a certain way.
- This is known as syntax.
- Example of syntax errors, “I goed to the store”. Teachers can correct this by saying yes, “You went to the store”.
- Concerned with prefixes and suffixes, as they change the meaning of words.
- Adding –ing or –s to the end of a word
- Adding un- or re- to the beginning of a word
- Semantic (knowing about words and the world):
- You must be familiar with vocabulary and be able to attach meaning to words you read and have some prior knowledge to be able to understand the word you are reading.
- Must be able to relate new words they have just learned to prior knowledge through personal relations with text.
- Development begins at early grades of elementary school and is continued through adulthood.
- The first step is being able the label things.
- For example, “this is a tree”
- Later you add detail to the labeling.
- For example, “this is a maple tree. Its leaves have three points to them.”
- Children learn that with each topic there are sub-topics. They become aware of these things when they explore language on their own.
- Helps when children are able to make connections between their personal experiences and language
- You must be familiar with vocabulary and be able to attach meaning to words you read and have some prior knowledge to be able to understand the word you are reading.
- Pragmatic (knowing about purposes or functions of reading):
- This stage allows the reader to pinpoint what is and what is not important when they are reading.
- This is a cueing system that is often missing from reading method textbooks.
- Teacher often introduce student to new ways of learning, for instance group learning. The teachers will then have to share strategies that help students work together in groups.
How can letter-sound knowledge be assessed?
Letter-sound knowledge can be assessed by:
- Alphabet Recognition(McKenna & Stahl, 2009, p.82-83, 97):
- Allows you to see if your student are able to distinguish between upper and lower case letters, know all the letters in the alphabet, and are able to pronounce the letters of the alphabet.
- Used for younger grades.
- Fry Sight-Word Inventory(McKenna & Stahl, 2009, p.116-122):
- Gives you three lists of 100 words that are supposed to be automatic sight words to your students. You can use these lists to determine where your student is in their sight word development. The student has to be able to say the word without any hesitation for the word to be considered a sight word to the student.
- Dolch Words(McKenna & Stahl, 2009, p.123-124):
- Gives you five lists starting from pre-primer and going up to third grade. Under each grade level is a list of sight words that a student in that grade level should know. You can give your students these assessments to determine if they are under, at, or above their grade level in reading sight words.
- Informal Phonics Inventory(McKenna & Stahl, 2009, p.125-131):
- In this assessment you can test where your student is in consonant sounds, consonant digraphs, beginning consonant blends, final consonant blends and ng, short vowel in CVC words, the rule of silent e, long vowel digraphs, diphthongs, r-controlled vowels and –al.
- Elementary Spelling Inventory(McKenna & Stahl, 2009, p.142-147):
- You will give your students a “spelling test” but the students are not allowed to study the words before the assessment. Tell your students this is not for a grade but you need their help and want them to spell the words the best they can. The assessment tells you where your student should be at the beginning and end of the year based on their grade level. With this assessment you will be able to determine areas where your students need the most help to be able to reach the end of the year goal.
What strategy can we use to teach letter-sound knowledge?
One instructional strategy for addressing letter-sound knowledge is:
- Writing Words Activity:
- A great way to see your student’s letter-sound knowledge is by analyzing their writing. You should conduct an activity in which they are writing words, such as writing a “how to” list or a paragraph describing their favorite sport.
- It is important that in this activity, students are encouraged to spell words on their own. This is crucial in order to gauge what spelling level they are at, and it will challenge them to get better.
How does this relate to your child study student?
To assess letter-sound knowledge with our kindergarten aged male and female students we used the Alphabet Recognition Chart in McKenna and Stahl’s Assessment for Reading Instruction. During this assessment we had our students first read off the name of each letter in the alphabet, including both upper-case and lower-case letters. Then we had our students say the sound of each of the letters to the best of their ability. Finally, we had our students rewrite the lower-case letter that corresponded with the upper-case letters and visa versa. One of our students was not able to fully differentiate between upper-case and lower-case letters while rewriting them. This showed that one of our student’s is not fully capable of everything involved in letter-sound knowledge.
Helpful Teacher Links
References
Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2008). Words their
way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Ehri, L.C., & McCormick S. (2006) Phases of word learning: Implications for
instruction with delayed and disabled readers. In R.B. Ruddell and N.J.
Unrau (Eds.). Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading (pp.
365-389). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Ezzo, D. (2012). Letter- Sound Knowledge PowerPoint.
Hughes, J. M. “The Four Cueing System.” Teaching Language and Literacy.
Web. 03 Apr. 2012. <http://faculty.uoit.ca/hughes/Oral_Visual_Literacy
/CueingSystems.html>.
“Stages of Spelling Development (page 2).” Education.com. Web. 03 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.education.com/reference/article/stages-spelling-
development/?page=2>.
Learning Reference Project 