The Power of the Cards: Making Sense of English Spelling and Pronunciation

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The Power of the CardsMaking Sense of English
Spelling and Pronunciation

• Delevan Drive Elementary
• New Coach Meeting
• May 20, 2004
• Presented by
• Dr. Denise Pereyra
• Literacy Coach

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Just as a quick test, see if you can tell which
of the following words are mispelled. Supercede
ConceedProcedeIdiosyncracyConcensusAccomodate
ImpressarioIrresistableRhythymOpthalmologistDi
ptheriaAnamolyAfficianadoCaesarianGrafitti 
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Incorrect Correctsupercede supersedeconceed
concedeprocede proceedidiosyncracy idiosyncrasy
concensus consensusaccomodate accommodateimpre
ssario impresarioirresistable irresistiblerhythy
m rhythmopthalmologist ophthalmologistdiptheria
diphtheriaanamoly anomoly afficianado aficion
adocaesarian cesareangrafitti graffiti
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New Words

• Fax
• E-mail
• Geek
• Rad
• Phat
• The plural of geek is geeks, not gook or geekes

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The English Language

• Has one of the most complex alphabetic
  orthographies
• Is spoken and written as a first or second
  language throughout the world
• Has the largest vocabulary
• Is the language of international commerce

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Primary Process of Reading

• Ability to associate print units with linguistic
  units.

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Lets Count Phonemes

• ice ____
• sigh ____
• day ____
• aide ____
• choose ____
• thorn ____
• measure ____
• soothe ____
• pitched ____

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Read this selection

• The fructificative goosefoot was foveolariously
  assembled. The frugivorous and frowsy fricatrice,
  whose epidermis was of a variegated
  fuchsinophillic consistency, masticated her
  chenopodiaceous repast morosely.

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Translation

• The fruit-bearing goosefoot was full of pit-like
  indentations. The fruit-loving and frowsy chewer,
  whose skin was of a mottled and purplish-red
  consistency, chewed her goosefoot (species) meal
  morosely.

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Print Units

• Letters
• Letter combinations
• Letter sequences
• Words
• Punctuation marks

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Linguistic Units

• Phonemes
• Onsets
• Rimes
• Syllables
• Morphemes
• Words
• Phrases

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Students who cannot read words well

• Demonstrate weaknesses in phonological
  processing the ability to
• identify
• manipulate
• produce
• remember
• speech sounds

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Can You Blend These Words?

• meadow mechanic
• jingle faucet
• adorable spouse
• shiver compare
• circus suggest
• February gigantic
• salute decipher
• saucer embroider
• finger special
• obedience scarce
• pheasant package

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Schwa

• about
• effect
• definition
• commence
• upon

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Derivational Complexity

• syllable regrouping differ to different
• vowel alternation define to definition
• consonant alternation crumb to crumble
• stress alternation final to finality

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Stress patterns

• photograph
• photography
• photographic

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heardbeard roadbroad fivegive filletskillet ea
rlydearly beau-beauty steak-streak ache-mustache
low-how doll-droll scourfour paidsaid break-spea
k
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C in race rack rich
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b in debta in breadts in thistle
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throughthoughthoughttoughploughthoroughhicco
ughlough
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Thats tough That stuff
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I love you Isle of view
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Gray day Grade A
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Great Vowel Shiftspot ? spatspat ?
speetspeet ? spatelaw ? close ? foodlyf
(leef)? life (lafe)? life (life)blood, stood,
good, flood
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oo

• Blood
• Stood
• Good
• Flood
• Food

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(No Transcript)
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changechargechimney
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champagnechevronchivalrychaperone
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chefchiefchef
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-agebandagecabbagelanguagebadinagecamoufla
ge
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(No Transcript)
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Native American wordsAlgonquin
raugroughcum rahaugcum rarowcun aracoune
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(No Transcript)
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Alphabets

• Aleph ox ) ( a
• Re sun ? /ray/

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shsugarshoepassionambitiousoceanchampagn
e
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Long ogoeaustowsewdoethoughescargot
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Long aheystaymakemaidfreightgreat
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Alternate short e spelling

• Ea as in
• head
• bread
• spread

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Strengths of English Spelling

• The consonants are fairly regular.
• The language is free of diacritical marks (ú, á,
  ñ).
• English preserves the spelling of borrowed words.

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English Spelling

• 50 of English words are spelled accurately on
  the basis of sound-symbol correspondence rules
  alone.
• 36 are spelled with only one error on the same
  basis.
• Less than 4 are true oddities.

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What happened to the u in forty?

• Four
• Fourth
• Fourteen
• Twenty-four
• Forty

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Some of the oddities

• Ache (pronounced aitch when used as a noun)
• Ake (pronounced ake when used as a verb)
• We use the noun spelling and the verb
  pronunciation
• Other examples
• Speech/speak
• Stench/stink

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More oddities

• One and once used to be oon and oons
• Queen used to be cwene
• Antiquité - antiquity
• Where
• Wher
• Whair
• Wair
• Wheare
• Were
• Whear

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(No Transcript)
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Spellings that reflect original pronunciations

• Knight, knee
• Gnaw, gnat
• Folk, would, alms
• Aisle, bread, eight, enough
• Would, could, should

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Thanks to Latin

• We have the b in debt and doubt from the Latin
  debitum and dubitare (originally dette and doute)
• Island
• Scissors
• Anchor

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Spelling Reform Efforts

• Axe to ax
• Judgement to judgment
• Catalogue to catalog
• Demagogue to demagog
• Programme to program

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Spelling Reforms that Didnt Take

• Tuf
• Def
• Troble
• Yu
• Filosofy

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All By Themselves Spelling Reforms

• Deposite to deposit
• Fossile to fossil
• Secretariate
• to secretariat
• Musick to music
• Physick to physic
• But picnicking

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Case for Spelling Reform?

• Wring vs. ring
• Meet vs. meat vs. mete
• Hinder but hindrance
• Proceed but procedure
• Enough, biscuit, pneumonia

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Possible results of spelling reform

• Attempts to simplify and regularize English
  spelling almost always hav a sumwut stranj and
  ineskapubly arbitrary luk ubowt them, and uv
  corse they kawz most reederz to stumbl.

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Common Phonics Logic

• 50 consonant letter patterns (graphemes) for 62
  sounds.
• 76 consonant cluster letter patterns for 76
  sounds.
• 50 vowel letter patterns for 95 sounds.
• Total complexity 176 letter(s) representing 233
  sounds.

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The Logic of the English Language

• There are 43 phonemes represented by about 100
  letters or letter combinations.
• In order to teach this you must set up a basic
  code in which each phoneme is represented by only
  one letter or digraph.
• The remaining structure of the spelling code
  should be taught as spelling alternatives for
  those sounds with more than one spelling,
• and code overlaps for those letters that
  represent more than one sound.

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Code Complexity

• Probabilities
• Logical
• Reversible

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Basic Code for Consonants

• 24 consonants spelled with 50 spellings.
• 12 consonants mainly one spelling,
• or one spelling by position in a word
• /b/ /d/ /h/ /l/ /p/ /t/ /v/ /ng/ /qu/
  /sh/ /th/ /th/

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Basic Code for Consonants, cont.

• The remaining 12 consonants one spelling (the
  most probable or least ambiguous)
• /f/ /g/ /j/ /k/ /m/ /n/ /r/ /s/ /w/ /x/
  /z/ /ch/
• The 25th sound /zh/ (vision) isnt taught at this
  stage.

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Basic Code for Consonants, cont.

• This leaves 26 spelling alternatives for 12
  consonants which must be taught.
• Example the sound /f/ can be spelled f, ff, gh,
  ph

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Basic Code for Consonants, cont.

• Consonant Clusters 76 consonant clusters are
  simply adjacent consonants and are spelled
  exactly like single consonants.
• 73 are spelled in basic code (only one spelling).
  
• There is no new logic and no new complexity.
• Examples bl as in black or str as in street

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Basic Code for Vowels

• 18 vowels with 50 spellings.
• 3 vowels are mainly spelled one way, and 1 by
  position in a word.
• /a/ cat, /i/ sit, /ar/ car, /oi/ toil, toy

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Basic Code for Vowels, cont.

• The remaining 14 vowels one spelling (the most
  probable)
• /e/ /o/ /u/ /ee/
• /ae/ (or a_e) /ie/ /ue/ or (u_e) /aw/ /oo/
  /oo/ /ou/ /er/ /or/

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Vowels, cont.

• This leaves 32 spelling alternatives for 14 vowel
  sounds that must be taught.
• Example the vowel sound /o/ can be spelled
• o_e tone, oa goat, o told, ow low

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Vowel Code Overlaps

• There are 21 vowel letter patterns that overlap
  more than one vowel sound
• For example The letters ou stand for five
  phonemes
• /ou/ out, /oo/ soup,
• /oe/ soul, /u/ touch,
• /aw/ cough
• These 21 code overlaps must be taught.

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The OCR Basic Code

• Of the 42 sounds/ 42 spellings, this is what
  remains
• 26 consonant spelling alternatives
• 32 vowel spelling alternatives
• 21 code overlaps
• Total complexity 79, showing that the alphabet
  is a code for sounds in speech

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Phonics in Open Court

• The purpose of phonics instruction is to teach
  students the association between the sounds of
  the language and the written symbolsspellingstha
  t have been chosen to represent those sounds.

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• As with all alphabetic languages, English has a
  limited number of symbols26that are combined
  and recombined to make the written language.
  These written symbols are a visual representation
  of the speech sounds we use to communicate. This
  is simply a code. The faster the children learn
  the code and how it works, the faster the whole
  world of reading opens to them.

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alloy poinsettia annoy adroit
avoid pointboil poiseboy poisoncloy quoits
coil roilcoy roisterdoily
royalfoible soilfoil soygargoyle spoilgoi
ter toilhoist troikajoy troyloyal voicem
oiety voidmoil voilemoist voyage noise
voyeur
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The Issue of High Frequency Words

• Words students are supposed to know by the end of
  kindergarten.
• the here is a an I see we and at you
  are he she look can cannot too have do
  what in not out over where under on no
  it this go down up who has yes said for
  four three two like will pretty come some
  get make from
• How many of these words are actually predictable
  based on the logic of the code?

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Do we need so many spellings?

• Eight or ate?
• Recede or reseed?
• Fissure or fisher?
• Sew or sow or so?
• Seas or seize?
• Fleas or flees?
• Aloud or allowed?
• Chance or chants?
• Air or heir?
• Wrest or rest?
• Flue or flu or flew?
• Reign or rain or rein?

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Like Jokes?

• Bakers trade recipes on a knead to know basis.
• When an actress saw her first strands of gray
  hair, she though shed dye.

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Variety of pronunciations

• Medal for metal
• Forn for foreign
• Gimme for give me
• Gonna for going to
• Girl
• Gurl in America (goil in N.Y.)
• Gel in London
• Gull in Ireland
• Gill in So. Africa
• Gairull in Scotland

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Add These to the Sound/Spelling Cards
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SOME SPELLING GENERALIZATIONS Consonants ch,
-tch The letters tch are used after stressed,
short vowels (batch, ketch, ditch, blotch,
butcher), but the letters ch are used after long
vowels or after consonants (poach, pouch,
punch). -dge, -ge At the ends of words, /j/ is
spelled dge after stressed, short vowels
(badge, edge, ridge, lodge, budge). /kw/
qu This sound combination in the beginnings of
words or syllables is spelled qu. Qu is the only
two-letter spelling unit that works together to
spell two unique sounds. When qu comes at the
beginning of a syllable, the letter u stands for
the consonant /w/, as in assuage. /k/ k, c,
ch The sound /k/ is spelled with k before the
vowels i and e with c before a, o, and u with
ch in Greek-derived words and with ck after
accented short vowels. Also the /k/ in a
consonant blend followed by an /r/ or /l/ is
always spelled with a c (clean, crazy). The
letter y The letter y has four jobs in English
orthography. It represents three vowels and one
consonant. The consonant is the glide /y/ as in
yellow and yes. The vowels are /?/ as in baby and
lady /i/ as in gym and chlorophyll and /i/ as
in cry, by, sly. ng There are two spellings for
this sound, ng and n. The n spelling is used
before the speech sound /k/ and /g/, as in lanky
and language. 
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Other Interesting Spelling Generalizations 1. Wh
en the long o /o/ sound comes before the letters
t or d, it is usually spelled with oa (as in
boat, load). 2. The k in picnicking prevents
the c from sounding like an /s/. 3. The e in
continue prevents the word from ending in a plain
u. 4. The u in guess prevents the g from
sounding like /j/. 5. The spelling gh can
represent the sound /f/ at the end of a word, but
never at the beginning. 6. The /f/ in sphere
must be spelled with ph because it comes after
/s/. 7. He, she, be, and we all share the
spelling for /e/, but violate the rule for
spelling /e/ at the ends of words. The letters
ee are used more often, as in bee, fee, glee,
thee, three, free, knee, agree, tee, flee,
etc. 8. The sound /v/ is always spelled with a
v, except in the word of, and is always
followed by a silent e at the ends of words like
love, dove, and live, because English words
never end in a v. 9. A silent e was sometimes
added to a word to keep it from looking like a
plural, as in false and else. 10. Some letters
can never be doubled within a syllable or between
syllables, such as j, y, i (exception skiing),
and k (exception bookkeeper).  11. The letter
j cannot end a word, so the permissible spellings
are ge or dge. 12. When an -nce, t, or d
follow the /ow/ sound, the spelling is usually
ou, as in pounce, scout, loud. When /ow/ is
followed by an nd, the spelling is usually ou,
as in hound. When the /ow/ sound is followed by
n, the spelling is usually ow, as in
down. 13. When the /aw/ sound is followed by 2
or more letters, the spelling is often au, as in
caught, launch, haunt. When the /aw/ sound is
followed by one letter, the spelling is often aw,
as in law, shawl, dawn.
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Spelling Words 1. scrappy 11. skillet2. destro
y 12. sloped3. shiver 13. chance4. pauper 14.
gentry5. canter 15. hinge6. trickle 16. shado
w7. cartridge 17. employ8. sketched 18. kipper
9. bounty 19. smooch10. starch 20. bestow Ch
allenge Words  kindred skeleton scratched
emergency laundry bleachers scooter
hitchhike
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Principles of Effective Teaching of Reading,
Spelling, and Writing Direct teaching of
sound/symbol correspondence (phonics), word
recognition, comprehension, and literature
appreciation is necessary from when children
begin school until they become proficient
readers and writers.  Phoneme awareness
instruction, when linked to a systematic
decoding and spelling instruction, is a key to
preventing reading failure in children who come
to school without these prerequisite
skills.  It is better to teach the code system
of written English systematically and explicitly
than it is to teach it randomly, indirectly, or
incidentally.  The most effective programs
include daily exposure to a variety of texts
and incentives for children to read
independently and with others.  Vocabulary is
best taught with a variety of complementary
methods designed to explore the relationships
among words and the relationships among word
structure, origin, and meaning.  Key
comprehension strategies to teach include
summarizing, clarifying, questioning, and
visualizing.  Effective teachers encourage
frequent prose writing to enable deeper
understanding of what is read. 
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Word StudyThe term word study refers to the
process of learning everything about words,
including their spelling, meaning, pronunciation,
historical origin, and relationship with other
words. The domain of word study includes layers
of language and patterns within the layers.See
Guide to Spelling by Louisa Cook Moats for a
prepublication chart for word study by grade
level.
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The Power of Instruction

• Word recognition, reading fluency, knowledge of
  word meanings, and familiarity with complex
  syntax enhance reading comprehension likewise,
  exposure to text enhances familiarity with words
  and linguistic structures. Achieving balance in
  reading instruction does not mean dabbling
  superficially in a variety of skill domains but
  means teaching each component thoroughly,
  systematically, and well.

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The Power of Instruction, cont.

• Maintaining a balance also means covering a range
  of components daily and weekly, along with a
  steady supply of great literature and purposeful
  writing projects. Considerable expertise is
  required to teach everyone to read, but
  well-informed classroom teachers using valid
  instructional programs are up to the job. There
  is no more important task for educators to
  undertake.

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Resources for this presentationBryson, Bill,
The Mother Tongue English and How It Got That
Way. Fry, Edward Bernard, Ph.D., et al., The
Reading Teachers Book of Lists.McGuinness,
Diane, Ph.D. Why Our Children Cant Read and
What We Can Do About It. Moats, Louisa Cook,
Speech to Print.Pinker, Steven, The Language
Instinct How the Mind Creates Language.