Common Phonics Terms Flashcards
analytic phonics
a whole to part phonics approach that emphasizes starting with whole words and identifying individual sounds as part of those words. Efforts are generally made to avoid pronouncing the sounds in isolation. Also known as “implicit phonics”
accent (primary)
The syllable in a word that receives the strongest and loudest emphasis
auditory discrimination
the ability to hear similarities and differences between sounds as they appear in spoken words.
base word
a word to which prefixes and or suffixes are added to create new but related words. The simplest member of a word family.
breve
an orthographic symbol placed above vowel graphemes to indicate pronunciation (small upper u or half circle facing up)
circumflex
an orthographic symbol (^) placed above vowel graphemes to indicate pronunciation
close syllable
any syllable ending with a constant phoneme: Ex: come /m/; love /v/; ran /n/.
compound word
a word made up of two or more base words Ex: football
constant blend
sounds in a syllable represented by two or more letters that are blended together without losing their own identities. Ex: green /g/ /r/; swing /s/ /w/; clap /c/ /l/.
consonant cluster
two or more consonant letters appearing together, which when sounded, represent a blend. Ex: gr, cr, str,
consonants
sounds represented by any letter of the English alphabet except a e i o u. Consonants are sounds that are made by restring the breath channel.
decoding
the process of determining the pronunciation of an unknown word.
deductive instruction
instructional procedure that centers on telling children about generalizations and having them apply those generalizations to specific words. A general to specific analysis.
digraph
two letters that stand for a single phoneme or sound. Ex: shout /sh/ what /wh/ rang /ng/ meat /ea/ A digraph is a grapheme containing two letters and one sound
dipthong
a single sound made up of two vowel sounds in immediate sequence and pronounced in one syllable. Ex: oil /oi/ toy /oy/
grapheme
A letter or combo of letters that represents a phoneme ex: the phoneme /b/ in bat is represented by the grapheme (letter) b; the phoneme /f/ in phone is represented by the graphemes p and h.
macron
An orthographic symbol, (-) placed over a vowel to show that it is pronounced as a long sound.
onset
the consonant sounds of a syllable that come before the vowel sound.
open syllable
any syllable ending with a vowel phoneme. Examples see /e/ may /a/ auto /o/
phoneme
the smallest sound unit of a language that distinguishes one word from another. Ex: the phoneme /h/ distinguishes hat from at; the words man and fan are distinguished by their initial phonemes /m/ and /f/ respectively.
phoneme blending
The process of recognizing isolated speech sounds and the ability to pronounce the word for which they stand.
phoneme segmentation
the ability to isolate all the sounds within a word.
phonemic awareness
the ability to recognize spoken words as a sequence to individual sounds
phonetics
the scientific study of human speech sounds.
phonics
a method in which basic phonetics, the study of human speech sounds, is used to teach reading.
phonogram
a letter sequence composed of a vowel grapheme and an ending consonant grapheme(s). Ex: -it in bit, lit, sit or -ain in pain, gain, and rain.
r-controlled vowel
when a vowel is followed by the letter r, it makes the vowel sound neither long nor short. Ex: in the word car, the vowel sound becomes /a/; in the word more, it becomes /o^/.
rime
the part of a syllable that includes the vowel sound as well as any consonant sounds that come after it. The graphic representation of a rime is reffered to as a phonnogram. Ex: in the word cat, the onset is /c/ and the rime is /at/.
root
often used as a synonym for base word.
schwa sound
an unstressed sound commonly occuring in unstressed sullables. It is represented by the symbol, e (upsidedown and backwards) and closely resembles the short sound for u. Ex: i in April, io in station; u in circus.
silent letter
a name given to a letter that appears in a written word but is not heard in the spoken word. Ex: knight has six written letters but only three are heard; k, g, and h are “silent.”
slash marks
Slanting lines (/ /) enclosing a grapheme(s) indicate that the reference is to the sound and not to the letters.
syllable
a unit of pronunciation consisting of a vowel alone or a vowel with one or more consonants. There can be only one vowel phoneme (sound) in each syllable.
synthetic phonics
a part-to-whole phonics approach that emphasizes the learning of individual sounds, often in isolation, and combining them to form words. Also known as explicit phonics.
umlaunt
An orthographic symbol (..)-(except they are higher) placed above vowel graphemes to indicate pronunciation.
visual discrimination
the ability to visually perceive similarities and differences. In reading, this means to perceive similarities and differences in written letters and words.
vowels
Sounds represented by the graphemes (letters) a, e, i, o , u , and sometimes y and w, in the English alphabet. Vowels are sounds that are made without closing or restricting the breath channel.
