Effective Decoding Instruction for Diverse
Learners
A Study Group Series
Alphabetic Principle
The alphabetic principle can be defined as the systematic use
of alphabet letters to represent speech sounds (or phonemes) in a language.
Moats, Spelling: Development, Disability and
Instruction, 1995. (The following information is excerpted from
Moats, American Educator, 1998.)
1. Pre-alphabetic Level
- Appropriate activities at the pre-alphabetic level include
phonological awareness tasks (carried out orally) such as
rhyming; counting, adding and deleting syllables; matching
beginning sounds in words; substituting and identifying sounds
that exist in selected words. In addition, the development
of print awareness includes alphabet matching and
letter naming, following print with the finger during read-alouds,
and much interactive engagement with appealing books.
All these activities develop awareness of the alphabetic
principle: that letters roughly represent segments of one's
own speech.
2. Early Alphabetic Reading
- At this juncture, teaching affects the development of decoding
strategies (Tummer & Chapman, 1996).
The core activity in systematic, explicit decoding
instruction is blending single sounds into words.
Once an association between sound and letter(s) is taught,
children need cumulative practice building words with letters
known. Systematic programs begin with a limited set of sounds-
a few consonants and one or two vowels- so that words can be built
right away.
3. Mature Alphabetic Stage
- At this stage of early reading, students know associations
for the basic sound-spellings and can use them to decipher
simple words. As they become more automatic and efficient,
students quickly begin to recognize the redundant "chunks"
of orthography (the writing system of language). Phonograms
(ell, ack, ame, old) and word endings (-ing, -ed, -est) are
read as units.
3. Orthographic Stage
- Knowledge of sound-symbol associations and lots of practice
reading contribute to fluency in word recognition. Students
become familiar with larger units of print and can read new
words by analogy to known words rather than sounding words
letter by letter. Beyond phonics, the study of word structures
comprises syllables and morphemes, the units from which our
Latin-and-Greek-derived words are created.
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Last modified: Sun May 6 14:35:35 EDT 2001