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.

Agenda | Phonemic Awareness | Alphabetic Principle | Syllables | Morphology, Syntax, Semantics | Resources

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