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AnalyticPhonics

AnalyticPhonics
Thefirstprogrammeforteachingphonicsusingtheanalyticphonicsmethodwasdevisedin
1783byNoahWebster.Itbecamethebestsellingreadingprogrammefornearly100years.
ThismethodofteachingphonicsisthemostwidelyusedintheUSAtoday.
Inthismethodofteachingphonicschildrenaretaughttolookinitiallyatthewholewordand
thenbreakitdowntocomparepartsofthewordtolettersoundrelationshipstheyhavecome
acrossinpreviouslylearnedwords.
Asinglesyllablewordhastwoparts:theonset(or
beginning)andtherime.Inthewordspill,spis
theonsetandillistherime.Byvaryingthe
onset,onerimecangeneratetensandeven
hundredsofadditionalwords.Thesegroupsof
wordsarecollectivelyknownasawordfamily.
Inanalyticphonicschildrenaretaughttoanalyse
wholewordstodetectspellingpatternsandthen
splitthemintotheonsetandrime.Thisdecoding
enablesthemtomakeacomparisonwithother
wordstheymayknowfromthesamewordfamily.
Forexample,ifthechildknowsgoat,boatandfloat,thenthewordmoatwillbeeasyto
read,evenifitisthefirsttimethatithasbeenseen.

TeachingPrinciples
Inanalyticphonicsthechildfirstlearnsthenamesofeachofthe26lettersofthe
alphabetandthesoundsthattheymake.Theletterm,forexample,hastheletter
nameemandthelettersound/m/asinman.Initiallythefocusisonidentifyingthese
soundswhentheyappearatthebeginningofwords,thenthechildwillidentifythese
soundsappearinginthemiddleandendsofwords.
Nextthechildistaughthowtoblendletterstogethertomakesimplethreeletterwords
suchas'cat','sun'etc.Forexample,programmesmaystartwithregularshortvowel
wordscontaininga(egcan,man,fan,ran)andthenprogressthroughwords
containingtheothervowels.
Consonantclusters(e.g.bl,gr,st)arethenintroduced,firstatthebeginningofwords
andthenattheendofwords.
Thenextstageinanalyticphonicsteachingistoteachthechildaboutimportantletter
combinationsthatsymbolisespecificsoundssuchaslongvowelsounds(egae,ie),
consonantdigraphs(egth,sh,ch,wh,ck,ph,wr),vowelcombinations(egee,oa,oe,
ai,ay,oi,oy,ea,ow,ou,ue,au),rcontrolledvowels(egar,or,ore,er,ur,ir,ear,eer,air)
andothercombinations(ega+l,w+a,c+e,igh,ough).
Similarlyspeltwordsaresetupinrhymingfamiliesandlearnedtogetheregbread,
thread,tread,dread.
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Rulesaretaughttohelpdeducehowawordshouldberead.However,exceptionsto
theserulesmustalsobelearnt.
Themostcommonirregularwordsaretaughttoberecognisedbysight.
Thechildisencouragedtousepicturecues,initiallettercuesandcontextinformation
forguessingwords.
Booksthatsupportthisteachingmethodusetextwithrepetitive,predictablesentences.
Picturesgivecluesforanynewwordsintroducedonthatpage.

Advantages
Ofthewordsusedmostofteninwrittenmaterial,47%canbereadusingbasicphonic
rules,sobylearningtheseruleschildrenarealreadywellontheirwaytobeingableto
readnearlyhalfofthewordscommonlyencountered.
Thistechniqueisanefficientwaytohelpchildrendevelopalargesightvocabularyfor
bothreadingandspelling.
Itisparticularlyusefulforwordswhichdontlendthemselvestosoundingout
phonetically.Commonexamplesincludecould,would,should.Bylearningtherime
ould,andrecognisingitinoneofthesethreewords,theothertwowordsarealso
easilylearned.

Disadvantages
Learningthesoundsandtheirblendscanbeboringforyoungchildren,althoughsome
readingprogrammesintroducegamesandactivitiestotrytokeepitfun.
Itcanbeconfusingforchildrenwhentheydiscoverthatasingleletterhasmorethan
onesounddependingonthewordyoufinditin.Forexample,thinkofhowyou
pronounceoindog,food,foldandshout.Knowingwhatsoundtogivealetter
becomesacaseofmemorisingmanywordfamilies.
Promotingguessingtohelpreadwordsencouragesreadingthatisproneto
inaccuracies.
Onenewlettersoundisoftentaughteachweek,whichisacomparativelyslowrateof
learningcomparedtoothermethods.
Althoughthemethodworkswithmanychildren,alargepercentagestillstrugglewith
thismethodofteachingphonics.

ReadingPrograms

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Ifyouwanttoteachyourchildtoreadusingphonics,thereareavarietyofdifferentreading
programs,manyofwhichuseanalyticphonics,availabletohelpyou.Whetheryouare
lookingforasimplehandbookdescribingthestepsyoushouldfollow,oranonlineprogram
withcomputeranimatedgamestoentertainyourchildwhiletheyarelearning,youshouldbe
abletofindsomethingthatmeetsyourneeds.

ReadingPractice
Tohelpyourchildpracticespecificphonicsrulesencouragethemtoreadeasyreaderbooks
basedonphonics.Mostofthewordscontainedinthesebooks,whichhavebeenwritten
especiallyforbeginnerreaders,canbesoundedoutusingphonicrules.Ifyourchildcomes
acrossawordtheydonotknowtheycandecodeitbybreakingtheworddownintounitsand
blendingtogetherthesoundsofeachoftheseunits.

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