Discovering the English Alphabet Code
The Sound Reading System This programme has been written to enable parents and teachers to help learners of any age, in particular those who may be struggling, to learn to read and spell easily in English. SRS is based on the phonological structure of the English language. In simple terms it means that it is based on speech with each unit of sound within a word mapped to a spelling. The first step is speaking.
Let’s look at the Alphabet:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r
Many of our children arrive at school with under-developed speaking skills and time should be spent developing speaking and listening – stories, songs, poems, games and conversations all develop these skills.
“People can learn to decode at any age,
It is likely that one of the reasons that we have been held back in our understanding of how to teach reading, is our alphabet. This provides a ‘straight jacket’ to our thinking. This is because as the alphabet stands, it is insufficient. We need to understand why it is insufficient and also how it works as a code.
The Alphabet Code
The Alphabet Code
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 1
s t u v w x y z
”
but language skills cannot be taught at any age.
Diane McGuinness, p10 Growing a Reader from Birth 2004
Teachers will make a principled and professional judgement about when to start to teach reading to very young children. The Sound Reading System is based on years of research and analysis by Diane McGuinness on the English alphabet code and how to teach it. The teaching programme focuses on teaching the code. It teaches the basics of reading and spelling simultaneously and is flexible in its approach to the learner. SRS is designed to be used with the beginner reader, the developing reader, the slow-tostart or ‘catch-up’ reader of any age, including adults and students studying English as a Second Language(ESL). Learners with the ‘dyslexic’ label also benefit from the simple logic of the programme, as do those with other learning difficulties. SRS can be viewed as an intervention programme, but above all, the strength of SRS lies in its handling of the teaching of the code in a way that is immediately accessible to the learner. We have categorised the learners as SRS Catch-up Beginner Learners, SRS Catch-up 1 Learners and SRS Catch-up 2 Learners. The specific needs of these three groups are reflected in the teaching approach for each one. The teaching time scale will differ for each group and may be adjusted for individual needs. Throughout the programme the teacher has been referred to as ‘she’. This is purely for the sake of simplicity, just as the learner is referred to as ‘they’.
It presents 26 letters. These letters are used to represent our spelling system, either on their own or combined with other letters to represent sounds. This spelling system is a body of knowledge that needs to be taught so that children can learn to read and spell easily and accurately. English, like any other European or Middle Eastern language, has spoken sounds that are represented by written spellings. We have called our teaching method The Sound Reading System because the spelling system represents the spoken sounds of English. Each of the spoken sounds have spellings and if you can read the spellings you can find the sounds. If you can say the sounds and know the spellings, you can write what you can say. The process is totally reversible – two sides to the same coin. We call this an alphabet code and not simply an alphabet because in fact our spelling system is a code, symbols or letters, combined to represent spoken sounds.
What is a Code? A code is an abstract symbol that represents a reality. All codes are reversible. To be able to ‘read’ a code we need to understand the reality and the symbol that it represents. For example:
• In mathematics (real) quantities * * * * are represented by a symbol: 4 • In music the (real) sound, pitch and rhythmic pattern of the music is represented by the written notes: the symbols: e
• The ‘Highway Code’ represents in symbols, the rules governing driving on public roads: • The English ‘alphabet code’ represents the written symbols or letters for the smallest spoken sounds of the English language. It is reversible (sound
symbol e.g t-r-ai-n ).
Teachers and parents need a thorough understanding of how the code works before they can teach it. Children are empowered when they understand it. Once the code is understood, reading and spelling become very accessible. The aim of this book is to make teachers and parents comfortable with the alphabet code and to show how it works and how to teach it.
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SRS Handbook CH01_1-44.indd 18-19
© Sound Reading System
© Sound Reading System
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04/12/2013 09:44