Alphabetic Principle
The alphabetic principle is that letter symbols have sounds and words are made up of letter symbols.
Thus, the student must know the sound/symbol association. For reading, when a child sees a symbol or a group of symbols, the student must be able to say the sound or blend the sounds to form a word. For spelling, the child needs to write the symbol or a group of symbols sounds that he/she hears. Thus, phonemic awareness plays a critical role in spelling.
However, in the American English language, not all words can be sounded out and must be learned as sight words. Also, several letters, such as c and g, make several sounds. The vowels (a, e, i, o, u) make multiple sounds, based on their visual pattern.
Categorization is very important. Can the student:
- Sort letters into consonant or vowels
- Verbally say if a letter is a consonant or vowel
- Upon hearing a vowel sound, state if it is short, long, R Controlled, diphthong, irregular
- Upon seeing a word, state if the vowel rule is short, long, R Controlled, diphthong, irregular
- Upon hearing an audio component of a word, state the position of the sound - initial, medial, final (example - "b" in bat = initial; "t" in bat = final; "short a sound" in bat = medial
In the following tables, the green and red highlighted visual components indicate that these letters are common in both the initial and final positions. That is, nine visual components (the first fifteen out of eighty) are the same in both the initial and final position. MyBreakfastReadingProgram focuses on those components in the early lessons.
The Medial Positions table with the yellow highlights indicate that 12% of words do not have a medial visual component (so, at) and that approximately 70% of medial patterns are comprised with a one or two vowel patterns. Based on these patterns, the student should be able to quickly categorize the vowel sound as long or short.
- 1 vowel = short or pancake
- 2 vowels = long or waffle (diphthongs also are two vowels and are introduced in later lessons)
Like the consonant sounds, MyBreakfastReadingProgram focuses on both the long and short vowel sounds early in the program.
Another observation from the chart that adults may relate to, is the analogy of a traffic light. The green can represent the initial sound as you need to "GO" when sounding out a word. The red can represent the final sound, as you need to "Stop" when you complete the sounding out of a word.
The yellow light warns that you have to make a decision when approaching an intersection. Just like approaching a word, determine the medial sound first, as the vowel sounds change, based upon the visual pattern. While driving, you have to determine if you accelerate or break when you see the yellow light. When you see the vowel pattern, you have to determine if the sound is long or short. (However, where I live, yellow always means accelerate). All joking aside, a spilt decision has to be made.
This concept is used in the color coding the Dominoes.
The following Phonemic Awareness link shows the importance of the alphabetic principle.
|
Initial Position Visual Patterns Sorted by Total |
Medial Position Visual Patterns Sorted by Total |
Final Position Visual Patterns Sorted by Total |
||||||||||||||
| Count of Printed Word | Count of Printed Word | Count of Printed Word | ||||||||||||||
| Rank |
IVC - Initial Visual Component |
Total | % | Cum % | Rank |
MVC - Medial Visual Component |
Total | % | Cum % | Rank |
FVC - Final Visual Component |
Total | % | Cum % | ||
| 1 | b | 118 | 5% | 5% | 1 | (blank) | 294 | 12% | 12% | 1 | t | 201 | 8% | 8% | ||
| 2 | l | 110 | 5% | 10% | 2 | i | 272 | 11% | 24% | 2 | n | 191 | 8% | 16% | ||
| 3 | p | 105 | 4% | 14% | 3 | a | 266 | 11% | 35% | 3 | d | 159 | 7% | 23% | ||
| 4 | h | 102 | 4% | 18% | 4 | u | 215 | 9% | 44% | 4 | p | 128 | 5% | 29% | ||
| 5 | m | 102 | 4% | 23% | 5 | o | 163 | 7% | 51% | 5 | m | 108 | 5% | 33% | ||
| 6 | r | 101 | 4% | 27% | 6 | e | 162 | 7% | 58% | 6 | l | 103 | 4% | 37% | ||
| 7 | t | 91 | 4% | 31% | 7 | a-e | 138 | 6% | 64% | 7 | k | 91 | 4% | 41% | ||
| 8 | s | 87 | 4% | 34% | 8 | i-e | 112 | 5% | 68% | 8 | g | 81 | 3% | 45% | ||
| 9 | f | 82 | 3% | 38% | 9 | ea | 88 | 4% | 72% | 9 | ll | 76 | 3% | 48% | ||
| 10 | d | 81 | 3% | 41% | 10 | o-e | 82 | 3% | 75% | 10 | ck | 74 | 3% | 51% | ||
| 11 | c | 73 | 3% | 44% | 11 | ee | 75 | 3% | 79% | 11 | st | 64 | 3% | 54% | ||
| 12 | w | 68 | 3% | 47% | 12 | oo | 66 | 3% | 81% | 12 | b | 62 | 3% | 56% | ||
| 13 | st | 66 | 3% | 50% | 13 | ai | 47 | 2% | 83% | 13 | ch | 60 | 3% | 59% | ||
| 14 | g | 54 | 2% | 52% | 14 | ow | 46 | 2% | 85% | 14 | ng | 58 | 2% | 61% | ||
| 15 | sh | 51 | 2% | 54% | 15 | ou | 34 | 1% | 87% | 15 | ||||||