Topic 10 2014 V2

 

 

TOPIC 10. Los códigos ortográficos de la lengua inglesa. Relación sonido-grafía. Propuestas par ala didáctica del código escrito. Aplicaciones de la ortografía en las producciones escritas. 1. INTRODUCTION 2. ORTHOGRAPHIC CODES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 1.1. SPELLING RULES 3. SOUND-GRAPHEME RELATIONSHIPS a. Vowels  b. Consonants and semi-consonants c. Silent letters 4. TEACHING THE WRITTEN CODE: DIDACTIC SUGGESTIONS 4.1. PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS 5. SPELLING IN WRITTEN PRODUCTIONS 4.1. WORD-RECOGNITION ACTIVITIES 4.2. ACTIVITIES AT WORD LEVEL 4.3. ACTIVITIES AT SENTENCE LEVEL 4.4. ACTIVITIES AT PARAGRAPH LEVEL

1. INTRODUCTION

Human language is the main vehicle to convey our thoughts, needs and feelings. It has two basic manifestations: oral and written language. Writing in English must not be seen merely as transcribed speech, since the sounds of the language do not correspond exactly to the letters of the alphabet. Therefore, the sound-grapheme relationships need to be worked on in the English-classroom. Based on this view, we will concentrate on explaining the English-spelling code, paying attention to its main spelling rules. Afterwards we will continue analysing the sound-grapheme relationships in English. In addition, we will pay attention to the teaching of the written code, suggesting several activities to do so. This essay will be finished with a conclusion and some  bibliographic references. We deal with an essential topic since the goal of Foreign Language Teaching in Primary Education is the acquisition of communicative competence. One of the competences derived from this is grammatical competence, which refers to the correct use of the linguistic code. In addition to that, the Foreign Language Curriculum for Primary Education emphasizes the significance of this topic by including in its second block of contents the association as sociation of letters to the sounds of the alpha bet. 2. ORTOGRAPHIC CODES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 

The writing system of English is phonologic, which means that a correspondence exist between phonemes and graphemes, that is, spelling represents the sounds of the language. However, English spelling is considered difficult and unpredictable. Recent studies show that English is approximately 75% regular. The problem is that the irregular spellings are among the most frequently used words. This gives the impression of irregularity. irr egularity. English spelling can be better understood by looking at a brief history histor y of the language. In the Anglo-Saxon period an alphabet of 24 graphemes, Old English, had to cope with a sound system of 40 phonemes. Consequently, many sounds had to be indicated by combinations of letters. The printing process caused problems because many early printers were foreign and used their own spelling rules.

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  The Norman invasion in 1066 established the end of old times and the beginning of the medieval age or “ Middle English”. The arrival of the Norman involved on one hand, the establishment of French language as the official language. On the other hand, it English remained as the language of the people, but the introduction of the French alphabet, and its spelling conventions, produced important changes and influence in the Old English alphabet system. A great arbitrariness and chaos took place that Barber summarised in his writings in the following follo wing way: “…For three centuries there was no single form of English recognized as a norm, and every man w rote in his own dialect. Early Middle English texts give the impression of a chaos of dialects, without many common conventions in pronunciation or spelling, and with wide divergences in grammar and vocabulary…”  vocabulary…”   th

In the 15of  century, the GreatSome Vowel Shift, a massive soundduring change affecting vowels, the In main for thea diversity vowel spellings. letters also became silent this period, the suchlong as the ofwas know. the reason 16 th century new trend appeared: Latin and Greek etymology was reflected in the spelling of words. For example, a was added in reign. In the 17th  century a good amount of words were borrowed from French, Spanish or Italian. This caused new patterns of spelling, like in armadillo. SPELLING RULES

In English, some words are always written with capital letters. They are the days of the week, months and holidays; proper names and place names, nationalities and languages and titles of books, films and magazines. Many English words double their last consonant before endings -ed, -ing, -er and -est. It happens when the consonant is after a vowel and the stress falls on the last syllable (omit / omitted). The only exception in British English is that the final -l is doubled even is the syllable is not stressed (travel ( travel / travelled). In English, only nouns have plural. There are several plural formation for mation rules: 1.  Most nouns add -s to the singular: cat / cats. 2.  If the singular ends in -s, -ch, -sh, -ss, -x or -z, the plural ending is -es. 3.  If the singular ends in -o, the plural p lural ending is usually -es. There are some exceptions like photo / photos. 4.  If the singular ends in consonant followed by -y, this is replaced by i, so the plural ending is -ies. 5.  If the singular ends in -f or -fe, the plural ending changes to -ves. 6.  Other nouns have an irregular plural: child/children, man/men, person / people... Adjectives usually change into adverbs by adding -ly: nice / nicely. Sometimes the adjective changes its spelling: 1.  Final -y changes to -i: happy / happily. 2.  If the adjective ends in -le, -ly is used instead of -lely: possible / possibly. 3.  If the adjective ends in -ic, the adverb ends in -ically: - ically: domestic / domestically. Exceptions: truly, wholly, fully, shyly.

3. SOUND-GRAPHEME RELATIONSHIPS  

In this section, we will look at the main correspondences between the sound of vowels and consonants( phonemes) and their spelling( graphemes). The following rules do not intend to be exhaustive; unfortunately, there are many exceptions.

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  VOWELS

/ iː/ 

/ ɪ / 

ee e ie ea ey

tree complete  piece sea key

i, y e

rich, city  pretty

a ie u

village ladies  busy

or aw ou a ore oor ou

horse saw  bought talk  before door four

u o oo ou

sugar woman good could

oo o ou u ew ue ui oe u o ou oo oe

food do group rude knew  blue  juice shoe sun son country  blood does

/ ɜː / ɜː /

ir, yr er, ear ur wor our

 bird her turn word  journey

/ ə /

i e a u ar er or ure

/ ɔː / 

/ ʊ   / 

/ e / 

e ea a ay ie

set dead many says friend

/ uː /

/ æ / 

a ai

cat  plait

/ʌ ʌ  /

/ ɑː/ 

a ar ear er al au

 pass car heart clerk  palm aunt

/ ɒ / 

o a ou au

gone was cough  because

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 possible gentlemen vegetable difficult  particular mother doctor furniture

 

  CONSONANTS AND SEMI-CONSONANTS /p/

/t/

/k/

/ t ʃ  ʃ /  / 

/f/ /θ/ /s/

/ ʃ /  / 

/h/

/n/

 pp  p t tt th -ed past k c cc qu ch ch tch ture teous stion f ff  ph gh th s ss c sc sh ch s ss ti si sci ci ce h wh n nn kn gn

apple  play tea utter Thomas  jumped kind cake occur conquer Christmas chain watch nature righteous question foot off  photo enough thief so  pass niece science shoe machine sure Russian nation mansion conscience special ocean hat who nose funny know foreign

/b/

b

ball

/d/

d dd

day daddy

/g/

g gh

ago ghos

/ dƷ dƷ /  / 

 j g dg gg

 jam gin  bridge suggest

/v/

v f  ph

violet of nephew

/ð/

th

there

/z/

s z zz

roses zoo dizzy

/ Ʒ /

si s ge

vision measure  prestige

/m/

/ ŋ /  / 

/l/

l ll

colour yellow

/r/

/j/

y i u ew

yes onion union new

/w/

SILENT LETTERS B (mb, bt) comb, debt, doubt, plumber C in muscle, Connecticut G (gm, gn) foreign, gnaw H in heir, honest, honour, hour, rhythm, vehicle K (kn) knee, know L (lk, lm, ld) chalk, salmon, could  N (mn) autumn S aisle, island, islefasten; also mortgage, postpone T in (stle, sten) castle, W (wr, wh) wrong, who; also answer, sword /////**********

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m mm ng nk ck nx r

mum swimming sing sink uncle anxious rat

rr wr rh w wh qu gu

carry wrong rhythm west white quick language

 

  - The sound-spelling relationship in consonant graphemes The majority enjoy a regular correspondence: The graphemes , , with the corresponding voiceless plosive consonants. , with the sonorous plosives , with fricatives , with nasal < l > with lateral The graphemes and correspond to the single phoneme /z/ and /dg/ respectively, but this is not the case in Spanish. The grapheme generally represents an aspiration, /h/ (ham, hot,…) even though they may also be silent( honour, vehicle,…)   vehicle,…) A number of graphemes also exist that correspond to various sounds, for example: -> -> /k/ : Car, cut,…  cut,…   /s/ : City,…  City,…  -> -> /g/: Begin, gas,…  gas,…  

/dg/: Gym, genius,…  genius,… 

-> -> /s/: Some, sun,…  sun,… 

/z/ : Loose, knees, peas,…  peas,…  

Finally, some of these graphemes do not represent any sound in some words. These are called silent letters. Some of them are: debt , doubt muscle foreign, assign knee, know walk, should island castle, often -  The sound-spelling relationship in vowel graphemes In this case, it is remarkable an irregular character, for every grapheme corresponds several sounds: ( a completar en clase)





/ae/ hat /a:/ far /wa/ squash

/ei/ make / / tall

/ e / bed / / region / uː / few / /serve



/ / bit / /night / /girl

/ /machine / /fire



/ /not / /do / / women / /food

/ /four / /love / /look / /word

/ / put / / cute / /cure

/ /cut / /clue / /surf

******///// 4. TEACHING WRITTEN CODE: DIDACTIC SUGGESTIONS.

The Foreign Languages Curriculum for Primary Education, following the Natural Approach, stresses receptive over productive skills, and oral skills over written skills. Therefore, learners need to develop a phonological awareness since every written item has been introduced orally before. PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS http://www.k12reader.com/phonemic-awareness-vs-phonological-awareness/ ( COMPRENDER MEJOR PHONEMIC AND PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS)

INTERESANTE

LINK

PARA

( de esta parte se podría hacer un resumen, lo hablaremos en clase) Children in the beginning stages of learning the written code need to learn that spoken words are composed of a limited number of identifiable, individual sounds or phonemes. This understanding, often referred to as  phonemic awareness, awareness, is a very

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  important factor in success in learning to read. Phonemic awareness involves building associations between written letters and speech sounds or phonemes. A phoneme is the smallest functional unit of sound (For example, the word cat   contains three distinctly different sounds). There are 44 phonemes in the English language, including letter combinations such as /th/. / th/. /////******

At this point, the obvious question rises: How can we teach Phonemic awareness awareness in our English classroom? - Adams (1990) suggests that rhyming activities can help children develop phonemic awareness (The reading and re-reading of  books with clear, simple rhymes) - Another way to teach phonemic awareness is through phonograms through  phonograms.. A phonogram is a spelling pattern for one-syllable words to which different initial consonants, or onsets, can be added. For example the phonogram “at” can be used to help students recognise and read rhyming words such as bat, rat, cat, mat and and pat   pat . The phonogram “ake” can be used for words such as lake, take, make, make, etc. There are about 40 most used phonograms that can be taught so children can learn to identify these sound units. By mastering these 40 units, children can learn to read approxim approximately ately 500 elementary or basic one-syllable words. In addition to building phonemic awareness, providing instruction with phonograms also prepares children for reading words by analogy. For example, a child who never saw the word rug  in   in print but who knows initial consonant sounds and how to read the word bug  can   can very likely identify the new word if he or she has had practice manipulating onsets (initial consonants) and rhymes. In addition to identifying sounds, children must also be able to manipulate them. Word play involving segmenting words into their constituent sounds, rhyming words, and blending (mezclar, combinar) sounds to make words is also essential to the reading process: This is phonological awareness *****/////  Phonological awareness refers to the knowledge of the phonological structure of sentences, phrases, words , syllables, onsets and rimes. Phonological awareness skills do not concern knowledge of letters (phonemic awareness), it is related to identifying and manipulating units of oral language ; a child can be completely phonologically aware and still be unable to understand letters or the relationship between letters and sounds. Phonological skills are, however, an essential basis to the acquisition of spelling and reading skills. Phonological awareness does not develop naturally. There are several levels of phonological awareness skills. They develop in a top-down fashion: learners begin at the level of the whole word and gradually move to smaller parts of the word. The levels of phonological awareness can be classified into shallower, intermediate and deeper. SHALLOWER PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS SKILLS 1.  2. 

Awareness that sentences and phrases can be divided into single words. Awareness that some words share sounds or sound sequences.

INTERMEDIATE PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS SKILLS 1. 

Awareness that a word can be divided into syllables.

2. 

Awareness that a syllable can be divided into onsets and rimes.

DEEP PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS SKILLS 1.  2.  3.  4.  5. 

Awareness that single sounds in a word can be changed, thus producing a new word. Awareness that a word can be divided into single sounds (phonemes). Segmentation: Ability to identify and pronounce the sounds in a word separately and in any order. Manipulation: Ability to move single sounds in a word around, creating new words. Blending: Ability to put single words together to form one or more words.

Opportunities to engage in phonological awareness activities should be plentiful, frequent, and fun. And, of course, exposure to language at home and exposure to reading at an early age affect the ability of children c hildren to understand the phonological distinctions on which which language is built. Children with learning disabilities have deficiencies in their ability to process phonological information. Thus, they do not readily learn how to relate letters of the alphabet to the sounds soun ds of language, so their learning is slower and they require special training. Children from culturally diverse backgrounds may also have particular difficulties w with ith phonological awareness. Phonological awareness training can be accomplished without any reference to letters or written words at all. Most  programmes begin such training by using pictures, nursery rhymes, songs and games of various sorts that involve only

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  listening and speaking. Other programmes introduce letters fairly early, thus combining phonological awareness training with letter/sound correspondence training. Since phonological awareness is essential to written skills and it is not developed unless it is taught, many experts recommend  phonological awareness training as a prerequisite to early literacy training. Research has found a strong connection between lack of phonological awareness and reading failure. This suggests that some people need phonological awareness training in order to learn to read. Finally, in order to finish this section, there is a classification, on teaching English orthographic code, according to a sensorystyle approach: -  Visual style: Learners respond to the shapes of words. Auditory style: Learners recognize the relationship between sounds and letters or groups of letters. Kinaesthetic style: Learners let the hand remember the kind of movements made when producing words. Linguistic style: style: Learners see the relationships between words based on grammar, meaning…

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5. SPELLING IN WRITTEN PRODUCTIONS

It is very difficult for children to work with abstract concepts like sounds. In order to understand the sound-grapheme relationship, they need to be familiar with the alphabet. In this way, they realize that letters, which are something real, are related to the different sounds. Phonemic awareness and phonological awareness are fundamental skills in order to know the written code, specially when we refer to reading, but writing is more complex and, consequently, requires some other skills. The ability to write in English includes five skill areas: 1.  Mechanics:: It refers to a writer’s ability to form letters, words, numbers and sentences that are legible; in other words, Mechanics the writer’s handwriting. Neatness is very important. 2.  Production: Number of words, sentences and paragraphs that a writer is able to generate.

 

3. Conventions: Rules for capitalization, punctuation and spelling. If a writer has problems with these rules the written  product might be difficult to understand. 4.  Linguistics: It consists in the ability to use varied vocabulary and correct grammar and syntax. 5.  Cognition: It refers to the organizational aspect. It has to do with cohesion, coherence and logic When selecting writing activities to practise spelling, the next sequence must be followed: WORD-RECOGNITION ACTIVITIES

This is an initial stage in which students are given the words they need. They notice the word shapes and the number of letters in them. They can make a mental picture of the words. Activities: 1.  Read and match a picture with a word. 2.  Word-squares. 3.  Putting the letters of a word in order. 4.  Back spelling, using given words. 5.  Games like Bingo, Hangman, Odd Man Out... ACTIVITIES AT WORD LEVEL

The teacher does not provide the pupils with the words they need. They think about the spelling of words by themselves. First cycle reading-writing practice is focused at the word level. Activities: 1.  Completing crosswords using picture clues. 2.  Labelling items. 3.  Making lists of vocabulary sets. 4.  Completing missing words in texts, dialogues or songs. 5.  Dictations of words to practise sound-spelling correspondences. ///***making lists, completing crosswords, matching labels to pictures, classifying words under headings, or making personal dictionaries. These activities will also reinforce reinforce the learning of spelling and vocabulary***/// ACTIVITIES AT SENTENCE LEVEL The second cycle is mostly centred in sentence level. In some of these activities children write the words they need. In others, children have to work with given sentences. sentences. At this stage, the following types of activities can be used 1.  Writing captions for pictures. 2.  Answering questions. 3.  Matching halves of sentences and copying. 4.  Sequencing sentences and copying.

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  5. 

Spotting mistakes in sentences.

////**** writing captions for pictures, and writing speech bubbles for cartoons, matching halves of sentences and copying, answering questions, correcting mistakes in written sentences, writing writing sentences based on questionnaires, etc. These types of activities will enable our students to construct sentences in English.****/// ACTIVITIES AT PARAGRAPH LEVEL Third cycle will basically work on the sentence and paragraph-level, paragraph- level, it is advisable to start by providing “model paragraphs”, so students see a text and then use it as a basis for their own work. We must also help our students organise their reading a nd writing clearly and coherently, using cohesive devices, such as links and connectors.

Imitation of models is a resource that must be applied along the three cycles. It is what J. Harmer (1983) calls " parallel writing". ////******Our legislation establishes that when we are teaching a foreign language, our main goal is that children become capable of communicating. J. Harmer divides written communicative activities into six groups: Exchanging letters and emails, constructing stories, relaying instructions, fluency writing, writing games, writing reports and advertisements. But we can add some others. For example, writing a personal diary, or even keeping a class diary. The most common type of writing activities is perhaps composition writing. At the end of the 6 th year of primary education children should be able to write short compositions on topics that are relevant to their interests. In general, we should agree that the organisation of unit vocabulary is a very important task, both as a learning to learn strategy(BC7) and as a autonomy development(BC8) for students. In this respect, w wee should encourage them to organise vocabulary in a personal way ( graphic spelling dictionaries, pictures, by topics...). Classroom vocabulary or words that appear in class and that are used frequently can be practised and learnt by means of class dictionary, small posters or murals. Creating a library or reading corner will be a useful way to engage children into reading giving them the posibility of choosing the reading material according to their interest and their level. In this way we will have an instrument to adapt their learning to each ones paces. Usage of visual material in the classroom gives them the opportunity to have continuous eye contact to expresions, vocabulary, etc. *****//// (Notwithstanding the foregoing) Previously to finish this topic we must reflect on what happens with error correction. As spelling mistakes are often, the teacher must provide the students with strategies s trategies to check their spelling. 1.  Using dictionaries (or picture dictionaries in the early stages). 2.  Making personal dictionaries. 3.  Classifying words according to the similarities in their spelling. In addition, the teacher should establish different feedbacks during activities in order to allow correction stages and at different levels (self-assessment, peer-assessment or teacher-assessment). However, we should not forget that the main aim when using a language is to be able to communicate.

5. CONCLUSION Conclusion( otra posible conclusión diferente enfoque a la que dimos en clase)  

Learning to read and write is a critical achievement in life. To ensure that every child becomes a competent reader and writer is a responsibility shared by teachers, families and communities. The role of educators in early literacy instructions is very important for the teaching of basic skills and to provide rich, meaningful, engaging learning environments, obviously supported by appropriate teaching practices. Each child comes to the classroom with different literacy experiences and abilities, and teachers need to consider these aspects in order to provide balanced  programs with explicit explicit instruction and meaningful meaningful reading and writing task tasks, s, which must also work on the sp spellingelling  writing aspects as well as help the development of children’s knowledge about the English orthography.

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  6. BIBLIOGRAPHY BREWSTER, J. et al. (2003): The Primary English Teacher’s Guide. Guide . Penguin English. HARMER, J. (2003): The Practice of English Language Teaching . Longman. LARSEN-FREEMAN, D. (2003): Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching . Oxford University Press. VARELA, R. et al. (2003): All (2003):  All About Teaching English. English. Centro de Estudios Ramón Areces.

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