Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Clusters of either consonants or vowels add to the challenge of beginning reading learner.
Sometimes the clustered letters each make a sound, in which case early readers can apply
phonetic decoding strategies to read them. However, other combinations make new or
unexpected sounds that must be actively taught separately. Many reading specialists
recommend that these more complicated sound patterns be taught after student
demonstrate solid phonetic decoding skills.
Consonant Digraphs
Consonant digraphs are clusters of consonants pronounced as a single sound. There are seven
basic consonant digraphs; ch, ck, th, sh, ph, ng, wh. However, "ch" has three pronunciations,
"ch" as in chin, "k" as in chorus, and "sh" as in chute, and "th" is pronounced with active
voicing as in the or without as in thank. These discrepancies are often challenging for early
readers, especially if they are also English language learners, because the sounds often
resemble other letters. For example, "ph" combines to sound like [f]. Three additional
digraphs occur regularly in English, "wr," "gn" and "kn." These are referred to as "ghost
digraphs because the initial letter used to make a sound but no longer does.
Consonant Digraphs
ch, which makes the /t/ sound as in watch, chick, chimpanzee, and champion
ck, which makes the /k/ sound as in chick
ff, which makes the /f/ sound as in cliff
gh, which makes the /g/ sound as in ghost and ghastly
gn, which makes the /n/ sound as in gnome and gnarled
kn, which makes the /n/ sound as in knife and knight
ll, which makes the /l/ sound as in wall
lm, which makes the /m/ sound as in palm and calm
mb, which makes the /m/ sound as in lamb and thumb
ng, which makes the // sound as in fang, boomerang, and fingerprint
ng, which makes the /n/ sound as lounge
nk, which makes the /k/ sound as in ink, sink and rink
ph, which makes the /f/ sound as in digraph, phone, and phonics
qu, which makes the /kw/ sound as in quick
sh, which makes the // sound as in shore, shipwreck, shark, and shield
ss, which makes the /s/ sound as in floss
ss, which makes the // sound as in pressure and mission
th, which makes the // sound as in athlete, bathtub, thin, and thunderstorm
th, which makes the // sound as in this, there, and that
wh, which makes the /w/ sound as in where and which
wr, which makes the /r/ sound as in write
zz, which makes the /z/ sound as in fuzz and buzz
Consonant Trigraphs
Blends are consonant pairs in which each consonant makes its own sound. For example, if
you listen carefully, you can hear the "b" and the "l" in blue. There are many blends in the
English language. They are most often categorized into r-blends, such as "br" and "cr", s-
blends, such as "sc" and "sk" and l-blends, such as "bl" and "cl." Blends are not usually a
significant challenge for beginning readers. Reading blends uses a decoding strategy called
blending that students are already using.
Two-Letter Blends
Three-Letter Blends
Vowel Digraphs
Vowel digraphs are pairs of vowels that make one sound. The first ones taught are usually
those in which the initial vowel makes its long sound and the second is silent. For example,
"e" is short () when it's by itself in men and long () when it's combined with "a" in mean.
The vowel digraph rule is frequently taught in schools with the saying "when two vowels go a
walking, the first one does the talking." However, as with consonant digraphs, there are
exceptions. For example, the "oo" in "book" is not pronounced [oh]. Despite this, vowel
digraphs are usually less challenging for beginning readers than consonant digraphs.
Vowel Diagraphs
ai, which usually make the /e/ sound as in aim, rain, braid, paint, tail, twain
au, which usually make the /:/ sound as in fault, gaunt, fraud, launch, paus
aw, which usually make the /:/ sound as in saw, paw, claw, dawn, and crawl
ay, which usually make the /e/ sound as in ray, say, stay, day, say, play, spray
ea, which usually make the /i:/ sound as in eat, sea, eeah, leaf, peach, mean
ea, which usually make the // sound as in dead, heea, spread, health, meant
ea, which more rarely make the /e/ sound as in break, great, steak, yea
ee, which usually make the /i:/ sound as in peek, see, queen, sleep, cheese
ei, which usually make the /e/ sound as in veil, beige
ei, which usually make the /i:/ after [s] sounds as in seize, receipt
eo, which usually make the /i:/ sound as in people
eu, which usually make the /ju:/ or /u:/ sound as in sleuth, deuce
ew, which usually make the /ju:/ or /u:/ sound as in few, new, shrewd
ey, which usually make the /i:/ sound as in key, money, valley
ey, which usually make the /e/ sound as in they, whey
ie, which usually make the /i:/ sound as in brief, field, grieve, piece
oa, which usually make the /o/ sound as in oat, loam, groan, loathe, loaves
oe, which usually make the /o/ sound as in doe, hoe
oo, which usually make the /u:/ sound as in boo, food, smooth, moose
oo, which usually make the // sound as in book, look, good, and stood
ou, which more rarely make the /u:/ sounds as in you, soup, group, rouge
ow, which usually make the /o/ sounds as in how, down, browse
ue, which usually make the /u:/ sound as in due, rue, sue, blue, clue, flue
ui, which usually make the /u:/ sound as in suit, fruit, cruise, juice, sluice
augh, which usually make the /:/ sound as in caught, taught, daughter
al+consonant, which usually make the /:/ sound as in talk, hall, scald, salt
wa, which usually make the /w:/ sound as in want, wash, swamp
wa, which usually make the /w/ sound as in wax, wag, swam
ua, which usually make the /w/ sound as in quack
eigh, which usually make the /e/ sound as in eight, weigh
o+ll, which usually make the /:/ sound as in doll, loll
o+st, which usually make the /:/ sound as in cost, lost, frost
ou+l, which usually make the /o/ sound as in soul, poultry
o+ld, which usually make the /o/ sound as in gold, scold, fold
o+lk, which usually make the /o/ sound as in folk, yolk
o+ll, which usually make the /o/ sound as in roll, knoll, scroll
o+lt, which usually make the /o/ sound as in bolt, volt
o+st, which usually make the /o/ sound as in ghost, most, post
cy,which usually make the /-si:/ sound as in agency, fluency, efficiency
ity, which usually make the /ti/ sound as in quality, ability, reality
logy, which usually make the /li/ sound as in trilogy, apology, mythology
graphy, which usually make the /grfi/ sound as in photography
Diphthongs
Diphthongs are the vowel version of blends. Rather than following the simple digraph rule,
certain pairs of vowels such as "oy" in toy act like a blend and both sounds are pronounced. If
toy followed the digraph rule, it would be pronounced as toe(/to/). As with consonant
clusters, diphthongs can pose a significant challenge to rule-oriented beginning readers.
Technically a diphthong is a vowel sound produced when the tongue moves or glides from
one vowel sound toward another vowel sound in the same syllable.
Diphthongs and triphthongs when are pronounced with the diphthong phoneme /a/:
Diphthongs and triphthongs when are pronounced with the diphthong phoneme /a/:
Diphthongs and triphthongs when are pronounced with the diphthong phoneme /o/: