Click each term to view its definition.
- Alliteration
- The repetition of the initial phoneme of each word in connected text (e.g., Harry the happy hippo hula-hoops with Henrietta).
- Alphabetic Principle
- The concept that letters and letter combinations represent individual phonemes in written words.
- Blending
- The task of combining sounds rapidly, to accurately represent the word.
- Chunking
- A decoding strategy for breaking words into manageable parts (e.g, yes ter day). Chunking also refers to the process of dividing a sentence into smaller phrases where pauses might occur naturally (e.g., When the sun appeared after the storm, / the newly fallen snow /shimmered like diamonds).
- Consonant Blend
- Two or more consecutive consonants which retain their individual sounds (e.g., bl in block; str in string).
- Consonant Digraph
- Two consecutive consonants that represent one phoneme, or sound (e.g., ch, sh).
- Continuous Sounds
- A sound that can be held for several seconds without distortion (e.g., /m/, /s/).
- Digraphs
- A group of two consecutive letters whose phonetic value is a single sound (e.g., ea in bread; ch in chat; ng in sing).
- Diphthong
- A vowel produced by the tongue shifting position during articulation; a vowel that feels as if it has two parts, especially the vowels spelled ou and oi.
- Elkonin Boxes
- A framework used during phonemic awareness instruction. Elkonin Boxes are sometimes referred to as Sound Boxes. When working with words, the teacher can draw one box
per sound for a target word. Students push a penny or a marker into one box as they segment each sound in the word.
- Emergent Literacy
- The skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are developmental precursors to conventional forms of reading and writing.
- Graphophonemic Knowledge
- Knowledge of the relationships between letters and phonemes.
- Onset and rime
- Onsets and rimes are parts of spoken language that are smaller than syllables but larger than phonemes. An onset is the initial consonant(s) sound of a syllable (the onset of bag is b-; of swim, sw-). A rime is the part of a syllable that contains the vowel and all that follows it (the rime of bag is -ag; of swim, -im).
- Phoneme
- A phoneme is the smallest part of spoken language that makes a difference in the meaning of words. English has about 41 phonemes. A few words, such as a or oh, have only one phoneme. Most words, however, have more than one phoneme: The word if has two phonemes (/i/ /f/); check has three phonemes (/ch/ /e/ /k/), and stop has four phonemes (/s/ /t/ /o/ /p/). Sometimes one phoneme is represented by more than one letter.
- Phoneme Isolation
- Recognizing individual sounds in a word (e.g., /p/ is the first sound in pan).
- Phoneme Manipulation
- Adding, deleting, and substituting sounds in words (e.g., add /b/ to oat to make boat; delete /p/ in pat to make at; substitute /o/ for /a/ in pat to make pot).
- Phonemic Awareness
- Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds--phonemes--in spoken words; the highest level of phonological awareness.
- Phonological Awareness
- Phonological awareness is a broad term that includes phonemic awareness. In addition to phonemes, phonological awareness activities can involve work with rhymes, words, syllables, and onsets and rimes.
- Segmenting
- Separating the individual phonemes, or sounds, of a word into discrete units.
- Syllable
- A syllable is a word part that contains a vowel or, in spoken language, a vowel sound (e-vent; news-pa-per; ver-y).
- Vowel Digraph or Vowel Pair
- Two vowels together that represent one phoneme, or sound (e.g., ea, ai, oa).