Return-Path: <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h5I9RgC24820; Wed, 18 Jun 2003 05:27:42 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 05:27:42 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <20030618092252.92806.qmail@web14302.mail.yahoo.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: tom zurinskas <tzurinskas@yahoo.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:2390] synthetic spelling X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Status: O Content-Length: 5421 Lines: 119 There is more to dyslexia than brain problems. A recent multinational study says that English spelling "causes" dyslexia by being so unphonetic. The study found that there are twice as many dyslexics in English as in Italian, which has a more phonetic spelling. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1225119.stm “The main scientist behind the study, Eraldo Paulescu, suggested languages like English and French could be changed to make them easier for people to read. However, the British Dyslexic Association said this was a call which was unrealistic and unlikely to be taken up.” But there is a way to do exactly that for learners. It’s called synthetic spelling. The Scott’s have had good success, and better than phonics training as well http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/education/ins4-00.asp Summary (taken from the site) Three training programmes were carried out for 16 weeks, starting soon after entry to Primary 1. For 20 minutes a day, children were taught either 1) by a synthetic phonics programme, or 2) by an analytic phonics programme modelled on the methods commonly used in Scotland, or 3) by an analytic phonics plus phonological awareness training programme. After a training period of 16 weeks, the synthetic phonics taught children were reading and spelling seven months above chronological age, and were a similar amount ahead of the children taught by the two analytic phonics programmes. The National Reading Panel in the United States found, in a review of the literature, that gains from experimental programmes diminish in subsequent years (National Reading Panel, 2000). Although the synthetic phonics children in our study were significantly ahead of the two analytic phonics taught groups in reading and spelling at the end of the programme, it was important to carry out a long term follow up. Children taught by our synthetic phonics programme significantly retain their reading, spelling and comprehension skills above chronological age. An advantage for boys emerged in Primary 3 that was entirely unexpected; keeping parity with the girls would in itself have been a very good outcome. This superiority has now been maintained over three successive years. (n=268) Phonics versions Analytic phonics is well known in Scotland, where it has formed part of the early years reading programme for many years. Teaching starts at the whole word level, and then involves showing children patterns in the English spelling system. It is generally taught in parallel with, or some time after, graded reading books. Synthetic phonics teaches letter sounds very rapidly and children are explicitly shown how to blend the sounds together to pronounce unfamiliar words. Synthetic phonics is used in Germany and Austria and is generally taught before children are introduced to books or reading. In our version of synthetic phonics children use magnetic letters to build up words and to help them understand how letter sounds can be blended together to pronounce the words. In order to read a word, the appropriate magnetic letters are set out; the children then blend the letter sounds together, smoothly co-articulating them, whilst pushing the letters together. The approach is also used for learning to spell (and to reinforce blending for reading). The children listen to a spoken word, select the letters for the sounds, and then push the letters together, sounding and blending them to pronounce the word. Consonant blends are not explicitly taught at all as they can be read by blending, although digraphs (i. e. a phoneme represented by two letters, such as 'sh', 'th', 'ai', 'oa') are taught. A typical lesson using our scheme would be as follows. The children will have been taught the sounds for the letters’t’, 'a', and 'p'. A child at the front of the class is asked to select these letters from the teacher's large magnetic board, and to place them in a row below the other letters of the alphabet. The class then give the sounds of the letters,’t’, 'a', 'p', and then blend the sounds together to pronounce the word 'tap', whilst the letters are pushed together. To practise spelling the teacher might hold up a picture of a word. The children pick out the letters for the sounds that they hear in the word, and place them together on their own magnetic boards. They will then sound and blend, pushing the letters together. One concern about such a method is that it might only be effective with regularly spelt words, and that it might prove to be a handicap in reading irregular words, such as 'once' and 'said'. However, at the end of the programme in Primary 1 we examined the synthetic phonics taught children's ability to read irregular words, and found it to be significantly better than that of the two analytic phonics trained groups. Furthermore, at that stage the synthetic phonics trained children were the only ones that were able to read words by analogy. For example, on being told the pronunciation of the unknown word 'ring', these children would then be able to read the unknown words 'sing' and 'king', whereas the analytic phonics taught children would not. ===== Read all about truespel at truespel.com. Convert text to truespel USA accent by copy/pasting it at: http://www.foreignword.com/dictionary/truespel/transpel.htm __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com
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