English spellings can be confusing to learn. Given that English has a non-ideal phonemic orthography, the pronunciation and the spelling do not have a one-to-one relation also. Why are put and cut pronounced differently, even though they have the same vowel? This is one of the few common questions that arise in a learner’s mind while learning English spellings.
One effective method to minimise this confusion is Phonics. Phonics provides a systematic way to learn sounds and correlate them to letters and letter combinations. When learned systematically in the early stages, Phonics can be a boon to decode English spellings.
In the NumberNagar® phonics method, we use a system of learning phonograms and their sounds.
| A phonogram is a letter or a group of letters that represent a specific sound. Examples: letter a – sound /a/ – baby letter c – sound /k/ – cat letter c – sound /s/ – city group of letters ‘ea’ – sound /e/ – head |
The long a sound
There are two ways to learn the correlation between a phonogram and a sound.
One – choose a phonogram and learn all the sounds that map to it
Two – choose a sound and learn all the phonograms mapped to it
We have explored the first way in our earlier articles covering the sounds of letter a, and the sounds of letter s.
In this article let us learn something about the second way.
For this purpose, we have chosen the long a sound – eɪ (IPA) ā (AHD)
The long a sound has seven spelling variations as listed below.
Spelling 1
a – snake, cake, bake, bare, care
Spelling 2
ai – paint, snail, trail, saint
Spelling 3
ay – hay, bay, pray, sway
Spelling 4
ea – great, break, steak
Spelling 5
ei – vein, rein, veil, beige
Spelling 6
eigh – eight, weigh, weight
Spelling 7
ey – grey, prey, they, obey
When we learn the sound and phonogram correlations in a systematic manner, learning English spellings becomes easier.
We have used this approach extensively with students at NumberNagar® and have seen the phenomenal impact in the learning experience.
Can you think of other spelling variations for the long ‘a’ sound? Find them and write to us in the comments section.
Until next time, Happy Holidays!
*************************************************************************************************************
All the articles related to Phonics on our blog can be found here.
*************************************************************************************************************
Have you explored the NumberNagar® Phonics Kit yet? It is the perfect gift for children in your family and friends’ circles. This holiday season order your kit and gift a child the joy of learning. Check out what our customers are saying about the Phonics Kit.
Featured Image credits: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Dr. Soumya Sreehari
Latest posts by Dr. Soumya Sreehari (see all)
- To drink water or not to drink – that is the question - 11 June 2021
- Puzzles for fun and learning - 28 May 2021
- A questioning mind is a thinking mind - 14 May 2021
- Play and learn having fun with words - 7 May 2021
- 4 lessons to learn from the Montessori method - 30 April 2021