As introduced in my first article, Phonics is a type of word-recognition technique, whereby the word refers to the relationship between phonemes (word sounds) and graphemes (written symbols).
Phoneme: A single, distinct unit of sound used to distinguish one word from another. Phonemes are enclosed with slanted lines (/ /) to show the relationship between word sounds and the symbols that represent them.
(For example: In the words cat and rat, the letters ‘c’ and ‘r’ represent two distinct sounds. The phonemes /c/ and /r/ make up the only difference in the pronunciation of the two words.)
Grapheme: A printed symbol (letter of the alphabet) that represents a phoneme. Another way to explain it is to say that a grapheme is a letter (or letters) that spells a sound in a word.
When you learn how to sound out the short /a/ and /e/ sounds, you may find that they sound very similar. I have listed some word examples of each of these sounds as follows:
Words with short /a/ sound: ant, cat, man, ball, clap, crab, apple, alligator
Words with short /e/ sound: egg, wet, pen, neck, rest, lemon, elbow, elephant
Tip:
As the short /a/ and short /e/ sounds so similar, we usually avoid teaching them together in the same lesson as it can be confusing to young learners. Do remember this tip if you are teaching or practicing these two sounds with your child at home!
Check out the following YouTube videos to hear how the short /a/ and short /e/ sounds are pronounced:
Hope you found this useful. Happy learning & reading! 🙂
To read more of Ms Liz’s awesome tips for your child, check out our list of Educational Materials!