Glossary

Blending

Combining the individual sounds or phonemes to form whole words. Cued in by looking at letters in words in order.

Comprehension

Comprehension is the capacity to analyse the meaning of sentences and texts. It is an active process in which cognitive engagement is central. Comprehension is regarded as a series of interactions between the text and the reader.

Consonant (C) and vowel (V) patterns

These expressions describe consonant (C) and vowel (V) patterns in simple English words. For example:

VC – of, it, an

VCC –add, old, and

CV – to, so, no

CVC –tap, pat

CCVC – trip, plan

CCVCC –thick, plant

Digraph

A combination of two letters, or graphemes, that represents one sound, e.g. oo in ‘boot’ and ‘look’, and ‘sh’ and ‘or’ sounds in ‘shorn’.

Dipthong

A diphthong is a special kind of vowel sound.

It refers to a sound that has two parts, beginning with one vowel sound and moving towards another, e.g. /oi/ as in coin, /oy/ as in toy, /ou/ as in cloud, /ow/ as in cow or arrow.

Fluency

Fluency is the capacity to read texts with speed and accuracy, a critical component of skilled reading. Fluency is developed with guided oral reading practice that improves word recognition, the speed and accuracy of oral reading, and comprehension.

Graphemes

A letter or group of letters that represents a sound or phoneme. Graphemes are the letters in letter–sound relationships.

Grapheme–phoneme

This is the relationship between sounds and the letter or string of letters that represent those sounds.

It can also be described as the 'letter-sound’ relationship.

Morpheme

The smallest unit of language that has its own meaning.

It can be a word or part of a word. Every word is made up of one or more morphemes.

A free morpheme can stand alone as a word, for example, ‘kind’, or be a bound morpheme as in ‘ly’ in ‘kindly’

Morphology

The study of morphemes, the smallest units of language that have their own meanings – words and their parts.

Oral language

Oral language involves the development of speaking and listening skills in order to become an effective communicator, and it forms the basis for learning to read.

Phonemes

The smallest unit of sound that adds to a word’s meaning.

Phonemes are the sounds in letter–sound relationships.

Phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words. It is an important skill in acquiring reading and writing skills.

Phonological awareness

Phonological awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate the sounds of spoken language.

This includes the ability to make rhymes, to recognise syllables within a word, to identify repeating sounds or words with the same initial sounds.

Trigraph

A group of three letters that represents one sound, e.g. ‘igh’ as in ‘high’, ‘tch’ as in ‘match’.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the knowledge of the meaning of words. Oral vocabulary is a key to learning to make the transition from oral to written forms. Reading vocabulary is crucial to a skilled reader’s comprehension processes.

Voiced and unvoiced sounds

Voiced sounds are consonant sounds that use the vocal cords, e.g. the ‘z’ at the end of ‘bees’.

Other consonant sounds are unvoiced links, such as the ‘s’ in ‘snake’.