Phonics and Spelling Conventions
These refer to the sets of rules and principles governing the relationship between sounds and letters acquired when we learn to read and write.
Phonics and spelling conventions are essential components of all written languages, important in building literacy amd written communication skills. Here are some important aspects of these concepts:
Phonics:
- is the study of the relationship between letters and sounds in a language.
- In English, around 45 phonemes exist, depending on accent (US, UK, Oceanic, etc.), and they are represented by either individual letters, or letter combinations (generally diagraphs). This is because the English alphabet only has 26 letters.
- Due to various reasons (including the fact of 26 letters), English phonics amd spelling is complex. While “b”, “v” and “m” each represenmt one phoneme, “a” represents three main phonemes, plus others according to phonic environment. The “sh” sound is shown by using the diagraph “sh”, while the diagraph “oo” can represent the /u/ in “boot” or the /ʊ/ in “look”; /u/ in a few cases is also represented by “ou”, e.g. “you” and “soup”.
- Understanding phonics helps in reading and writing accurately – and, more importantly, in pronouncing words correctly.
- Around 85% of words follow clear phonic rules; 15% (e.g. “you” and “soup”) don’t.
Spelling conventions:
- These are rules that govern the spelling of words.
- In English, there are several spelling conventions that ensure consistency and accuracy, around 15% of words are truly irregular, like “whole”, “island” and “receipt”.
- The spelling of most words in English were established around 700 years ago; English pronunciation ahs changed, the spelling hasn’t.
- For example, consonants can be doubled when suffixes are added, but ONLY when the preceding vowel is stressed and in historical phonemic terms short. In older English. “a” was pronounced more like “u” in “cut” regardless of what consonants were next to it. Some consonants, like “w”, “l” and “r”, adter the establishment of spelling, came to have strong effect on pronunciation, which is why “a” in “bat”, “what”, “ball” and “car” have four different pronunciations (which means, for example, that “wax” is irregular in its phonics).
- Another example is unstressed “y”, which at the end of a word indicates a short “i” sound; the -y becomes -i when a suffix beginning a vowel follows – EXCEPT when the suffix is -ing.
- Therefore, any exceptions exist in English spelling patterns that require memorization. For example, “i” often comes before “e” except after “c” – though there are many exceptions, e.g. weird, and not “wierd”, field, and not “feild”. There are so many “exceptions”, that we can say that the rule “i before e except after c” is actually wrong.
Mastering spelling conventions and phonics is crucial for robust literacy skills – because correct spelling is ablsolutely important. In examinations, an incorrectly spelled word is wrong. In formal presentations, academic papers and so on, spelling must ALWAYS be correct.
