READING TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
 

*Alphabetic Principle: the principle that letters are used to represent individual phonemes (sounds) in the spoken word.

*Alphabetic Writing System: a system of symbols that represent each consonant and vowel sound in a language.

*Base word/ Root Word: the smallest meaningful word to which prefixes &/or suffixes may be added.

*Blends: two consonants, but each makes its own sounds (sp-, cr-, str-...)

*Blending: puts together individual sounds to make a word.

*Chunk: a group of letters, processed as a unit, that corresponds to a piece of a word. These may be a consonant cluster (str, ph, ch...), rime pattern (-at, -op...), a syllable, or a morpheme.

*Consonant: a phoneme or speech sound that is not a vowel. English has 25 consonant phonemes.

*Context: the language that surrounds a given word or phase; the meaningful associations that surround a given word or phrase.

*Decoding: the act of deciphering a new word by sounding it out.

*Digraph: a new sound is produced when two letters are together (ch, wh, ph, sh, ng, th). These sounds must be memorized.

*Diphthong: a vowel combination that when put together, they record a new single sound and require a change of mouth to say it. There are only four: -ow, -ou, -oy, and –oi.

*Inflection: a grammatical ending tht does not change the part of speech of a word but that marks its tense, number or degree in English (ex: -ed, -s, -ing)

*Listening Development: A child must be able to discriminate sounds for phonics. Listening involves thinking and is a receptive area. Listening builds memory and must be taught.

*Long Term Memory: the memory system that stores information beyond 24 hours.

*Morpheme: the smallest meaning in a word ( prefix, suffix) that carries meaning.

*Narrative: text that tells about sequences of events, usually with the structure of a fiction or nonfiction story.

*Onset/Rime: Onset is the beginning sound of a word. Rime is the ending sounds in a word after the beginning sound is taken off.

*Phoneme: a speech sound that combines with others in a language system to make words.

*Phonics: the study of relationships between letters and the sounds they represent.

*Phonological awareness: having awareness of all levels of the speech sound system, including word boundaries, stress patterns, syllables, onset-rime units, and phonemes.

*Prefix: a morpheme added to the beginning of a word that has meaning (re- means do again, mis- means not).

*Reading Fluency: the speed of reading; the ability to read text with sufficient speed to understand what you are reading.

*Rhyme: a poem, verse, or ballad.

*Root Words: It stands alone and bears the meaning of the word.

*Segments: separates words into individual sounds.

*Suffix: a morpheme added to the end of a word that has meaning (-ful means full of, -ly means in a certain way.

*Syllable: It has one sounded vowel and can stand alone. *Vowel: a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y are vowels. Every word must have at least one vowel.

*Word Recognition: the instant recognition of a whole word in print. The word is read instantly, without any sounding out of its parts.

*Word definitions are from LETRS, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, SOPRIS WEST Educational Services.

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