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For R, 1 & 2 - Key Vocabulary For Phonics Teaching
For R, 1 & 2 - Key Vocabulary For Phonics Teaching
Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound in a word. Phonemes may be written with more than
one letter eg day. The word start has 4 phonemes - s - t - ar - t. The word church has 3
phonemes - ch - ur - ch. The word strap has 5 phonemes - s - t - r - a - p.
Digraph: A two letter grapheme where two letters represent one phoneme or sound eg ar,
ea, er, oi, ch, th
Vowel Digraph:A two letter grapheme that represents a vowel phoneme or sound eg ay,
ee, oi
Split Vowel Digraph: A two letter grapheme that represent a vowel phoneme or sound
where the sounds are pushed apart by another letter. This digraph often used to be
referred to as a magic e eg cake, bite, phone, these, cube. It is used for the long vowel
sounds.
Trigraph: A three letter grapheme where three letters represent one phoneme or sound eg
air, igh, ear
Blending: Building words for reading by pushing together all the phonemes or sounds in
the word.
Segmenting: Splitting up words for spelling by breaking up words into all their sounds and
then working out what letter or letters are needed to represent each sound.
Short vowel sound: The sound that the letters a, e, i, o, u make in a word eg cat, peg, hit,
not, sun.
Long vowel sound: The sound that is like the names of the vowel letters. The long vowel
sounds are often represented in more than one way by digraphs and trigraphs eg main,
stay, cake, see, seat, mice, light, coat, bone, glue, spoon.