Single-Letter Phonograms

The single-letter phonograms are represented by the letters AZ. These are
the phonograms everyone recognizes as forming English words.
Nevertheless, students are rarely taught all their sounds.
For example, consider the phonogram s . Most programs teach that s
has one sound, /s/. However, this does not account for very simple words
such as is, his, has, was, rise, and does. When incomplete phonics is taught,
students who think more logically and literally decode is and his as /s/ and
/hs/ rather than /z/ and /hz/.
It is important to understand that these students are not wrong; they are
doing exactly what they were told to do.
Compounding the problem is the fact that s is added to English nouns
to form the plural. Most plurals are pronounced /z/ such as chairs, cars,
houses, tables, pencils, pens, papers, etc. When the plurals are considered,
s says /z/ 70% of the time. Certainly a sound that occurs 70% of the time is
not an exception. Both sounds should be taught clearly from the beginning.
Logical/literal students are our future engineers, mathematicians, and
scientists. When we tell them that s says /s/, they apply it to every s they
see and quickly discover that most of the Ss do not say /s/. In fact, most of
the letters do not sound anything like what they were told. This shortcircuits their logical minds. Many of these students become discouraged by
English.
I am convinced this is one of the reasons that boys tend to struggle with
reading more than girls. Many boys think logically and literally. Girls
generally tend to be more intuitive. Logical students do not tolerate
inconsistent rules. The smattering of phonics usually given to them is not
only unhelpful; it is damaging. At a time in history when our economy relies
on advancements in science and engineering, we cannot afford to impair
these gifted citizens by not teaching them English in a manner that respects
how their minds work.
But why dont all students struggle? The sounds /s/ and /z/ are an
unvoiced and voiced pair, formed in the same way in the mouth. Many
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intuitive students do not notice the difference between the two sounds. Their
lack of concern for detail enables them to decode the words properly
without complete information. These students are rewarded by todays
methods. Though intuition is a great strength, their logical/literal
counterparts who are attuned to detail should not be marginalized. Teaching
both sounds right from the beginning allows all students to succeed and
prevents student and teacher frustration by eliminating unnecessary
exceptions.
I have spoken to countless professionals who hated learning to read and
write and now rely on others to proofread their written work. Yet all they
needed to be successful in reading and writing was complete information. If
they can learn advanced mathematics, physics, chemistry, business
structures, and even other languages, they can easily learn the 104 pieces
that explain English.
One final word about learning phonograms. It is important for reading
and spelling to learn the phonogram sounds before the letter names. If a
student learns SEE AYE TEE, this does not tell the student how to read
the word cat. Letter names are useful and necessary for looking up words in
a dictionary, reading eye charts, reading initials in a persons name, etc.
However, the letter names do not tell the student anything about how a word
is read or spelled. The names are best learned after the phonogram sounds
have been internalized.

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Table 1: Single-Letter Phonograms

Sound

Sample Words

/--/

mat

/b/

bat

/k-s/

cat

/d/

dad

/-/

tent

/f/

foot

/g-j/

big

/h/

hat

/---y/

it

/j/

job

/k/

kit

/l/

lap

/m/

me

/n/

nut

/--oo/

on

/p/

pan

qu*

/qu/

queen

/r/

ran

/s-z/

sent

/t/

tip

/--oo-/

up

/v/

van

/w/

wall

/ks/

fox

/y---/

yard

/z/

zip

table

father

cent

be

gym

ivy

stadium

go

do

onion

as

pupil

flute**

put

gym

by

baby

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