The Sound-to-Print Revolution
Making Sense of the English Writing System
The Problem: English is Undecodable
It is widely believed that the English writing system is exceptionally confusing because letters make too many sounds. For example, the letter “a” can make the sound /a/ in the word apple, the sound /ay/ in the word acorn, the sound /o/ in the word father, the sound /aw/ in the word ball, and the sound /ə/ in the word above.
In English, letters talk too much!
Most people, including reading teachers and curriculum developers, have concluded that the English writing system is, therefore, un-decodable.
But how do we teach an indecipherable writing system? Most teachers and curriculums employ a battery of strategies:
Phonological awareness exercises (manipulating syllables, rhymes, onsets, rimes, and phonemes—all done without letters);
Letter names;
Letter sounds;
Sight-Words (memorizing whole words as a whole);
Long and short vowels;
Six syllable-types;
Reading and spelling rules;
Exceptions to those rules;
Word families;
Consonant blends;
And more.
Today, most schools teach students using many of the above strategies, yet over 60% of American students struggle with reading.
The origin of our conundrum is that letters make too many sounds in the English writing system. Students stare at a letter and wonder: “What sound does it say now?” The multiple possibilities make English appear chaotic and random. To make matters worse, letters often make no sound at all!
Below, I explain our simple and elegant solution to this seemingly intractable problem.
The Sounds of Speech
We begin with spoken language. We all learn to talk before we can learn to read and write. When we speak English, we make specific noises with our mouths. Yes, noises! (You can call them Sounds or Phonemes to sound more sophisticated, but they’re just noises.)
Every language has a definite sound system—a group of phonemes the speaker will use in verbal conversation. How many sounds does English have? Most people have no idea. If you are thinking 26, you would be wrong. The answer is 46. It seems almost miraculous that with only 46 sounds, we can articulate more than a million words.
(In our PD, we encourage teachers to tell their students to ask their parents: “How many sounds does English have?” Now, the students know something their parents do not know.)
While all traditional curriculums and phonics programs begin with letters and move from letters to sounds (Print to Sound), with CAPIT, we reverse the order and begin with sounds and move from sounds to letters.
The Sound-to-Print Revolution
We took phonics and turned it on its head. We, quite literally, flipped the script (pun intended).
Think about how kids learn to read all over the country. We point to a letter on the page and tell them, “This letter makes the sound…” Teachers begin with print and move from print to sound.
But we can reverse the process.
First, we explain to students that letters on the page don’t make sounds. Only people make sounds. We can prove this by holding a book close to our ears. Do we hear a sound? Of course not, because letters don’t talk. Letters don’t make sounds. People do!
Instead, we say a sound and then ask, “How do we write the sound down on paper?” We begin with a sound and move from sound to print.
Option 1:
Print to Sound
Option 2: Sound to Print
The advantage of a Sound-to-Print orientation is that it helps students (and teachers) understand the logic behind our writing. Below, we explain how we do this.
The CAPIT Sound Chart
The CAPIT Sound Chart is the most important component of CAPIT Reading and the main reason we created the program.
We designed the Sound Chart to inform students of the simple (and elegant) nature of the English writing system, making the learning process logical and fun.
Each student has a Sound Chart that starts empty but slowly fills up as the student collects sounds and spelling patterns.
When students finish CAPIT, their Sound Chart is full of sounds and spellings.
Empty Sound Chart
Collecting Sounds and Spellings
Complete Sound Chart
A Periodic Table for the English Language
We refer to the Sound Chart as the Periodic Table for the English Language.
What is a Periodic Table? Scientists somehow condensed the entire known universe onto a single diagram. (How in the world do 100+ elements combine to create a universe?)
We did the same for the English Language: We condensed the entire English language onto a single diagram: the Sound Chart.
But how do you put an entire language with more than a million words onto a single page?
We took the 46 Sounds and placed them on the left side of our Sound Chart. The entries on the left side of the Sound Chart are not letters. They are sounds.
For example, when we say the word “cat,” we hear the sound /a/. You will find the /a/ sound in the top-left corner of the Sound Chart (in green).
The Periodic Table
The Periodic Table for the English Language: 46 Sounds on the left and the 180+ Spelling Patterns on the right
Now that we identified the sound, we can ask the following question: How do we spell the sound /a/ on paper?
In English, we can answer this question in two ways. One way to write the sound is with a circle and a line, like this: a.
Another way we can write this sound is with three straight lines: A.
The "a" spelling
The "A" spelling
Notice three points:
a and A look nothing alike.
The letters a and A are two legitimate ways to write a single sound: /a/.
The general category is the /a/ sound; the two Spelling alternatives—a and A—are two options we can use to write the sound on paper.
The /k/ Sound
Here is another example: the word “cat” also contains the /k/ sound. Students quickly learn the multiple ways we can spell this sound: “c” “k'“ “C” “K.” They will also notice that there are two more, which they will learn in the future.
They are “ch” as in school and “que” as in unique. There are six ways to spell the /k/ sound in English.
Remember that the general category is the /k/ sound; the spelling is how we write the sound on paper.
We can now see how a Sound-to-Print orientation, and our Sound Chart, help students understand the English Alphabetic Code.
Overcoming the Problem: In English, letters make too many sounds!
Many have complained about English’s random writing system: “Letters in English make too many sounds.”
Precisely! If we genuinely believe that letters can talk—then it is true that letters make too many sounds. But letters don’t talk—people do! We say sounds, and then we write them down.
CAPIT students learn that English is both logical and consistent. They know that English has only 46 sounds, and there are specific (and limited) ways we can spell each sound.
The Sound Chart starts off empty, but it slowly fills up. As students progress through the program and learn more sounds and spellings, they store them in their Sound Charts.
The Sound Chart is how we help students sidestep a century-old problem and demonstrate to students that English is not random. It is logical and consistent.
We then proceed to teach students all 46 sounds and the 180+ spelling patterns.
Some sounds are easy to learn. For example, students will learn that the /ar/ sound has only a single spelling: “ar.” The /b/ sound has two spellings: “b” and “B.”
The /v/ sound has only three spellings: “v” “V” and “ve.”
When viewed from the correct perspective—Sound-to-Print—English is logical and consistent.
The /ar/ Sound with one spelling
The /b/ Sound with two spellings
The /v/ Sound with three spellings
The Sound Chart creates order out of chaos by showing students the relationships between the 46 sounds and the 180+ we spell them. Students learn these relationships one sound and one spelling at a time, and we then show them all the new words they can read and spell with their new spelling.
The Sound Chart as a Self-Teaching Tool
The Sound Chart is also used as a Self-Teaching Tool. (CLICK HERE to see our other Self-Teaching Tool.)
When students struggle to read or spell a word, teachers ask the magic question:
“Did you check the Sound Chart?”
Students will then pull down the Sound Chart and look for the sound and spelling they need to complete the exercise.
1. Student forgets a sound…
2. So we remind them to check the Sound Chart!
3. Student relies on the Sound Chart
The Sounds and Spelling Sound Wall Cards: 46 Sounds and 180+ Spelling Patterns
Our Sounds and Spelling Sound Wall Cards are an indispensable resource for CAPIT teachers and their students. Teachers use them to teach and review the 46 Sounds and 180+ Spelling Patterns of the English language. As students’ vocabulary grows, students rely on the Sound Wall to look up sounds and complex spelling patterns.
The Sounds and Spelling Sound Wall Cards are part of CAPIT’s Multisensory Kit.
The Sounds and Spelling Sound Wall Cards