Incidental Learning
Change in behavior that is not directly taught or sought.
Intentional Learning
Change in behavior that is directly taught or sought.
Literacy
Being literate includes reading, writing, and the creative and analytical
acts involved in producing and comprehending texts. For a fuller discussion
of literacy, visit the Literacy
and Illiteracy web site.
Onset-rime
Two part division of words into units that are smaller than syllables;
onset is the first division of a single phoneme or consonant cluster (e.g.,
/br/ in bright ), rime is the last division with multiple phonemes (e.g.,
/ight/ in bright ).
Phoneme
A phoneme is the smallest functional unit of speech. The word "cat" contains
three phonemes: the /k/, /a/, and /t/ sounds. Letters often represent
more than one phoneme. The /a/ in "cat" is a different sound than the
/a/ in "cake", and sometimes a single letter will contain more than one
phoneme. For example, the word "ox" has two letters but three phonemes:
/o/, /k/, and /s/. Fluent readers learn to recognize these discrete sounds
of spoken words quickly, accurately, and automatically. Phonemic awareness
is the foundation upon which are constructed all other reading skills.
For a fuller discussion of this, visit Principles
for Learning to Read.
Phonemic
Awareness
A special kind of "phonological awareness" (defined below) involving the
smallest units of oral language (phonemes). Being cognizant of phonemes within spoken words.
Phonics
Instruction
1) Children learn to master the sounds and letter blends that make up words through drills and analyses.
2) The phonics approach teaches word recognition through learning grapheme-phoneme (letter-sound) associations. The student learns vowels, consonants, and blends, and the student also learns to sound out words by combining sounds and blending them into words. By associating speech sounds with letters the student learns to recognize new and unfamiliar words.
Phonological Awareness
Knowing that oral language has sound structure that is separate from meaning;
attending to the sub-lexical structure (i.e. structure within words) of
oral language (e.g. "beg" has one syllable and three phonemes, "egg" has
one syllable and two phonemes).
Phonological coding
"The representation of information about the sound structure of verbal
stimuli in memory" (Torgesen et al., 1990, p. 236).
Phonological processing
The use of phonology or sounds of language to process verbal information
in oral or written form in short- and long-term memory (Wagner & Torgesen,
1987). Components include awareness and coding (i.e., coding sounds for
storage in memory and retrieval of sounds from memory codes) of verbal
information only (Cornwall, 1992; Hurford et al., 1993; Torgesen et al.,
1990; Vellutino & Scanlon, 1987; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987).
Phonological
recoding
Translation from either oral or written representation into a sound-based
system to arrive at the meaning of words in the lexicon (stored vocabulary)
in long-term memory (Wagner & Torgesen, 1987).
Phonological
units
Refers to the size of the sound (e.g., phonemes, onset-rimes, syllables,
words).
Phonology
The study of speech sounds and their functions in a language.
