Glossary Q-Z A-C D-F G-H I-P

Representation
Use of arbitrary symbols (oral or written) to represent experience or concepts (e.g., words or graphic symbols like "$"). Semantic (meaning), syntax (use in sentence or phrase), graphic (letter correspondence to phonemes), and phonologic (sound). Features are used for coding and retrieval.

Syllable
A unit of pronunciation consisting of a vowel sound alone or with one or more consonant sounds and pronounced with one impulse of the voice. A syllable is a word or part of a word with one pronounced vowel sound.

  • CLOSED SYLLABLE: A syllable ending with a consonant. (e.g. but, him)
  • OPEN SYLLABLE: A syllable ending in a vowel. (e.g. pi lot, a pron)
  • R-CONTROLLED: (e.g. bird, word)
  • SILENT E: (e.g. mate, have, change, kite, house
  • STABLE FINAL SYLLABLE: (e.g. ble, dle, tle, tion)
  • VOWEL DIGRAPH: (e.g. coat, rain)

Synthetic Phonics
A part-to-whole phonics approach to reading instruction in which the student learns the sounds represented by letters and letter combinations, blends these sounds to pronounce words, and learns to identify patterns or phonics generalizations.

Systematic Instruction
A planned unfolding of skills that shows the logic or the clear sequence of the skills, as in systematic phonics instruction.

Vowel digraphs
Two vowels together that represent one vowel sound. The first vowel often stands for the long sound and the second vowel is silent; e.g., ai, ea, oa.

Vowel diphthongs
 two or more letters that begin with one vowel sound and glide into another vowel sound; e.g., oy, aw as in toy and saw.

Whole Language Instruction
A philosophy about teaching and learning that stresses that children should use language in ways that relate to their own lives and cultures. Children are encouraged to decode words through context. The common techniques of whole language teaching are daily journal and letter writing, a great deal of silent and oral reading of children's books, and student cooperation. http://reading.indiana.edu/ieo/bibs/whole.html

Word Recognition
In reading, identifying as known words those that have been decoded or processed as whole words and associating the known words with their meaning and use in language being read. In other words, word recognition is the ability to recognize a previously learned word and its meaning without needing to sound out the word first.