What are Basic Phonetic Sounds?

There is a direct correlation between an understanding of phonics, reading effectively, and reading comprehension. The foundations of phonetics are the alphabet and connecting each letter to its corresponding sound. It has been stated that English is one of the most difficult languages to learn because phonetically many letters have different sounds. Hence, the importance of steadfast and consistent phonics instruction early in a student’s academic career is of the utmost importance.  Our program materials reinforce our program participants understanding of basic word pronunciation including but not limited to:

• Vowels (short, long, combinations, complex, r- controlled, and irregular)
• Consonants (every letter but a, e, i, o, u, and y that can also act as a vowel)
• Digraphs (ch- in chew, zz in pizzazz, and kn- in knock)
• Trigraphs (chr- in Christmas, -dge in edge, -tch in itch)
• Diphthongs (-ew in chew, ou in out, -oo in boot)
• Letter Blends (br- in braid, sc- in scare, and bl- in blue)