Contact the Literacy Service
The Literacy Service Team can be contacted for advice and information specific to children and young people who have, or may have, learning difficulties in literacy and dyslexia.
Word | Meaning |
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Accent | In teaching reading, accent means the stress / emphasis on one syllable in a word. The accented part of the word / sentence is spoken more loudly or (with a higher intonation, or for a longer length of time) than the rest of the word or sentence. An example of ‘accent’ / ‘stress’ can be seen in distinguishing ‘pho’tograph’ from ‘photog’raphy’ |
Affix | A letter or group of letters attached to the beginning or end of a base or root word, which alters the word’s meaning or changes its grammatical form. See also prefix and suffix |
Alphabetic principle | The relationship between a phoneme (sound) and the grapheme(s) (letter /s) which represent it |
Analogy | A resemblance / correspondence between two words / concepts. A reader (or speller) may read / write a word based on recognising some sort of similarity with another word, for example, may work out how to spell ‘alarm’ based on knowledge of how to spell, ‘farm’ |
Analytic phonics | An approach to teaching reading where learners are taught to recognise whole words and then analyse the words to identify letter-sound (grapheme-phoneme) correspondences (see also synthetic phonics) |
Articulation | Production of distinct speech sounds depending on the position of the mouth, lips and teeth |
Assimilation | The process by which a sound is affected by and becomes like an adjacent sound |
Autobiographical memory | An individual’s personal recall of events / facts: it often refers to memory of personal history / experiences |
Automaticity | Ability to respond quickly, without attention or ‘conscious’ effort (thereby allowing effort / thinking to concentrate on other aspects of the task) |
Automaticity (in reading fluency) | The ability to read at an appropriate speed without great effort
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Base word | A word which can stand alone, but to which an affix can be added, for example, ‘stable’ can become ‘unstable’ |
Blend | Two or more adjacent consonants whose sounds flow together but retain discrete sounds, for example, ‘sp’ in ‘spin’, is an initial consonant blend and in ‘lisp’ it is a final consonant blend |
Bottom-up approaches | An approach to reading based on recognising or decoding every word. Phonics-based teaching (whether analytic or synthetic) and sight vocabulary reading are examples of bottom-up teaching (see top- down approaches) |
Closed syllable | A syllable ending with one or more consonants, for example, ‘rab-bit’ has two closed syllables |
Compound words | Two words are put together to form a different word, for example, ‘handbag’, ‘snowman’ |
Decoding | Translating written words into the sound of the language |
Decode in reading | To determine the pronunciation of a word by understanding how letters represent sounds |
Deep orthography | A writing system which does not have a very consistent sound / symbol correspondence |
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) | Difficulty understanding or using language |
Diagnostic Assessment | An assessment that aims to identify a pupil’s current strengths, weaknesses and abilities to determine the most helpful teaching strategies and content to move the pupil forward. The aim is to make teaching more efficient |
Digraph | Two adjacent consonants or two adjacent vowels in a syllable representing a single sound, for example ‘th’ in ‘this’ or ‘ai’ in ‘maid’ |
Etymology | The study of the origins and the history of words. The etymology of ‘phonics’ is for example, from the Greek ‘phone’ meaning ‘voice’. It was originally used in the 17th century to mean the science of sound but has come to mean an approach to teaching reading |
Executive Functions | Cognitive processes involved in monitoring and controlling behaviour, including attention, planning and self-regulation |
Expressive vocabulary | The words that a pupil can express through speaking or writing |
Formative assessment | The process of monitoring pupil learning on an ongoing basis as part of day to day, whole class teaching and adapting teaching to meet pupil’s learning needs as they change over time |
Grapheme-phoneme correspondence | Making a link between a grapheme (letter or letter clusters) and the phoneme (single speech sound) that it represents |
Grapheme | A letter or combination of letters used to represent a phoneme. Phonemes are the smallest units of speech sounds |
Guided discovery teaching | A teaching strategy where new concepts or knowledge are presented in ways which support learners in discovering or deducting a fact or rule’ |
Inference | Using information from a text or from speech to arrive at another piece of information that is implicit |
Irregular word | An irregular word in spelling |
Kinaesthetic | A sensory experience related to movement of muscles and joints of the body |
Lexical route | A system which relies on whole word processing |
Lexicon | A body of knowledge either written or spoken |
Long-term memory | The part of memory to which information is sent for permanent storage. It is seen as having an infinite capacity |
Metacognition | A critical awareness of one’s own thinking and learning and an understanding of oneself as a thinker and learner. The process of metacognition is used when planning, monitoring, concluding and evaluating tasks |
Mind map | This is a method of visually recording thoughts and ideas using a diagram which contains words, symbols and pictures to represent those ideas. It shows a central idea with branches containing sub- themes around that main idea which the helps to organise and recall thoughts. It is usually used for planning an assignment or exam revision |
Mnemonics | A strategy devised to aid recall. The most commonly used mnemonic is the use of the initial letter in a group of words to create an acronym or acrostic. Other forms could involve using rhymes or songs, visualisation (picture association) or chunking: |
Morpheme | The smallest units of words that contain meaning, such as, the ‘root’ word ‘child’ and the affix ‘ish’, which in combination make a new word ‘childish’ |
Morphological Awareness | Awareness of the form and meaning of language, especially the smallest units of words that contain meaning |
Multisensory literacy programme | An approach for teaching literacy that involves the simultaneous use of several senses (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic/touch) and teaches listening, speaking, reading, writing and spelling together |
Onset | The initial consonant (s) in a word, for example, ‘c’ in ‘cat’ and ‘scr’ in ‘scream’ (see also ‘rime’) |
Orthographic Awareness | Awareness of the rules for writing a language, including spelling punctuation and capitalisation. Those with good orthographic awareness recognise commonly occurring spelling patterns and sequences in words, to help them read and spell with greater fluency and accuracy. |
Phoneme | A phoneme is a speech sound, it is the smallest unit of spoken sound that distinguishes one word (or word part) from another, for example, ‘t’ and ‘d’ in ‘tip’ and ‘dip’ |
Phonemic Awareness | Awareness of the smallest units of sound and the ability to distinguish and manipulate individual units of sound in speech |
Phonetics | The study of sounds in speech in any language, including describing them in terms of analysing production (how they are made), and representing them graphically using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) |
Phonics | A method of teaching the association between the printed form of letters and the sound (s) they represent |
Phonological Awareness | Knowledge of and sensitivity to the phonological properties of words in a language |
Phonological deficit | A difficulty in phonological processing, for example, in segmenting or blending sounds or appreciating rhyme |
Phonology | The science or knowledge of the sound system of a language both segmental (for example, phonemes) and non-segmental (for example, stress, pitch, volume) |
Prefix | A group of letters (forming a syllable) which is added at the beginning of a base or root word to change its meaning, for example, ‘mis’ added to ‘represent’ to make ‘misrepresent’ |
Prosody | The sound qualities of a language, including intonation, stress, pitch and rhythm which are significant in our ability to communicate effectively, in pronunciation, speaking and reading |
Rapid automatic naming | A task where an individual is asked to name rapidly a series of printed objects, letters, colours, numbers, presented randomly. It tests automaticity and is often used as part of the process of identifying dyslexia |
Rime | The written or spoken vowel and final consonant(s) in a word or syllable, for example, ‘at’ in ‘cat’ and ‘eam’ in ‘stream’ |
Root | A word or part of a word to which affixes can be added. Some roots are morphemes (often Greek or Latin origin) which cannot stand alone as English words, for example, ‘struct’ in ‘destruct’, ‘instruct’, instructions’ |
Schwa | An unaccented (indeterminate) vowel whose pronunciation is like ‘uh’ as with the ‘a’ in ‘about’. It is normally represented as /a/. It is made involuntarily at the end of pronouncing some phonemes, for example, /b/ is often pronounced /buh/ as air escapes when the lips open after forming /b/ |
Segmentation | Separating a word into parts (such as onsets and rimes, syllables or individual units) |
Semantic | Referring to the meaning of words |
Shallow orthography | A writing system where there is highly regular sound-symbol correspondence |
Short-term memory | The term short- term memory refers to information presented verbally or visually that is stored for only a short period of time (seconds) |
Sky writing | The technique of ‘writing’ a letter or word in the air using the writing hand and arm so that the upper arm muscles are used to help the writer establish kinaesthetic traces or memories |
Specific language Impairment (SLI) | A communication disorder that prevents the development of language in children. It can affect a child’s listening, speaking, reading and writing. (see Developmental Language Disorder) |
Suffix | Letters (forming a syllable) which are added at the end of a base word or root to change its meaning. For example, it can change singular to plural, ‘s’ added to ‘house’ changes it to the plural ‘houses’; it can mark the third person singular present tense of a verb, for example, ‘He runs’; it can change a noun to an adjective, for example, ‘ful’ changes ‘beauty’ to ‘beautiful’ |
Syllable | A spoken or written unit that must have a vowel sound and include preceding and / or a following consonant (s) |
Syntax | The structure of grammar-the system governing how words must be ordered in phrases or sentences |
Synthetic phonics | Introducing letter- sound (grapheme-phoneme correspondences) and then blending / joining them to make meaningful words / units (see analytic phonics) |
Top-down approaches | These refer to teaching reading by emphasising that the main purpose of reading is to extract meaning from a text. The learner draws on their own experiences and knowledge to make sense of the text. The text is practised and understood before decoding / word recognition strategies are introduced |
Unvoiced consonant | A consonant produced with no vocal vibration, for example, /s/ sound in ‘sun’ |
Voiced consonant | A consonant articulated with vocal cords vibrating, for example, /z/ sound of /s/ in ‘rose’ |
Vowel suffix | A suffix beginning with a vowel, for example, ‘ing’ and ‘ed’. The addition of this suffix often affects the ending of a base or root word, particularly where that word ends in a vowel, for example ‘shine’ / ‘shining’ |
Working memory | The part of short-term memory that holds onto information long enough to manipulate or use it, for example as in carrying out a mental calculation or following an instruction |
The Literacy Service Team can be contacted for advice and information specific to children and young people who have, or may have, learning difficulties in literacy and dyslexia.