We often hear that English spelling is irregular. Some suggest that our spelling system is so irregular that there’s no point in teaching English phonics. However, if you know English phonics, you realize that most words in English are regular. For example, if a child knows English phonics, he can unlock vast numbers of words, even 96% of the words in an English dictionary (Moats, L. & Tolman, C., 2009).

We assume English is irregular because young English-speaking kids do have to master quite a bit of phonics, more so than speakers of French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and German. In addition, English is full of sight words. While sight words are common, you might be surprised to know that only about 120 of these words are worth memorizing.

English phonics analysis

If we select a passage in English literature, how many of the words are regular? Let’s analyze an excerpt. I’ll bold all the words that are regular. You might be surprised to see that most of the words are in bold:

“I had myself called with the four-o-clock watch, mornings, for one cannot see too many summer sunrises on the Mississippi. They are enchanting. First, there is the eloquence of silence; for a deep hush broods everywhere. Next, there is the haunting sense of loneliness, isolation, remoteness from the worry and bustle of the world. The dawn creeps in stealthily; the solid walls of black forest soften to gray, and vast stretches of the river open up and reveal themselves.”

–Mark Twain, from Life on the Mississippi

Every bold word in the above passage is phonetic. You might be surprised by the words that are totally phonetic. You also might be surprised to see that, if you’re not a phonics teacher, you’ve completely forgotten how to identify phonics units. You’ve learned to read so long ago, that your phonics knowledge is now subliminal. You’ve become like an expert cellist that can serenade an audience, but cannot deconstruct each song to explain notes to a beginner.

English phonics & sight words unlock most text

In the above Twain passage, I did not highlight sight words. Let’s bold all the words that are 1) phonetic and 2) are among the 120 most common sight words in English. Here, you’ll see that phonics coupled with just memorizing 120 measly words can unlock a surprising amount of English.

“I had myself called with the four–o-clock watch, mornings, for one cannot see too many summer sunrises on the Mississippi. They are enchanting. First, there is the eloquence of silence; for a deep hush broods everywhere. Next, there is the haunting sense of loneliness, isolation, remoteness from the worry and bustle of the world. The dawn creeps in stealthily; the solid walls of black forest soften to gray, and vast stretches of the river open up and reveal themselves.”

–Mark Twain, from Life on the Mississippi

In the above passage, there are only 11 sight words: the, four, watch, many, there, is, of, from, world, to, one. These words are repeated often across all English text. They help kids unlock the remaining words that truly aren’t phonetic. With just a few sight words and English phonics, a child can read a surprising amount of the passage.

Even irregular words have regular components

If you look at the sheer number of words that are regular or common and thus worth memorizing, you really begin to see the incredible efficiency of phonics instruction. There are hundreds of thousands of words in a language, but an English-speaking child would only have to memorize about 44 English phonics sounds, 120 sight words and 100 sight syllables to access almost all of the language.

Yet, there’s more. In the above passage, you can see that there are some words that are at least somewhat regular. Even sight words are somewhat regular. I’m going to finish off by highlighting everything that is either 1) regular, even if somewhat regular or 2) a sight word.

“I had myself called with the four–o-clock watch, mornings, for one cannot see too many summer sunrises on the Mississippi. They are enchanting. First, there is the eloquence of silence; for a deep hush broods everywhere. Next, there is the haunting sense of loneliness, isolation, remoteness from the worry and bustle of the world. The dawn creeps in stealthily; the solid walls of black forest soften to gray, and vast stretches of the river open up and reveal themselves.”

If you bold everything that is regular or among the 120 most common sight words, you can see that two letter i’s, one t, and one ea are the only irregularities in the passage. Though English phonics is difficult to master, it is a far cry from unpredictable. With English phonics, kids can unlock vast numbers of words.

English spelling is not nearly as insane as some claim

English authors have claimed that English spelling is completely insane. Even Mark Twain himself has suggested this. Also, George Bernard Shaw has suggested English spelling is unpredictable. However, just because they’re acclaimed authors, doesn’t mean they understand English orthography like a linguist or beginning reading teacher.

For example, George Bernard Shaw famously claimed that you can write “fish” in English as “ghoti”—the gh from cough, the o from women and the ti from motion. Any phonics teacher can tell you this is simply not true. Shaw became the expert cellist that can’t describe a note to a beginner. Fish cannot be spelled ghoti in English because: gh does not occur at the beginning of words, the o in women makes women a sight word in the first place, and ti must be a part of a larger unit “tion” to really make the sh sound.

When people say English phonics is useless, what they really mean is, “I don’t know how to teach English phonics!” And that’s okay! But don’t push for no phonics at school, because if you do large numbers of kids will be illiterate and heartbroken.

References:

Moats, L. & Tolman, C. (2009). Retrieved from: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/english-gets-bad-rap