The English Alphabet and the Alphabetic Principle

The English Alphabet is a series of symbols developed over centuries. These symbols represent the sounds we speak. The alphabet used to write English today was developed from the Roman alphabet.

The Anglo-Saxon language was written down using Roman letters due to the Roman invasion of Britain. Over time the letters J, U, and W were introduced to spell the sounds the Roman alphabet didn’t accommodate.

The English Alphabet today is:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 

The English Alphabet has 26 letters. Each letter has a lower and upper case form.

The upper case letters, most of the time, will be larger than the lower case letters.

Upper case letters are used at the beginning of sentences in names and in titles.

Punctuation was added over time.

The English Alphabet code is not a perfect code. One letter per sound would be much easier to understand.

We only have 26 letters to spell around 44 sounds. There is an argument amongst linguists as to the exact number of sounds but 44 is close enough.  Most languages have around 44 sounds.

The English Alphabet is the way hundreds of thousands of words can be recorded and read. It is not possible for the human mind to memorize that many characters or words.

One, two, sometimes three and four letters can stand for the sounds of English within a word.

Sometimes the sounds of the language have more than one spelling. This is why English spelling

is regarded as difficult. But it too has rules that can be learned and understood.

The first fundamental principle a beginning reader and writer needs to understand is that words and syllables (parts of words that contain a vowel sound) are comprised of a sequence of elementary speech sounds. This is called phonological (sound) awareness.

This understanding is essential to learning to read an alphabetic language. I am convinced because of my extensive experience working with underachieving students that the majority of people with reading problems have not grasped this idea.

If you have a child with reading problems check out whether they know how to decode words.

Email me and I will send you an outline of how to do this.

So many reading problems stem from the inability to decode words in text.

In most cases this is easy to recify.

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