Reflecting on Encoding and the Dictionary: My experience

Dr. Moat’s book ‘From Speech to Print’ is full of knowledge that can equip students and teachers alike on the necessary foundations to study language. I am someone who did not receive effective language instruction as a young student, and therefore l did not develop an appreciation of language. Through personal experience, I gained an understanding of the value of offering opportunities for older students to not only discuss why learning to read is difficult, but also to provide examples relating to the basic building blocks of learning the structure of language. First, I describe my experience of how I “cracked the code” which leads to an in-depth conversation of building blocks of learning language. I begin with the sounds of language, or Phonemic Awareness, then move to learning the alphabetic principle through learning the sounds of the alphabet. Blending sounds together into words based on syllabication and the rules of phonics establishes a strong decoding capacity for students who might not have learned these basics of linguistics. During our lessons, I use more complex words to demonstrate the language rule we are learning as a way of retaining the older students’ interest and enthusiasm for learning. Making the language relevant keeps the older student motivated. 

Since these older students have a reasonable reading vocabulary, I can introduce them to resources available in the dictionary when learning new words. I support the students in learning how to look up words in the dictionary and analyze the word based on the various levels of pronunciation and meaning the dictionary offers. One conventional method for learning a word in the dictionary is to identify how the word is spelled letter by letter, by the way of the bold (dark) print. For now, the only value that the bold print has is that it correctly spells the word by letter name, followed by the phonetic sounds of the syllabicated word.

Example: syn·​ec·​do·​che | \sə-ˈnek-də-(ˌ)kē\

Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2022

It can be noted that the suggested divisions of syllables in the dark print follow the direct sound/symbol relationship of the word, not necessarily the syllable patterns younger children learn for decoding. The phonetic sound symbols deal with the word’s phonetic sound-symbol assignments as to what its correct sounds are, grapheme by grapheme. The phonetic assignment information is enclosed by slash marks. Further, the diacritical marks are designed to identify a word’s enunciation, as shown in the less than dark print, indicating how it is to be read or spelled by the way of the word’s sound structure. A diacritical mark which is within parenthesis is used in pronunciation(s) to indicate that whatever is symbolized between them is present in some utterance and the user includes that sound in the spelling and reading of the word. Review the word cavalry in the Webster Merriam-Webster dictionary. If there are no letter(s) in the word to represent the indicated sound that is in the parenthesis, then the diacritical mark is ignored in the spelling and reading of the word. 

Example: cal·​va·​ry | \ˈkal-v(ə-)rē\

            Again, a sequential pairing process is used to assign sounds. Review the word circumstances in the Webster Merriam-Webster dictionary. Within the less than dark print, a word’s syllable division is indicated with small dark horizontal marks /-/ which look like hyphens. In addition, the placement of the /-/ is based on the phonetic principles It is the custom of lexicographers to identify which syllable(s) receive accent or stress marks. A high-set mark indicates the primary or strongest stress/accent; a low-set mark indicates the secondary or medium stress/accent. Finally, it is important for learners to understanding word division dots and syllable hyphens. 

In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the user will notice two different syllable division breaks for words. The first break is shown by dots in the headword, or the dark print without the phonetic symbols. The dots do not always indicate syllable breaks of the word, which instead use hyphens and does not always match the placement of the hyphens in their pronunciations. The centered dots determine the morphological structure of the word (i.e., formation, inflection, derivation & compounding) and pronunciation. The headword shows the orthographic word division, and hyphen breaks are based on phonetic principles, vowel length, nasalization, and consonant position in syllable. As readers of the dictionary, we need to analyze the headword for spelling (orthographic mapping) based on the division dots and then the syllable breaks for the pronunciation. 

The video demonstration teaches users how to pronounce the word synecdoche and break it up into distinctive sounds and syllables based on the Merriam-Webster dictionary. 

It is important to have a foundation of the basic structure of the English language prior to referencing the dictionary. The treasures available within the dictionary are unlocked with a basic understanding of the sound/symbol relationship of language. Once the student can hear the sounds/phonemes of the alphabet and can map those sounds onto letters/graphemes, then the phonetic pronunciation, syllabication, and stress sounds marked in the dictionary help the student uncover an immense array of new words and meanings as they seek to become better readers.  In addition, since every word in the dictionary is accompanied by its meaning(s), students are increasing vocabulary and comprehension as they continue to become more fluent readers.