Word Analysis Activities Prek-12 grade: Candidate

For the lower-level processors (i.e., orthographic & phonological), Moats (2020) asserts that “one can use phonic or dictionary symbols to transcribe the phonetic properties of words, but the disadvantage of such a phonic representation system is that many speech sounds must then be presented with letter combinations…” (pg. 32). 

We will be analyzing the word candidate in the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 11th edition pg.179. 



The phonetic transcription \ˈkan-də-ˌdāt, ˈka-nə-, -dət\. Note: these variants are based on geographical location and dialects. 

 

 

1st 
sound 

2nd
sound 

3rdsound 

4thsound 

5thsound 

6thsound 

7thsound 

8th 
sound 

Silent E

Phonemes

/k/

/ă/

 

 

/ə/

 

/ā/

 

 

 

Graphemes

C

a

n

d

i

d

a

t

e


These points address what we hear and see when using the dictionaries phonetic symbols (i.e., less than dark print or pronunciation):

·      The letter C sounds like /k/ when followed by the vowel (i.e., a, o, or u) and the first most common way to spell that sound is with the letter c. Some refer to this sound as a ‘hard c’.

·      The fourth most common way to spell the /ə/ sound is the letter i. 

o   According to Moats (2020), vowels that represent the schwa sound occur in unaccented syllables. Further, “vowel reduction (to schwa) presents a problem for children learning to spell because schwa can be spelled with any of the vowel letters in standard orthography, so students must learn to spelling of vowels on the basis of other, related words or by memorization” (pg. 45). In fact, there are 28 ways to spell the /ə/ sound. 

 

·      The letter e is silent and serves as a marker to indicate that the proceeding vowel (i.e., a) is a long sound. 

·      There are nine letters, but only eight sounds. 

Part 2

 

Students are then exposed to multiple meanings of the vocabulary word, which strengthens the meaning processor through accessing the dictionary definitions. The word is Latin, and the root is *kand meaning to shine. 

 

Part  3

Therefore, when we critically reflect on the word’s definition and consider all the elements learned, we can put the word into perspective (i.e., context) with the following activity. 


Direction: read the sentence and write a definition or synonym for the word. Use contexts clue to help you determine the words meaning. 


Sentence: The Senior put in his bid to become a candidate for class president.  

Can you think of a sentence using the word? 


Until next time, 


Shawn Anthony Robinson PhD 

 

 

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