Through the Phonics Barrier

Teaching and Learning

Step-by-Step Instructions
For Teacher and Student

THE CONSONANTS
page 1

To the Student
Let us begin with the consonants. I don’t expect you to remember all of these things, just to
be able to repeat them after me. We'll come back to them all one at a time. Here at the top of the
page are the consonants. There are two c’s, two g’s, and two s’s because these letters have two
sounds, and the q is followed by a u because it always is in English. See if you can tell me the
sounds these letters make.

For the Teacher

Probably your student will know the b sound, but not the two sounds for c. If he hesitates at
all or makes any sounds incorrectly, take over and from then on you say the sounds and have him
say them after you while looking at the letters. If he is quite uncertain, do three or four at a time;
if he knows most of them, you can do a whole line at a time. He should end by being able to say
all the consonant sounds once without help.
Say k and s for c, g and j for g, s and z for s. Be sure to say them clearly. Pointing with your
pencil, show that the sounds of the first c and the k are the same, the sounds of the second c and
the first s are the same, the second g sounds the same as j, and so on. Don’t at this point try to
show the student any written words starting with these letters unless he specifically asks you to.
We want to focus his attention only on the sound and the letters at this point. You should,
however, say a word beginning with b, such as bat, and pause and give him a chance to offer
another word, and so on for the other letters. Most children have learned to do this in school for a
few initial consonants and enjoy showing what they know. (Examples: qu in quick, x in tax;
z sound for s in is.)

RULE 1
page 1

For the Teacher

Read the rule at the bottom of the page slowly, pointing to the letters and words. Have the
student read the sample words. He need not memorize the rule.

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 THE VOWELS
page 2

To the Student
You know the names of the vowels a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. All vowels have more than one
sound. The long vowels say their own names, so they are very easy to learn. You just say ā, ē, ī,
ō, ū. y is pronounced ī, just like the letter i when it is a long vowel. Below the vowels it shows
how we write these sounds. The letters are in italics. Each has a straight line over it. That means
it is not the letter a, but the long ā sound. Now you read the long vowels.
Next we have the short vowel sounds and they are hard little sounds to learn because, while
you have said them millions of times, you have almost never said them alone since you were a
tiny baby. In words they are nearly always said with one or more consonants.
In the picture you see a very lazy, fat boy by the name of Ed who is not up yet. Under the
picture it says, “Fat Ed is not up.” Each one of these words has one of the short vowel sounds in
it – ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ. If you try to say, “Fat Ed is not up” with your mouth wide open, you will hear
yourself say the short vowel sounds. We write these short sounds as letters with little curves over
them. When y is a short vowel, it is sounded just like short i.

For the Teacher

Have the student repeat the sentence after you with his mouth open a couple of times. Then,
have him say the same sounds again while looking at the vowels below the sentence, saying ĭ for
y. It may take a little practice to keep the lips relaxed so no consonant sound is made.

To the Student
At the bottom of the page we have one more sound for a in ah. The sound is written a with two
dots over it. (ä)

For the Teacher

It is not intended that you drill the student so that he knows all of these sounds and can give them
perfectly when called upon. They are difficult to learn in isolation, and a student has great
trouble distinguishing between ĕ and ĭ. It is sufficient to go over them a few times until he
becomes aware of what they sound like and can repeat the series after you while looking at the
letters. He will learn them later.

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 SPECIAL VOWEL SOUNDS
page 3

To the Student
Next we have the special vowel sounds. These are sounds written with two letters, and there
are little pictures down below to help you remember what the sounds are. Notice there are two
sounds for oo. Three of these sounds are written two ways. The long oo sound says o͞o, as in
boot, and the short oo sound says o͝o, as in book. Then there is ou. If someone hurts you, you
say ou; oy is the sound in boy, and aw is the sound in paw. In italics we have the ways of writing
these sounds. Can you say some words with o͞o and o͝o? Now you read them.

For the Teacher

Read the sounds one at a time and have your student repeat them after you two or three times,
while looking at the letters, until he can say all five in sequence. Then cover the pictures and
have him say them again. Of course, the o͞o and o͝o sounds are also sometimes spelled in other
ways as we shall see later. (Example: through, put)

SPECIAL CONSONANT SOUNDS

page 3

To the Student

Now we have five more special sounds to learn. These are consonant sounds that have to be
written with two letters, ng comes only at the end of a word, and wh at the beginning of a word.
The rest can come at the beginning or the end. The pictures will help you remember them. th is
the beginning sound in thimble, ch is the beginning sound in chick, and sh is the beginning
sound in ship, and ng is the end sound in ring. hw is the sound beginning wheel. Now say the
sounds after me while you look at the letters.

VOWEL DIGRAPHS
page 4

To the Student

Next we have vowel digraphs, that is, vowel sounds written with two letters. We have learned
the long vowel sounds on page 2. These same long vowel sounds, ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, are all written in
other ways with two vowels together. When you see these vowel combinations, remember they
generally say the long sound of the first letter, so they are easy. (Tell the more advanced student
that there are many exceptions, as we shall see.)

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For the Teacher
Point to the phonograms in the first column and read ā, ā, ā (ai in wait; ay as in say). Then
see if the student can carry on for the next four columns. If not, help him.
Have him repeat the rule after you, “These generally say the long sound of the first letter.”
If the student asks for examples, you might use these: see, sea, pie, oat, toe, snow, true, and
fruit.

To the Student
At the bottom on the page we see more vowel digraphs. ei says the long a sound, ā, which is a
surprise. Also, in some words it says the long e sound, ē. ie says ī, as you saw above, but it
sometimes also says ē. ew and eu say the long u sound, ū, or o͞o.

For the Teacher

Some examples are: eight, receive, pie, believe, few, and feud.
All these digraphs are single vowel sounds occurring within a syllable. The ie in salient is not
a digraph, of course since the i and e are in different syllables.

VOWELS FOLLOWED BY R
page 4

To the Student
Next we have the vowels followed by r. When a vowel is followed by r, it has a different
sound than it has when it is followed by any other letter; so we learn the sounds of these
combinations.
The ones in the first line, er, ir, ur, all say exactly the same thing—er, as in her. Then or is
just the word or, and. there is ar as in car. The a in ar is that last a sound, ä. Now you read them.

For the Teacher

Read the words and put each in a sentence or phrase. “I see her.” “The fir tree.” “A fur coat.”
“You or me.” etc. (The vowel sound in er is the ә; in or it is aw.)

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 Rule 2
page 4

To the Student
Here we have the second rule that you have to learn that will help you with hundreds of
words.
When you have one vowel followed by one consonant, the vowel has the short sound, ă. If
there is an e after the consonant, the e is silent and does not say anything, but it makes the first
vowel say its long sound, ā.

For the Teacher

Recite the rule very slowly and distinctly pointing to the a and t in at. Then point to the e in
ate, then to the a. then repeat at and ate, emphasizing the vowel sounds.
Read the columns vertically—at, ate, et, ete, it, ite, etc. Explain that, except for at, it, and
ate, these are not words; they are the ends of words and syllables. Examples of words with these
phonograms are:

at pet kit not cut

ate Pete kite note cute

First read at and ate and have the student repeat those; then go on to the others, one pair at a
time. Then read them all over and see if he can read them all correctly. The rule need not be
learned by heart. It is used simply as an explanation. For young children do not call attention to
the printed rule on the page. Older people may want to read it for themselves.

CONSONANT BLENDS
page 5

To the Student
On this page we have what we call the consonant blends. Now these are the same letters and
the same sounds you have had before, but they are said so close together that they sound like
new sounds. I will read the first column to you and you say them after me.

For the Teacher

Do not write out any words unless asked, but say some words beginning with the consonant
blends, such as bread, cry, try, and encourage the student to suggest some words himself. Be
sure that you say the tr as in trap and show the student that it is not like tur as in turn or Turk.
Go over half a dozen sounds at a time and let the student repeat them after you until he can do so
perfectly. There are two sc sounds, s and sk, as in scent and scat.

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 You are trying here to have your student become aware of these sounds as entities that exist in
the words he speaks.
The blends with r are the most important and most difficult. If further work seems called for,
say the words below in pairs and ask the student to tell which starts with the g sound and which
with the gr sound, etc.

girl grill
bite bright
cane crane
dawn drawn
fight fright
go grow
tack track

To the Student

chr says kr, and sch says sk. (The h in both of these is silent, as in chrome and school.)

ODD WAYS OF WRITING

SOME CONSONANT SOUNDS

page 6

To the Student

Next we have some peculiar things. Each one is made up of two consonants with special ways of
sounding them that you would never guess. In the first four, wr, kn, gn, and ps, the first letter is
silent, so they all just have the sound of the second letter, r, n, n, and s. The ph sounds like the
letter f, f, and the gh is a particular demon. Mostly it does not say anything at all, it is just put in
to make spelling difficult, but sometimes it says the f sound, f, and sometimes the g sound, g,
Now you read them.
Just to make this complete, we are going to put in some unusual things here. In rh the h is
silent, and you say r, gu says g. Ti, si, and ci you will meet later in hard words where they all say
sh, but do not worry about them now. (They can also have the sounds of tĭ, sĭ, sĭ as in partition,
transition, and precision.)

For the Teacher

Examples of words with these digraphs are: write, know, gnaw, psychic, phone, though,
cough, ghost, rhyme, guard, station, mission, special.

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To the Student

Now we have one last thing: le says әl. This little upside down e stands for a very short vowel
sound. All of the vowels are pronounced this way sometimes. For instance, in lemon, the o is
shortened up so you really don't hear it as a short o sound at all.
These syllables occur at the ends of words, ble says bәl, as in table; cle says kәl, as in circle.

For the Teacher

The le is the only instance besides wh (hw) where sounds are written backward. Otherwise all
words are read from left to right. Read these syllables to the student and have him repeat them
after you. If he asks for further examples, they are to be found in: ladle, baffle, struggle, tackle
apple, hassle, little, and dazzle.

To the Student

Believe it or not, now you have covered the whole field of phonics. You have learned all the
sounds (except zh) and all the ways of writing the sounds, and you have learned the two
important rules. These are all the "bricks" with which our words are built. The hard part is over.
The rest is just practice combining the parts you have already had.

COMBINING A CONSONANT
WITH LONG AND SHORT VOWELS

page 7

To the Student
Here we are going to start combining one consonant with one vowel. Most of the things here
are not words (although there are one or two words like he and be), but they are beginnings of
words and separate syllables in longer words; so these will help you to read and write thousands
of words. These must be read both with a long vowel and with a short vowel sound. This page
sounds very silly when you read it out loud, but at least it is easy, so let’s do it.

For the Teacher

Read the first line with ā, rā, wā, and so on, and have the child repeat it after you; do the same
with the second line. Then repeat, using short vowel sounds, and be sure you say the short ă
sound, as in at, clearly and distinctly and have the child repeat it. On this page he really begins to
learn those long and short vowel sounds as well as to use the consonants with ease. Go on
through the rest of the page, first with the long vowel sounds and then with the short ones. Most
children will need a good deal of help on the first two lines and be quite fluent by the time they
reach the last two. Be sure to say the soft c (s) before e and i, and the hard c (k) before a, o, and
u.

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 COMBINING A BLEND
WITH LONG AND SHORT VOWELS
page 8

To the Student
Now we are going to read the blends that you learned earlier followed by a vowel. Like the
combination on the last page, these must be read with both the long and short vowels. These
things are not words, but beginnings of words or syllables and, of course, they will help you with
thousands of words and syllables.

For the Teacher

On this page we do exactly the same thing but we use the blends instead of the single
consonants and have the child read them with both long and short sounds. First trā, drā crā, and
then tră, tră, dră in trap, drab, crab, etc.

A/a
page 9

For the Teacher

On this page we really get into the heart-of-the system. The first column with a followed by
the consonants, starting with five familiar words, is perfectly simple for the child with no reading
problem and very difficult for the remedial reading case. One and all—whether five or forty,
even though they have been reading for years and have graduated from college—will have the
greatest difficulty with it. Here’s where the reversals come in—they want to say ta instead of at.
Frequently they act as though they were going to choice to death over a short vowel. An hour’s
work should clear up this page.
Say to the child, “In this first column we have a followed by all the different consonants.
When we have one vowel followed by one consonant in a word, the vowel has a short sound. In
the second column you have exactly the same thing as in the first column with an e on the end,
and, as you know, the e is silent but the a has its long sound—ăt, āte. Let us first read down the
first column.”
Read slowly and distinctly at so that he hears distinctly the ă and the t sounds, am, an, and
then let him go ahead on his own. There is a little dot in front of the ag and the ac. That is to help
him remember that g and c have the hard sound in the first column and the soft sound in the
second column. The s in the first column is pronounced z and the second column we will read
with the z sound, though occasionally -se is pronounced s. al is pronounced as in pal, ar is in
parentheses because it has the sound of ar, as in car. are is pronounced as in bare, not as in the
word are. Once you have struggled through the first column, do the second column, which will
be much, much easier. Then read across—at, ate, am, ame. This is one place where you must
drill until the child can do it fluently and easily with no hesitation.

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 Now go on to the next column and explain that the a’s are all short, except in the last three
combinations which are marked long. Show that these columns have the same letters as the first
column on the page, plus one or two more consonants, These are all the ends of syllables which
are found in hundreds and hundreds of words. The child who learned the first column perfectly
will have no difficulty at all with these two. The last three combinations with the a marked long
come from change, paste, and bathe. In the last column, ank has a slightly nasal sound, as in
bank, and ang you hear in sang. al can be pronounced either al, as in the first column, or awl, as
in the words already, salt, and all. The last 16 combinations consist of the sound of ar plus
another consonant. The last one is the end of the word large.

A WORDS
page 10

To the Student
Here we have 152 words, which you can now read. There is an a in each word, and you will
be able to tell whether you pronounce it with its long or short sound. These words are just the
same things you had on the page before, except that you have one or two consonants at the
beginning. You can read them.

For the Teacher

Have the student read these words. Even a little fellow who could read almost nothing before
starting this work will he able to read them by himself with very little help.
See that he notices when he starts the ar words. If any mistakes are made, it will be in leaving
out r’s which should be there, or putting them in where they don’t belong. If a mistake is made,
point to the word with your pencil and ask him to try again.
This page may look dull but it is a very exciting moment when a little boy suddenly finds he
can read 152 words on his own with no help from pictures or context. When you finish this page
you are about halfway through the system in point of time. The rest will go much faster. Many
children will want to start reading at this point.

To the Student

Now you can read any one-syllable word in the English language with a for a vowel and all of
the syllables of all the other words that have a for a vowel. You will find the rest of the work will
be much easier.

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 E/e
page 12

To the Student

Next you have the letter e. Just as on the A page, the first column has e followed by every one
of the consonants. The second column is the same with the silent e on the end, which makes the
first e long. Remember again that the c and g change their sounds in the second column when
they are followed by e and that er has a different sound from the rest.

E WORDS
page 13

To the Student
Now you can read all the one-syllable words with e for vowel and all the syllables in all the
other words that have e for a vowel.

For the Teacher

Proceed as with the A page. This one will go much more easily. It is interesting that there are
few monosyllables in English in which ē is spelled e-consonant-e. Most are spelled with ea or ee.

I/i
page 14

The two I pages which follow will be taught just like the A and E pages.
Notice again that g and c change their sounds between the first and second columns, that ir is
a special sound, and also notice the long ī in ild and ind. These represent important “families”
and should be learned. Here a single vowel is long before two consonants, ind is also
pronounced with a short i (ĭ).

O/o
page 17

Notice the long o in old, olt and ost, and that the last three items have the aw sound, as in
soft, boss, and cost. Your English friends will pronounce cost with ŭ as kŏst. of should be
pronounced ŏf as in doff, not like the word of, which is ŭv.

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 U/u
page 20

On the U/u page, ull is printed twice. Note the different sounds in pull and bull. The u in pull
says o͝o, not ŭ.

Y/y
page 23

To the Student
The Y page you will find very easy. y is just like i when it is used as a vowel. When it comes
at the end of a syllable or of a short one-syllable word it has the sound of ī. As a suffix or ending
to a word, it has the sound you hear in party. Sometimes it is used in a syllable where it is
followed by a consonant, and then it has the ĭ sound, just as though the syllable were spelled with
an i.

For the Teacher

These are the first words of more than one syllable. If necessary help him read one syllable at
a time by covering up the end of the word and exposing only the first syllable, then the second,
etc. Then have him read the whole word by syllables. Of course, put the words in sentences
where necessary.

WORDS WITH
VOWEL DIGRAPHS
page 24

To the Student
On this page we start with the vowel digraphs which we first met on page 4. Remember they
say the long sound of the first letter, so they are actually just a different way of writing the long
vowel sounds. Following the ai we have some phonograms which are ai followed by another
consonant, and the same for oa and ee. When you have read these, you can read the words at the
bottom of the page. Listen as you do so to the long vowel sounds.

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 ea has three sound
page 25

For the Teacher

Continue with the digraphs on pages 24 and 25, There are only a few ea words in which the
ea is pronounced ā, and the student should learn them right here. Explain that ea is pronounced
not only “like the long sound of the first letter,” but also like the long sound of the second letter
and like the short sound of the first letter, This is true of other vowel digraphs, to a lesser extent,
and is a more accurate rule than the one quoted above which is a simplification used for
beginners. With words like read and tear, which have two pronunciations, we cannot tell which
one is meant unless we read the word in a sentence.

To the Student
When you come to a new word with ea in it, you may have to try both the long and short
sounds of e.
The next five digraphs are easy. In these words ow says ō. It also sometimes says ou as we
shall see later. ie more often says ē than ī.

ei, ey says ē or ā
page 27

For the Teacher

ei comes within syllables and ey at the end of words.
Have the student learn to write the word eight. This will help him recognize this odd group of
letters whenever he sees it. Point out the silent gh. (Height and sleight are exceptions in which
eigh says ī.)

To the Student
Once you know that ā is a regular way of pronouncing ei and ey, the spelling of many words
will seem reasonable.
Remember that cei alwayi says sē. Then you can spell receive and other demons.

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 SPECIAL VOWEL SOUNDS
page 28

To the Student

There are two ways of writing the ou sound; ou is always within a word; ow at the end of a
word and sometimes inside a word. Here we have two ways of writing the aw sound: aw comes
at the end of a word and sometime within a word; au is always within a word. As you know, the
word all has the same aw sound.
There are two ways of writing the oy sound, oy is generally used at the end of the word and oi
in the middle of the word. You can always count on these two to say the same thing.
(The following paragraph may be omitted for the beginner.) The o͞o and ū sounds are really
very much alike. In fact, ū sounds the same as do, except that it starts with the y consonant
sound. Most of us don’t distinguish between the two sounds in many of the words. In the first
group, oo is pronounced o͞o. In the second and third columns, ew and ue are sometimes
pronounced o͞o and sometimes ū. Cue has the ū sound, and true has the o͞o sound; grew is o͞o,
and knew is ū. We point this out for accuracy’s sake. As far reading goes, you can forget it. You
will just say these words so they sound right to you. Of course, Tuesday should be pronounced
with a ū and not “Toosday.” The sound o͝o is written also with a u.

ODD WAYS OF WRITING

SOME CONSONANT SOUNDS
Three curiosities with silent first letters

page 30
To the Student
Now we are going to study three curiosities. They are the consonant digraphs kn, wr, and gn,
and in all of them the first letter is silent and the second letter is sounded. We have to learn these
because they come in so many very common words, kn and wr always occur at the beginning of
words or syllables. Right now is a good time to take a hard look at gn, which is always
pronounced n—the g being silent. It comes at the beginning and at the end of words or syllables.
There are only a few common words beginning with gn, and we should have no trouble just
remembering to read them as though the g weren’t there. When gn occurs at the end of a word or
syllable, it still has the n sound, and you might think it would be just as well to leave out that
silent g. Actually, it seems to have a use in some words like sign and align, because it changes
the vowel sound from short to long. That is, s-i-n is sin and s-i-g-n is sign. Of course, in reign
and campaign, the vowel sound would be long anyway. If you will become perfectly familiar
with the sight and sound of gn, it will help you to learn to spell a lot of hard words which would
otherwise seem baffling.

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For the Teacher
The only excuse for these three complications seems to be that they are used in writing
homonyms; we have know and no; knew and new, write and right; wrap and rap; and we have
names like Nat, Nome, and Nash that are to be distinguished from gnat, gnome, and gnash.
Explain this if it seems appropriate.
The beginner need read only the easier words and need not be bothered with all of the above
explanation.

Four more curiosities

page 30

To the Student

Now for rh, which is pronounced r, Remember that the h is silent, rh is found in words that
come from Greek stems. Like the other demons on this and the preceding page, it is perfectly
simple to learn if you just face it squarely. Learn to recognize it when you see it, and it will
enable you to read many words which would otherwise seem impossible. (For the teacher: In
fact, it may even enable you to learn to spell two of the most difficult words in the English
language: hemorrhage and diarrhea.)
gu always has the g sound,
To go on with our demons and oddities, we have another one that we inherited from the
Greeks—ph, which is always pronounced f. It occurs both at the beginnings and ends of words
and syllables. We run into it in a great many words which scientists and engineers made up from
two Greek roots: phone, which means “sound,” and graph, which means “write,” as In
telephone, telegraph, phonograph, etc. Learn ph and you have the key to a lot of the hardest-
looking words there are. (Consider a-poc´-ry-phal, meaning “of doubtful authorship or
authority.”)
gh is another dragon to slay. Unlike ph, you can’t always count on it. When it is silent, it
often changes the sound of the vowel or vowel digraphs before it. That is, light spelled without
the gh would be lit, and ought without it would be out. Caught seems to be an exception;
without the gh it would still be caught. In a few other words, the g is pronounced and the h is
silent.

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For the Teacher
A small child will find this page too difficult. He might be helped to read only the one or two
easiest words in each section. Or read them for him one at a time and have him repeat them after
you.
Even a more advanced pupil cannot be expected to guess the pronunciation of these words if
they are new to him. ough has six different pronunciations (ō, awf, ŭf, ou, aw, o͞o). Read the
words to him and have him read them after you. Tell him this page is a collection of the worst
demons in the language. After this everything else is easy. For some reason the poor reader does
not seem to be particularly troubled by the different sounds of ough but he does confuse bought
and brought, for which there seems no excuse.

Words ending in le (әl)

page 32

To the Student
Now we come to words which have syllables ending in le. You remember that le is pronounced
әl. Notice that when there are two consonants before the le there is a short vowel sound in the
first syllable. If there is a single consonant before le, the vowel will be long. If there are two
vowels in the first syllable, the sound will be long anyway, as in steeple.

For the Teacher

Now is a good time to introduce the idea of the syllable, since we are starting on polysyllabic
words. After the learner reads the le words, show him that they have two syllables by
pronouncing them with a decided pause between syllables. Then say the following words and let
him repeat them and count the syllables on his fingers as he does so:

box berry afterwards transportation

automobile establishment disorganization

All remedial students will tell you that they do not understand about syllables; show them that
they speak in syllables whether they know it or not.
For the beginner one column of le words will be enough.

sh is spelled five ways

page 33

To the Student
On this page we see that the sh sound is written in five ways. sh in the middle of long words is
generally spelled ti, si, or ci. Partition has ti pronounced two different ways.

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 ch has three sounds
page 34
To the Student
ch is pronounced in three ways. In words from the Angle-Saxon, it has the ch sound; in Greek
words the k sound and it is sh in words of French origin. Also we hear the ch sound in words that
are not spelled with ch but with tu, as in future, etc.

For the Teacher

Chrysalis and chrysanthemum are put in for fun. Your student can read them if he proceeds
calmly. Tell him that chrys is a Greek root meaning “golden.” A chrysanthemum is a golden
flower. A chrysalis is a golden sheath. Have him read chrysanthemum three times by syllables
and then see if he can write it from memory, as he says the syllables. Since none of his friends
and few of his relatives can spell it, it will do a lot for his ego.

zh
page 34
To the Student
The zh sound has no rightful spelling of its own at all, and is written with an s or a z. If you are
spelling a word with this sound, remember it is never spelled with ss. Occasion could not be
spelled with two s’s.

A SPELLING RULE
page 35

For the teacher

Point with your pencil as you read the words. Make up brief sentences for each word, us “A
diner is one who dines,” and “Eat your dinner.”
Say, “If you want to turn pine into pining, you drop the e and add ing. The i still has its long
sound, pine, pining, and we also have pined, ending in d. Now if you start with pin, which has
the short sound of i (ĭ) and you want to turn it into pinning, you can’t just add ing or you come
up with pining, with the long sound of i (ī) again. So we put in another n and get pinning. This
second n makes the first i keep its short sound. Also we need two n’s to keep the short sound in
pinned.”
The same thing is true with hope and hop, dine and din. Repeat the explanation and have the
student read the words.
Teach the rules. The spelling rule is taught in school and means nothing to the child who
doesn’t know his long and short vowel sounds.

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 HOMONYMS
page 36

To the Student
Homonyms are words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different
meanings. Here are a few of the common ones. Now you can see why it is an advantage to have
more than one way to spell a sound. You can tell the meaning from the spelling.

Regular Irregularities
page 37

For the Teacher

This page contains eight phonograms that will clear up a lot of difficult words. These “regular
irregularities” occur very frequently. Our spelling follows a more regular patter than most people
realize, er pronounced air occurs only in accented syllables. Again, only the simpler words need
be read by a beginner.

To the Student

The endings of the words at the bottom of the page look as though they should have long vowel
sounds, but instead they have short ones.

COMMON WORDS WITH

STRANGE SPELLINGS

page 39

To the Student
Here are some of the very common words that don’t seem to be spelled, as they ought to be.
The first ten have a silent e on the end and still have short vowel sounds. These you will just
have to learn to read and spell. If you try to figure out what is irregular about them and how the
vowels are sounded (o says ŭ) and what the silent consonants are, it will help you to remember
them. You just have to accept the fact that these words are spelled strangely.

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 LONG WORDS
page 41

To the Student
By now you should be able to read almost any word that is in your speaking vocabulary. Here
are some long ones, which are divided into syllables and then printed as whole words. When you
meet long words like these, you will have no trouble with them if you just start at the beginning
and work through the word. You will find they are all made up of syllables that you recognize.
No one can take in a long word like transportation the first time he meets it in one swoop.
Instead, read it by syllables, think what it means, read it once more, and after that you will
recognize it at a glance.

For the Teacher

The student has been trained in the previous pages to read every one of these syllables. He
should not have to guess at the pronunciation or to sound them out letter by letter.
Explain to the student that when he meets a new word he may have to try more than one
vowel sound or more than one sound for ch. If he comes out with a pronunciation that is almost
right but not quite, the right pronunciation will probably come to mind at once. For instance, if
he read hospital with the ō sound, the right pronunciation would be easy to guess.

UNFAMILIAR WORDS
page 43

To the Student
Now you can read all the words in your speaking vocabulary. When you come to a word you
have never heard before you can read it except that you may not be sure where the accent is
placed, and then you have to consult a dictionary.
Here is a page of words that may not be familiar to you. They are written below, divided into
syllables with the accents marked. There is one important thing to remember—that the long
words in English normally come from the Latin. Their spelling is perfectly regular, and they are
made up of the same old syllables over and over again, so they are really very easy to read. Just
for fun, we have put down the two longest words in the language. If you can read them, you
should be awarded a diploma right here and now.

For the Teacher

These words are deliberately chosen as difficult ones that the student probably would not
understand. After he looks at the first six words, show him these same words divided into
syllables. Show him how different these words sound if you put the accent on some other
syllable. Try saying at mos´ phere, with the accent on the second syllable; it sounds quite
different from atmosphere.

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To the Student
In reading you will meet words whose meaning you do not know. If you take the trouble to
pronounce every new word you meet, you will build up your vocabulary rapidly.
People who have done a great deal of reading have learned the meaning of thousands of
words simply by guessing the meaning over and over again from the context, without ever
consulting a dictionary. If you come across some word, like truculent, several times and still
can’t figure out what it means, you will finally be driven by sheer curiosity to look it up.
Educated people, however, make a friend of the dictionary and consult it much more often than
the uneducated. An accurate vocabulary is the mark of an educated person.

A LAST NOTE TO THE TEACHER

This is as far in the system as many children will need to go. Have your student spend half an
hour reading long words in the dictionary to convince him that he is capable of anything, then
find the right book and let him read aloud.

Spelling
This book may be used as a speller. Go back as far as necessary, have the student read
selected words, then write them while he says the syllables, not the letters. Later you dictate
them to him. He should be able to teach himself the spelling of a new word by reading it once or
twice. In spelling he starts with the sounds of the spoken word and represents them with letters,
which is the opposite of the reading process. A person who reads with complete comprehension
of phonics learns to spell hundreds of words without practice. A list of the spelling demons that
require extra work is included at the end of the text. If you want your child to be a really good
speller, have him write a little bit every day. Tell him the words he asks for and have him keep
an alphabetical list. He should have the spelling demons handy to refer to like a dictionary.

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 Notes from Publisher: Donald L. Potter

These pages are from Reading: chaos and cure by Sibyl Terman (Mr. Walcutt’s sister) and
Charles Child Walcutt, McGraw Hill Book Co. Inc. 1958, pages 168 to 273. They are being
published on the www.donpotter.net website in the interest of making this excellent phonics
method available to a worldwide audience. The Internet version is made available for free
download in Adobe pdf format. Free online mp3 files are available for students wishing to teach
themselves to read with Through the Phonics Barrier.

The student material has been sized specifically for making transparencies so that the entire
program can be taught to both small and large classes using an overhead projector.

I appreciate Mrs. Walcutt for permission to publish her husband’s brilliant phonics method.
Reading: chaos and cure was first read by Donald L. Potter on 11/21/97. Through the Phonics
Barrier was typed into a Word document by Donald L. Potter, 11/19/02. Corrected 10/18/03.
Extensive Corrections 10/27/03. Revised again on 11/8/03. Formatting updated 5/7/09.

I have happy to report that hundreds of thousands of people have visited this document since I
first published it. Numerous parents and teachers have commented on the effectiveness of the
program expecially when used with my audio (mp3) instruction.

This document last updated 2/15/10.

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