What is the first thing to do when a person cannot read a word?

Question

The answer to this question helps not only pronounce a word correctly, but aids in spelling, helps determine which part-of-speech that specific word is, and assists in figuring the meaning of the word.

Answer 1

When a student is struggling to read a word, it is important to identify why that is the case and provide decoding strategies to help that student in the future! Breaking the word into syllables can help a student understand what sound comes from each phoneme. More importantly, by breaking apart the syllables in a word, a student can understand how the vowel is stated (open, closed, vowel team, magic e, etc.).

Answer 2

It is also important to emphasize any silent letters present within the given word--namely: the silent letter 'e' at the ends of words which determines the shot vowel sound pronunciation at the beginning or middle of the given word itself; silent letters at the beginning of words--namely 'p', 't', 'g', and 'k' accordingly; as well as silent single letters or letter combinations/blends/pairs in the middle of words--namely "gh", "ea", "au", "ei", and each of their subsequent literary effects on/rules for how the word in which they are located in pronounced.

Teaching and learning different rules for spelling words can in turn help students remember how to read words that follow each of them, respectively, going forward. Of course, this is the English language we are talking about/reading here, so there will be tons of literary contradictions and rule bending along the way. ;)

Answer 3

When a person comes to a word she is not sure how to read, the student should focus first on the end of the word. Specifically, he should look for a suffix (-s, -ing…), the silent “e”, and final stable syllables       

(-ble, -tle, -sle…).