Why is it is difficult for some students to learn how to read the English language?

Question

Learning to speak is natural while learning to read is not. The English language is a difficult language for these reasons:

1. Letter are symbols that represent sounds from left to right on a page.
2. In English language 1, 2, 3, and 4 letter can make a sounds(on, she, high, eight).
3. The same sound can be spelled in more than 1 way make, play, train, David
4. A spelling can represent more than 1 sound (team, steak, head).

There are also learning differences amongst learners with unique instructional needs. Progress looks different for every learner and progress is everything to the learner.

Answer 1

Exceptions to rules

There are lots of exceptions to rules. An example is the rule for remembering whether a word is spelled “ie” or “ei”: “i before e except after c” like “believe” and “receipt”. But there is also “science”, “weird” and “seize” There are irregular verbs, too, such as “fought”, which is the past tense of “fight”, while the past tense of “light” is “lit”.

The order of the words

More than one adjective is often used to describe a noun, but the order in which they are said can differ. We say “an interesting little book” not “a little interesting book”. Both are technically grammatically correct, but the first “just sounds right”.

Pronunciation

Words that end in the same combination of letters aren’t necessarily pronounced in the same way. “Trough” pronounced “troff”, “rough” pronounced “ruff”, and “through” pronounced “throo” There are also silent letters at the start of words. So many words begin with a silent “K”, such as “knife” or even a silent “G”, such as “gnome”.

Emphasis

The way in which you emphasize certain words in a sentence can subtly change its meaning. For example, consider the different ways of emphasizing the sentence below:

– I sent him a letter – a plain statement.

– I sent him a letter – used to imply that you sent him the letter – someone else didn’t send it (or “you didn’t send it, I did”).

– I sent him a letter – this could imply “I sent him a letter, but I’m not sure he received it”.

– I sent him a letter – used to imply that you sent him the letter – you didn’t send it to someone else (perhaps even “you weren’t meant to read it”).

– I sent him a letter – you sent him a letter, not anything else.

Homophones

Words that sound the same but have different meanings or spellings. Example: A bandage is wound around a wound (“wound”, pronounced “wowned” is the past tense of “wind”, as well as an injury when pronounced “woond”).