OnTrack Reading

In the first page on multisyllable decoding, I stated a basic rule along with three exceptions. They are repeated below for easy reference.

The rule is:

Stop each chunk after the vowel sound and try the First Vowel Sound.

The three exceptions are:

Add the next sound to the chunk if it is a doubled consonant.

Add the next sound to the chunk if it is a marker.

Add the next sound to the chunk if the following chunk is “hard to say“.

I also said that preparation was necessary for your child to understand what you mean when you introduce this rule and its exceptions.

In Multisyllable Decoding-2 I explained the terminology First Vowel Sound. Here in Multisyllable Decoding-3, I’ll explain the use of the three exceptions.

Exception #1

Add the next sound to the chunk if it is a doubled consonant.

A series of four worksheets are used in the OnTrack Reading curriculum to prepare your child to completely understand the use of this rule. The first three involve adding the suffixes ing, er and y to what are called in the curriculum vowel+e words. Examples of these words are tape, theme, time, zone and cute.

When a suffix beginning with a vowel is appended to a vowel+e word, we drop the e and add the suffix. Thus, time becomes timing or timer, and slime becomes slimy. The three worksheets are discussed and can be downloaded on the Guide Page Adding Suffixes to Split Vowels.

After a child sees these three worksheets, he’s shown the worksheet where the suffix ing is added to a word containing a first vowel sound such as hop, or slip. During this worksheet, he’s shown how just adding ing to hop results in hoping (as in the first worksheet) and is led to understand that this is why we double the ending consonant before adding ing, er or y to a word containing the first vowel sound. This worksheet is discussed and can be downloaded on the Guide Page Adding Suffixes to CVC Words.

This leads to the first exception to the rule of stopping a chunk after the vowel sound. Since doubled consonants were specifically devised to preserve the first vowel sound in a word, we add it to the chunk and thereafter assume that the chunk with the doubled consonant will remain unchanged. It will contain a first vowel sound within it.

Depending upon the age of the child, it at some point becomes necessary to point out that two common exceptions occur. One is the spelling “oll” which can contain either a first or second vowel sound (dollar, roller) and the second is the spelling “all” which can contain either a first or third vowel sound (mallard, taller.)

Exception #2

Add the next sound to the chunk if it is a marker.

Four markers are defined as a child moves through the early phase of the curriculum and encounters one-syllable words like duck, sketch, box and badge. The markers are ck, tch, x and dge in one-syllable words and are defined as always following a first vowel sound. In other words, when a child sees a marker, he will also see one of the letters a, e, i, o or u in front of it, and it will almost always be the first vowel sound in that word.

The only modification necessary to use markers in multisyllable words is to explain that the dge marker becomes just dg, because the e is needed for the vowel sound in the next chunk. For example compare badge with badg-er and budge with budg-et.

The worksheet used to train your child to find markers is discussed and can be downloaded on the Guide Page First Vowel Sound Markers.

Exception #3

Add the next sound to the chunk if the following chunk is “hard to say“.

This was discussed already in the Page Multisyllable Decoding-1. Here is the relevant section of that Page:

One important exception occurs, however. When the next spoken syllable would have to begin with an awkward blend, then one or even two consonant sounds are tacked on naturally to the preceding syllable. Thus, constantly is broken in spoken syllables not as co-nsta-ntly, but rather as con-stant-ly because nst is not a permitted blend in English. Nor are ntl, nor tl, so both the n and the t have to be moved to the preceding spoken syllable.

These breaks happen quite naturally in spoken syllables because only a certain limited number of consonant combinations are used to begin English words, and this limitation extends to the internal syllables as well. Any child, completely unaware of any syllable rules, will tend to naturally chunk constantly as con-stant-ly once he knows what you mean by asking him to break the word up into chunks. Orally, co-nsta-ntly will never occur to him, nor will con-stan-tly.

Because of that last line, that the awkward chunking will never occur to him, it is quite easy to teach a child to “re-chunk” the previous chunk when he is having trouble pronouncing the beginning of the following chunk. Technically, he’s encountering an illegal blend in English, but that’s too deep a concept for a six year old. It suffices to have him explain to you that it’s hard to say, so he’s moving a sound to make the next chunk easier to say.

A Consistent Thread Among the Three Exceptions

Note this about all three of the exceptions. All of them remove from a following chunk an element that normally is not used to begin a word in English.

Thus, exception #1 removes doubled consonants from the start of a chunk and English words don’t start with doubled consonants generally.

Meanwhile, exception #2 removes the elements ck, tch, dg and x, all of which are never found at the beginning of English words (except x in certain contrived names, but not in common words.)

And exception #3 by design removes elements specifically because they form part of an illegal blend at the start of English words.

The Payoff

Once a child has learned to chunk multisyllable words in this manner, he can gradually be trained to understand that the chunks formed with exceptions need not be retested. In nearly all cases, if he fails to derive the correct word in the first attempt at decoding a long word, he should look at the chunks that still end with vowel sounds and try second and third vowel sounds in an organized manner until he figures out the word. With a very large percentage of multisyllable words, he will derive the correct word in either the first or second attempt at the word. As he begins to experience this level of success, he will gradually change his strategy from guessing to organized decoding.

And I believe that this is the key to the success of this approach. Your child, properly trained in the method, will experience a high enough success rate in reading unfamiliar multisyllable words that he will decide to dump the guessing strategy because he’s found something that works better. If you’ve already tried another multisyllable decoding approach and he’s still guessing, it’s because the other method did not give him the confidence he needed to discard the guessing strategy, and so eventually he reverted to it as a primary strategy.

Some words are challenging, no matter what method is used, and it is not the end of the world if a child has to ask “what’s this word, anyway?” Better yet, he can be trained to use the dictionary, or, I suppose in time, just type it into his computer and press the pronounce key. But no matter how useful such a key would be, just as it’s a pain to use the dictionary several times a page in complex text, so too it will prove to be a pain to have to read with a computer at your side to pronounce unknown words. The far better solution is to give your child the proper tools to efficiently decode most of the multisyllable words he will encounter, assuming they are in his listening vocabulary already.

If you have reached this point in the multisyllable discussion and have a child you want to teach using the method described here you now have two choices. If your child’s only decoding weakness is that he is uncomfortable with unfamiliar multisyllable words, you can continue on through the next four pages on the Guide where you will find all of the necessary word lists as well as links to prerequisite worksheets. You can download these and follow the instructions on these pages.

However, a better alternative if your child also needs to learn the advanced code is to purchase a copy of the OnTrack Reading Advanced Code Workbook that is now available from the publisher lulu.com. You will also need the instruction manual which you can download free from the link above, or you can order a bound copy of the instruction manual from lulu.com when you order the workbook. The Advanced Code Workbook contains the complete multisyllable decoding method described here along with all the worksheets and comprehensive lessons for teaching the advanced code in one-syllable words. The instruction manual for the workbook explains, in detail, how I present the OnTrack Reading Curriculum in my client sessions.

Next: Decoding 2-Syllable Words, or return to the OnTrack Reading Home Page