Reading For Sure
THE 'PROVEN SYSTEM' FOR READING ENGLISH
Before beginning as a reading tutor, it's important that you understand the mechanics of reading. This knowledge about the English alphabet is necessary if we want to read successfully.
The alphabet contains 26 letters, A to Z. 21 of these letters are referred to as consonants. They are B C D F G H J K L M N P Q R S T V W X Y Z ; the remaining five are called vowels A E I O U.
Each letter, when it is written, is called a grapheme (where the 'picture' or shape is recognised as a distinct letter). The name given to each grapheme when writing English is a spelling name. We recite them as "ai bee cee dee ee ef gee aich eye jay kay ell em en oa pea queue are ess tee you vee doubleyou ex why zed."
For pronouncing English speech, each letter is called a phoneme (the actual sound you make). Each phoneme is given the name of the sound it makes in speech. The sound at the beginning of alligator is A, the beginning sound of baby is B not 'bee', C, not 'cee' . is the sound at the beginning of cup.
In English speech words are usually made up of consonants with a vowel in between the consonants as in the words 'cat' 'dog' ' cup' 'milk' 'when'. In most languages the letters that make up the words tell you exactly how to pronounce the word in speech. This is not so in English. The written vowels, especially make it difficult to read because the five graphemes that are vowels can be combined in various ways without telling us how to pronounce the word. For instance ‘o’ and ‘u’ when combined as 'ou' can be pronounced differently in words such as 'touch' 'though' ' bough' and 'court'. As we come across written words that have more and more letters, they become harder to pronounce. Because English is so difficult many students never pronounce the words: they then lose the meaning of what they are reading and they give up because reading English becomes too hard for them.
Now all those difficulties can be overcome by The Solomon Method: Reading for Sure. A simple pronunciation code which over marks existing print gives the pronunciation of all the words in the English language without having to open a dictionary!
Work in the fields of education and clinical psychology has provided evidence of an increasing number of people who are illiterate as a result of an inability to cope with the ambiguity (lack of clarity) between English spelling and its pronunciation.
While English is a notable exception, languages generally reduce ambiguity in pronunciation by using diacritical marks. These are combinations of dots, strokes and curves superimposed on letter characters (for example the acute accent in French) to denote the exact pronunciation of the letter.
Studies in remediation of English reading have shown that the most successful remedial methods are those which are based on phonic (sound) analysis. The research has shown that use of diacritical marks is the most effective of phonic approaches. However, the effect is maximised only if each potentially ambiguous vowel and diphthong sound in English is differentiated by its own distinctive visual sign. It was therefore desirable to produce a simple correspondence between the sound and its grapheme symbol.
The Solomon Method is an analytic/phonic system based on a diacritical marking code which differentiates eighteen English vowel and diphthong sounds. It has the effect of reducing the mental effort required for memorising or for guessing words which are ambiguous in pronunciation. It enables pupils to decode words by using the phonic cues given by the signs as well as the aphonic cues that come from memory and context.
This simplified method of word attack leads to more independent, accurate reading and to the likelihood of a sustained interest in reading.
For an increasing proportion of people, the use of marked texts as devised by the Solomon method is an essential first step to reading and, therefore, to literacy.
World Literacy International is making the Solomon Method available to the reading public through the Reading for Sure program. It can be applied in individual teaching or to groups of adults and children and with all pupils who have special needs, including those learning English as a second language. It will be disseminated through tutors who become accredited users of Reading for Sure by enrolment in training courses conducted by World Literacy International and by the study of this manual and associated materials.
The Solomon Method
A marking system that
takes the 'Guess Work' out
of English pronunciation!