4 Tips to Master the 44 Sounds in the English Language

The benefits of mastering the 44 sounds of the English language are far-reaching. Students who have secured these skills are primed to become strong readers who are well able to focus on comprehension rather than decoding. They've developed their phonemic awareness skills—the ability to hear and manipulate sounds, also known as phoneme, in spoken words—to the point of automaticity, and fluent reading follows.

Here are four ways we can help our students develop their proficiency with the 44 sounds of the English language: 

Follow a Specific Order of Sounds

The order in which sounds are presented to children directly affects how well and quickly they are able to secure their sound system. Often, students are taught sounds in alphabetical order since it pairs with teaching the alphabet; yet there’s a better way. 

Dr. Kay MacPhee, the author of Ooka Island, discovered there’s a more effective way to become proficient with the 44 sounds, and that’s by teaching the sounds in a specific order. She found that students quickly master sounds when beginning with the six sounds that are easiest to hear and blend (e.g., /m/,/s/, /oo/, /sh/, /ee/, and /aw/). Once they’ve gotten a handle on those sounds, they’re ready to begin learning ones that are more difficult (e.g., /d/, and /k/). Ooka Island introduces students to the 44 sounds in a carefully sequenced order to ensure they’re mastered.

Explicit Phonemic Awareness Instruction 

Direct, explicit phonemic awareness instruction is key to securing the 44 sounds so that students can learn to hear the single sound or phoneme.

As we’ve already identified, there’s an ideal order to teach the 44 sounds, and there’s a method to match it. Students should be introduced to one at a time, and learn to identify it among a group of other sounds. This method trains the brain to recognize the sound and quickly recall it. After learning to identify each sound, students need to quickly transition to an activity where they can connect the newly learned sound to its letter—just like they would when reading.

Maximize the Classroom Environment

Practice with rhyming, hearing and recognizing single speech sounds, connecting sounds with letters, breaking syllables and words into their individual sounds, and blending sounds together builds up the skills needed to be an efficient, capable reader.  

If you were to walk into a PreK-2 classroom, you want to find evidence of regular, phonemic awareness instruction, of about 15-30 minutes daily or at least several times a week, to help students solidify this important foundational reading skill. 

Look-fors include: 

• Teacher talk: asking questions and providing opportunities for students to secure their phonemic awareness skills by asking them to blend, segment, and identify sounds
• Songs, poems, chants, and games during whole-group and small-group instruction
• Independent learning and literacy centers that include digital programs and hands-on activities that promote oral language

Use a Digital Program

Using a digital program is a great way to teach phonemic awareness skills. A program that explicitly teaches the 44 sounds removes the burden from the teacher of knowing how to enunciate each sound and ensures all students are hearing the same sounds. An added bonus is that students can use headphones to listen carefully—free from environmental distraction. 

As students learn to master the 44 sounds, they’ll be able to use their knowledge to effortlessly decode words and instead turn their focus to the fun of reading: comprehension of a good text.

Scholastic F.I.R.S.T. leverages adaptive technology and game-based learning to teach beginning readers the 44 sounds in the English language and the more than 6,000 micro actions needed to become fluent readers.