Building a Strong Sight Vocabulary
What are sight words?
There are two commonly recognized lists of sight words; the Dolch list and the Fry list.
- Sight words, which are also called high frequency words, are words that are found frequently in age appropriate text. Children are encouraged to memorize sight words and phrases to help increase their fluency.
- It is important to start learning sight words at an early age, because "studies indicate that when students get off to a poor start in reading, they rarely catch up" (Kelly & Campbell, n.d.).
There are two commonly recognized lists of sight words; the Dolch list and the Fry list.
Dolch List
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Fry Word List
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Are there different stages of sight vocabulary development?
Linnea Ehri developed a four phase model for sight word recognition.
Linnea Ehri developed a four phase model for sight word recognition.
- Phase One: Prealphabetic- Connections are made with a visual aspect of the word (the "eyes" in look).
- Phase Two: Partial Alphabetic- Generally reached in kindergarten and first grade, students begin to recognize the sound to symbol relationship, which is usually the first and last letters and their sounds.
- Phase Three: Full Alphabetic- Students begin to recognize the phoneme / grapheme connection in conventional spelling. Students can begin to decode unfamiliar words by sounding them out.
- Phase Four: Consolidated Alphabetic- Students begin to remember common spelling patterns and also automatically recognize syllables in multisyllabic words.
Why is a strong sight vocabulary important in reading comprehension?
Students who have a strong sight vocabulary are fluent readers. Fluent readers are able to decode and comprehend at the same time. Fluency is comprised of three component skills; accuracy, automaticity, and prosody.
The size of a reader's sight word vocabulary does impact the reader's fluency, which in turn has an affect on the comprehension of the text.
The Automaticity Theory of Reading Fluency
The Automaticity Theory of Reading basically states that our brain has a limited capacity to do more than one operation at a time. Because fluent readers are required to decode and comprehend at the same time, one of the tasks must be automatic for the reader. If a student has a strong sight vocabulary, the reader does not have to focus on decoding each word; therefore the reader can focus on comprehension.
Coyne, Kami'enui, and Carnine have compared the development of word recognition to a traffic bottleneck on a highway. They explain that when students are having difficulty learning the process of word recognition, they are like cars on a highway, which regardless of power or speed, must slow down and pass through a bottleneck. Once through the bottleneck, all cars can resume their original power and speed. Similarly, once a child learns how to recognize the words they read commonly in text, comprehension can become a major contributor to their understanding of the text. They no longer need to slow down to decode each word (2010).
Students who have a strong sight vocabulary are fluent readers. Fluent readers are able to decode and comprehend at the same time. Fluency is comprised of three component skills; accuracy, automaticity, and prosody.
- Accuracy of decoding can be accomplished either because the word is part of the sight vocabulary of the reader or because the reader is using a decoding strategy.
- Automaticity of word recognition is the ability to recognize words automatically, with little cognitive effort. (The reader can focus on meaning instead of on decoding.)
- Prosody of oral text reading sounds natural. This can include suitable volume, stress, pitch, and intonation.
The size of a reader's sight word vocabulary does impact the reader's fluency, which in turn has an affect on the comprehension of the text.
The Automaticity Theory of Reading Fluency
The Automaticity Theory of Reading basically states that our brain has a limited capacity to do more than one operation at a time. Because fluent readers are required to decode and comprehend at the same time, one of the tasks must be automatic for the reader. If a student has a strong sight vocabulary, the reader does not have to focus on decoding each word; therefore the reader can focus on comprehension.
Coyne, Kami'enui, and Carnine have compared the development of word recognition to a traffic bottleneck on a highway. They explain that when students are having difficulty learning the process of word recognition, they are like cars on a highway, which regardless of power or speed, must slow down and pass through a bottleneck. Once through the bottleneck, all cars can resume their original power and speed. Similarly, once a child learns how to recognize the words they read commonly in text, comprehension can become a major contributor to their understanding of the text. They no longer need to slow down to decode each word (2010).
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