The Regularity of High-Frequency Words (Sight Words): Teacher Phonetic Knowledge is Key

Abstract

High frequency words, commonly referred to as sight words, are often a focus of emergent reading instruction. Instructional practices abound that require emergent readers to memorize the spelling and pronunciation of the words without drawing attention to grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) in the words. These approaches ignore a critical aspect of Ehri’s theory of orthographic mapping. This article reviews the literature on storing words in memory, in general, and the research on learning high frequency words, more specifically. Analyses of high frequency words on the widely used, Dolch list, are included that show the overwhelming regularity of the GPCs in these words. The analyses provide insight into the most common GPCs in these high frequency words, and they provide examples of GPCs that if taught, unlock the regularity of several other high frequency words. Discussion focuses practitioners gaining more advanced phonetic knowledge in order to better understand the orthographic regularity of high frequency words. Recommendations include supplementing traditional phonics programs for students with at least some advanced phonetic knowledge, ensuring practitioners have this level of knowledge in order to capitalize on teachable moments with high frequency words, and/or organizing classroom lists of high frequency more strategically.

Authors’ Contributions

Katharine Pace Miles, Ph.D., Department of Early Childhood Education, Brooklyn College, City University of New York; Denise Eide, CEO and Founder, Logic of English; Janee’ R. Butler, M.Ed., Senior Literacy Content and Training Specialist, The Center for Literacy & Learning.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).