1. MULTISYLLABIC WORD READING
CHAPTER 8
Study Guide
Compiled by
Betty Jo Willey

2. WHAT! Introduction to Chapter 8
Multisyllabic Word Reading
Explicit Instruction in recognizing syllables and morphemes is essential because it gives students additional strategies for reading longer words.
~Important Because
*Students often have difficulty with multisyllabic words.
*5th graders and beyond must know how to decode because most of the words they encounter will have
7 or more letters and have 2 or more syllables.

3. Brain Function = Pattern Detection
“To read words in text fluently and accurately, the
brain’s “orthographic” processor must learn to “see”
common letter patterns and recurring word parts.” (p. 260)
Pattern detection is key to recognizing syllables and morphemes.

4. Chunk it ! Don’t understand a big word?
Brain Function = Pattern Detection
Skilled Readers must be able to:
Recognize multi-letter patterns (syllables, affixes, phonograms)
Chunk it (break into smaller pieces) into parts as the reader perceives the word.
Use knowledge of common patterns found in other words.

5. Practice is Best…Intro Continued…
Key Definitions:
Syllable – A word or part of a word pronounced as a unit
Unit – part of a word with one vowel sound; may see more than
one vowel per unit/syllable – but always hear only one vowel sound
Syllabication – division of multisyllabic word into
separate syllables
b. What research says ~ Rules: To Know or Not To Know
Past Decades
NOW what researchers say
= about RULES….
Memorize rigid rules too many
----too complex
----knowing them doesn’t
necessarily improve students’ decoding skills
***Students learn they can be flexible in dividing a word into parts as long as they can ultimately make the word into a real and recognizable word.
(Archer et. Al. 2003, 2006)

6. Use syllable types and division principles
More Intro….How to Teach Students to Decode Longer Multisyllabic Words: 3 Research-based Approaches 1 2 3
Use syllable types and division principles
Identifying affixes or word parts
Using flexible syllabication strategies
***These approaches differ in how the words are broken down into decodable units…

7. Good Teaching Explained
In this Guide…
Section A
WHAT
Section B
WHY
Section C
WHEN
Section D
HOW
I Syllables
a. what they are
b. research says
Affixes I.
Important to know because:
II.
Research says
When to Teach
II When to Assess
III When to Intervene
Good Teaching Explained
Reading Open & Closed Syllables
Reading Multisyllabic Words (1-7)
1. VC/VC
2. VCV
3. Syllable Segmentation Strategy
4. Syllabic Procedure
5. Introducing Affixes
6. Flexible Strategy for reading big words
7.Root word Transformation
*these are not outlined in detail … refer to pp

8. SECTION A
WHAT

9. Section A. WHAT?...Part I. Syllables
What they are
(review from slide 5)
Syllable – A word or part of a word pronounced as a unit
Unit – part of a word with one vowel sound; may see more than
one vowel per unit/syllable – but always hear only one vowel sound
Syllabication – division of multisyllabic word into
separate syllables
6 Common Types of syllables
(in sequence for syllable-type instruction)
Closed Vowel Combination
Vowel Consonant e Consonant – le
Open r - controlled
(See p. 62 in text to study complete description & examples)

10. Syllable Types and (most useful) Division Principles
VC/CV
C/CV (75%)
VC/V (25%)
VC/CCV
VCC/CV
Consonant - le
2 consonants between 2 vowels
If 2 consonants come between 2 vowels, divide the consonants. The 1st vowel will be short.
rab-bit
1 consonant between 2 vowels
If a word has 1 consonant between 2 vowels, divide the word after the first vowel and give the vowel the long sound. If this division does not produce a recognizable word then divide the word after the consonant and give the vowel a short sound
mu-sic nap-kin
3 consonants between 2 vowels
Keep the letters in a consonant blend or digraph together in the same syllable.
hun-dred
ink-well
ath-lete
Consonant – le forms a separate syllable
If the first syllable end with a consonant, try the short sound of the first vowel. If the first syllable ends with a vowel, try the long sound.
wig-gle
ri-fle

11. b. What some researchers say… about Syllable Types
Webster regularized these syllable types to justify the division of syllables in his 1806 dictionary.
Moats: Knowledge of syllable types will help students remember how to pronounce vowels in new words.
Henry: Students should first practice the identification of syllable
Types in single syllable words before
Identifying the syllables in multisyllabic words.
Shefelbine & Newman called open and closed syllables the basic building blocks of polysyllabic words.
Sheflbine, Lipscomb & Hern found significant relationship between students’ sight knowledge of open & closed syllables and students’ ability to read multisyllabic words.

12. ….and what some researchers say about division principles
Carreker familiarity and flexibilty with syllable-division principles help students to develop strategies for reading longer words.
Chall & Popp “ The best way we teach and learn syllabication of long words is to be playful, correcting errors with cheer and laughing easily at humorous misleadings.
Canney & Schreiner Most syllable-division principles, rules and generalizations are not reliable and thus not worth teaching.
Moats These ([most useful] principles help novice readers see the chunks or patterns of letters in multisyllabic words and guide correct pronunciation.
Chall & Popp, Blevins …useful/reliable principles…worth pointing out…they do get readers closer to identifying a multisyllabic word by providing a way to approximate the pronunciation.

13. About dictionary-based syllabication rules
Use caution when looking up syllable breaks in a dictionary.
Most dictionaries divide words according to how a printed word should be broken into text
Sometimes has little to do with spoken pronunciation
(Moats 2005) Spoken language (reading?) divisions often do not coincide with the conventions for dividing written syllables.
Adams et al. What is important is that each unit is pronounceable (sounding out … sim-ple or simp le)

14. 4 other syllable division rules (worth mentioning..)
Divide 2 syllable compound words between the two smaller words.
Inflectional endings such as –ing, –er, –es, –ed, -est often form separate syllables.
Never separate the letters in a consonant or vowel digraph, vowel diphthong, or r-controlled vowel across syllable divisions.
One of the syllables in a multisyllabic word usually receives more stress, or emphasis. In 2 syllable words, the stress usually falls on the first syllable. In the unstressed syllable, the vowel sound is often reduced to a schwa.

15. Section A. WHAT?… Part II. Affixes.
What they are?
~Prefixes (added before a root word)
~Suffixes (added after a root word)
Definition:
~ Root word – also called base word; a single word that cannot be broken into meaningful smaller words or parts
Note: Syllable divisions often occur between morphemic (meaningful) units of meaning (word parts).

16. What researchers say about AFFIXES
Venezky, Chomsky, McFeely Teach students to use root words and affixes to decode multisyllabic words.
Note: Most divisions occur between morphemic units of meaning/word parts.
Shefelbine & Newman Affixes that function like syllables are worth teaching because they are limited in number, occur frequently, and (mostly suffixes) are reasonably consistent across words.
Cunningham said “instant recognition and accurate pronunciation of affixes is the key to decoding long words”
(Note: 80% of all words readers encounter have 1 or more affix.
Archer et al. Engelmann et al. Part by part strategy is when students are taught pronunciation of affix in isolation, asked to identify and say it in a word the n read the whole word
Archer et al. assumption: students will develop a strategy for attacking multisyllabic words because of extensive practice in reading long words and exposure to recurring letter patterns
Carnine et al. Part-by-word part strategy…should begin with the introduction of the most common suffixes.
-s, -er, -est, -ing, -le, -ed, -y

17. So…rather than using rigid rules… teach students to be F LEX IBLE (p
Segmenting multisyllabic words
Accuracy when students form consolidated connections between spellings of letter units or syllables
Break words into spoken syllables
Match spoken syllable to their spellings
Blend segments to form recognizable word
(Bhattacharya & Ehri, 2004)
Based on information that
1. high percentage of multisyllabic words contain at least one prefix or
or suffix
2. each syllable contains one vowel sound
Archer et. Al (2006)
TO ACHIEVE a close approximation to the actual pronunciation of a word, the program teaches students to segment words into parts by identifying the AFFIXES and then the vowel sounds in the rest of the word.

18. SECTION B
WHY

19. Section B. WHY?… Part I. Importance
Important to know about multisyllabic words because:
From 5th grade on, the average student encounters about 10,000 new words, most multisyllabic, per year!
Since the meaning of intermediate-grade CONTENT AREA reading is generally carried by multisyllabic words, without the ability to decode multisyllabic words, students are unable to understand vocabulary and understand the meaning of what they read.

20. Section B. WHY?… Part II. Research says…
Good readers = accurate multisyllabic word analysis and recognition
Poor readers = inaccurate multisyllabic word analysis and recognition…
which happens because the reader processes the individual
letters in the word rather that breaking the word into syllables….
(Bhattacharya, 2006, Mewhort and Beal, 1977, Scheerer-Neumann 1981)
Several studies have shown that teaching students strategies for decoding longer words improves their decoding skill (Archer et al.)
Low decoders
correctly pronounce fewer affixes and vowel sounds
disregard large portions of letter information
2 to 4 times more likely to omit syllables
(Shefelbine & Calhoun, 1991)
So…teaching strategies for decoding improves decoding ability and {improves reading?}

21. SECTION C
WHEN

22. Section C. Part I. When... To teach:
Instruction in multisyllabic instruction
can begin
after
students have mastered
the decoding of
Single-syllable words.
Other Prerequisites include the abilities to:
pronounce common sound/spelling correspondences
---especially vowel combinations
identify open and closed syllables
pronounce affixes in isolation
Ave # of syllables increases steadily in the primary grades.
Students are (by the end of)
1st grade – reading mostly
1 & 2 syllable words
2nd grade – reading mostly
2 syllable words
3rd grade – reading longer
multisyllabic words

23. Section C. Part I. When... To teach:
Older Struggling Students
(middle – high school students)
Mastered basic decoding but lack strategies to decode multisyllabic words
Struggle with content area words that are outside their vocabulary
Ironically – current research does not indentify/specify the amount of explicit instruction necessary for struggling students after third grade.

24. Section C. Part II. When… To Assess:
Begin assessment in multisyllabic word reading in mid-second grade in order to plan effective intervention.
Assessment should determine whether the deficit can be attributed to a bigger problem…

25. Section C. Part III. When...To Intervene
Assess mid-second grade in order to plan
Effective intervention…
“It is not clear form current research the amount of explicit multisyllabic word instruction necessary for struggling readers after third grade” (Torgesen et al. 2007).
Early Intervention!!!!

26. HOW (Good Teaching Ideas Outlined )
SECTION D
HOW
(Good Teaching Ideas Outlined )

27. Section D. Parts I & II HOW…To Teach
IDEAS TO USE
IN THE CLASSROOM
SEE CHPT 8 pp
Assess (pretest)
Introduce
Teach/Model
Guided Practice (monitor)
Application (independent practice)

28. THE END
Chapter 8
Study Guide 