High-frequency sight words (also known as sight words) are commonly used words that young children are encouraged to memorize as a whole by sight so that they can automatically recognize these words in print without having to use any strategies to decode.[1] Sight words were introduced after whole language (a similar method) fell out of favor with the education establishment.[2]
The term sight words are often confused with sight vocabulary, which is defined as each person's vocabulary that the person recognizes from memory without the need to decode for understanding.[3]
However, some researchers state that two major concerns with sight words are:
(1) memorizing sight words is labour intensive, requiring around 35 trials per word,[4] and
(2) teachers who focus solely on teaching sight words while neglecting phonics instruction are making it harder for children to "gain basic word-recognition skills" that are critically needed by the end of the third grade and important to be used over a lifetime of reading.[5]
Recognizing sight words automatically account for a large percentage (up to 75%) of the words used in beginning children's print materials.[6] [7] The advantage of children being able to recognize sight words automatically is that the child will be able to identify the majority of words in a beginning text before they even attempt to read it; therefore, allowing the child to concentrate on understanding the meaning as they read without having to stop and decode every single word.[6] Advocates of whole-word instruction believe that being able to recognize numerous sight words gives students a better start to learning to read.
Automatically, recognizing sight words is said to be beneficial for beginning readers because many of these words have unusual spelling patterns and cannot be sounded out using basic phonics knowledge and also lack visual representation. For example, the word "was" does not follow a usual spelling pattern, as the middle letter "a" makes an pronounced as //ɒ~ʌ// sound and the final letter "s" makes a pronounced as //z// sound, nor can the word be associated with a picture clue since it denotes an abstract state (existence). Another example is the word "said", It breaks the phonetic rule that ai normally makes the long a sound, ay. In this word, it makes the short e sound of eh.[8] The word "said" is pronounced as /s/ /e/ /d/, the word "has" also breaks the phonetic rule of s normally making the sss sound. In this word, the s makes the z sound, /z/" and the word is then pronounced /h/ /a/ /z/.
However, a 2017 study in England compared teaching with phonics to teaching whole written words and concluded that phonics is a more effective approach, saying "our findings suggest that interventions aiming to improve the accuracy of reading aloud and/or comprehension in the early stages of learning should focus on the relationships present in print-to-sound relationships, rather than attempting to teach the meanings of whole written words".[9]
Most advocates of sight-words believe children should memorize the words. However, some educators suggested that a more efficient method is to teach them by using an explicit phonics approach, perhaps by using a tool such as Elkonin boxes. As a result, the words form part of the students sight vocabulary and are readily accessible and aid in learning other words containing similar sounds.[10] [11]
Other phonics advocates such as the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI-USA), the Departments of Education in England, and the State of Victoria in Australia, recommend that teachers first begin by teaching children the frequent sounds and the simple spellings, then introduce the less frequent sounds and more complex spellings later (e.g. the sounds /s/ and /t/ before /v/ and /w/; and the spellings cake before eight and cat before duck).[12] [13] [14] [15] The following are samples of the lists that are available on the CCSSI-USA site:[16]
| Phoneme | Sample only - Word Examples (Consonants) (CCSSI-USA) | Common Graphemes (Spellings) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| /m/ | mitt, comb, hymn | m, mb, mn | |
| /t/ | tickle, mitt, sipped | t, tt, ed | |
| /n/ | nice, knight, gnat | n, kn, gn | |
| /k/ | cup, kite, duck, chorus, folk, quiet | k, c, ck, ch, lk, q | |
| /f/ | fluff, sphere, tough, calf | f, ff, gh, ph, lf | |
| /s/ | sit, pass, science, psychic | s, ss, sc, ps | |
| /z/ | zoo, jazz, nose, as, xylophone | z, zz, se, s, x | |
| /sh/ | shoe, mission, sure, charade, precious, notion, mission, special | sh, ss, s, ch, sc, ti, si, ci | |
| /zh/ | measure, azure | s, z | |
| /r/ | reach, wrap, her, fur, stir | r, wr, er/ur/ir | |
| /h/ | house, whole | h, wh |
| Phoneme | Sample only - Word Examples (Vowels) (CCSSI-USA) | Common Graphemes (Spellings) |
|---|---|---|
| /ā/ | make, rain, play, great, baby, eight, vein, they | a_e, ai, ay, ea, -y, eigh, ei, ey |
| /ē/ | see, these, me, eat, key, happy, chief, either | ee, e_e, -e, ea, ey, -y, ie, ei |
| /ī/ | time, pie, cry, right, rifle | i_e, ie, -y, igh, -I |
| /ō/ | vote, boat, toe, snow, open | o_e, oa, oe, ow, o- |
| /ū/ | use, few, cute | u, ew, u_e |
| /ă/ | cat | a |
| /ĕ/ | bed, breath | e, ea |
| /ĭ/ | sit, gym | i, y |
| /ŏ/ | fox, swap, palm | o, (w)a, al |
| /ŭ/ | cup, cover, flood, tough | u, o, oo, ou |
| /aw/ | saw, pause, call, water, bought | aw, au, al, (w)a, ough |
| /er/ | her, fur, sir | er, ur, ir |
A number of sight word lists have been compiled and published; among the most popular are the Dolch sight words[17] (first published in 1936) and the 1000 Instant Word list prepared in 1979 by Edward Fry, professor of Education, and Director of the Reading Center at Rutgers University and Loyola University in Los Angeles.[18] [19] [20] [21] Many commercial products are also available. These lists have similar attributes as they all aim to divide words into levels which are prioritized and introduced to children according to frequency of appearance in beginning readers' texts. Although, many of the lists have overlapping content, the order of frequency of sight words varies and can be disputed as they depend on contexts such as geographical location, empirical data, samples used, and year of publication.[22]
Research indicates that the alphabetic principle is considered “the primary driver” of development of all aspects of printed word recognition including phonic rules and sight vocabulary."[23] In addition, the use of sight words as a reading instructional strategy is inconsistent with the dual route theory as it involves an out-of-context memorization rather than the developing phonological skills.[24] Instead, it is suggested that children must first learn to identify individual letter-sound correspondences before blending and segmenting letter combinations.[25] [26]
Proponents of systematic phonics and synthetic phonics argue that children must first learn to associate the sounds of their language with the letter(s) that are used to represent them, to blend those sounds into words, and that children should never memorize words as visual designs.[27] Using sight words as a method of teaching reading in English is considered as being at odds with the alphabetic principle and treating English as though it were a logographic language (e.g. Chinese or Japanese).[28]
Some notable researchers have clearly stated their disapproval of whole language and whole-word teaching. In his 2009 book, Reading in the brain, French cognitive neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene wrote, "cognitive psychology directly refutes any notion of teaching via a 'global' or 'whole language' method.” He goes on to talk about "the myth of whole-word reading", saying it has been refuted by recent experiments. "We do not recognize a printed word through a holistic grasping of its contours because our brain breaks it down into letters and graphemes."[29] Another cognitive neuroscientist Mark Seidenberg, says that learning to sound-out typical words such as have (/h/-/a/-/v/) helps the student to read other words such as had, has, having, hive, haven't, etc. because of the sounds they have in common.[30]