Tricky words что это
How to Teach Tricky Words
by Shirley Houston
Using letter-sound correspondences is the most reliable strategy for spelling and reading words, however, there are times when a student will come upon ‘tricky words’ and cannot rely on this strategy. These words are tricky because they cannot be spelled or read phonetically using the letter-sound correspondences known by the student. Often, teachers try to teach tricky words using repeated visual exposure – whole word imaging or memorising – but research indicates that this is not the most effective approach. This blog will discuss the flaws of the ‘whole word’ approach to the learning of tricky words and suggest more appropriate teaching/learning strategies.
Tricky Words or Irregular Words?
A word may be temporarily tricky. The student who has been taught only single-letter short vowel representations and the most common single-letter consonant representations will struggle to read and write some of the words commonly seen in basic sentences, such as ‘I’, ‘the’, ‘my’ and ‘was’. They will appear to be irregular to the student until the child is taught more of the advanced code.
Tricky words – high frequency but tricky to decode when a child has less of the phonics code.
Once the student has learned those letter-sound correspondences, the word will no longer be tricky or seem irregular. High-quality explicit synthetic phonics readers often list the temporarily tricky words they contain on the inside cover. These words are explicitly taught before the child reads the book.
Some words are permanently tricky. These are the irregular words (sometimes called ‘rule breakers’ or ‘exception words’). They cannot be completely encoded or decoded phonetically, even by advanced learners. However, only about 4% of English words have a completely irregular spelling, such as ‘eye’. Many irregular words are decodable except for just one letter. E.g. ‘friend’.
What Exactly are Sight Words?
As I once heard someone say,
‘Sight word’ is a goal, not a quality of a word.”
A sight word is essentially any word a person recognises automatically, without effort. It is not a word that has to be learned by visual rote memory. Words become sight words because of the number of times we see or write them in context. All words, regular and irregular, become sight words for competent readers.
Fluent readers appear to be ‘reading by sight’, using a straight visual-lexical pathway. Consequently, for many decades, teachers have been expected to teach their students a ‘sight word’ list, the most well-known being the Dolch and the Fry lists. These are actually lists of high-frequency words, the words most frequently seen in written text, therefore most likely to become ‘sight words’ first. The first 100 words from Fry’s list make up 50% of the words children read. Typically, teachers have taught children to learn and recall these words as wholes rather than to decode or encode them phoneme by phoneme. Children have been asked to memorise the word shape or salient visual features and have been ‘drilled’ with flashcards.
Some high-frequency words contain only standard letter-sound correspondences so are totally decodable and should not be taught as sight words.
Fry’s word list – words in red are perfectly decodable even before consonant digraphs are taught and should not be
taught as a ‘sight word’. The words ‘that’, ‘with’, ‘this’ and ‘when’ are perfectly decodable once digraphs are taught.
Others contain more advanced letter-sound correspondences and are tricky e.g. ‘was’ or ‘you’. Regular and irregular words on the sight word lists have been (and still are!) taught in exactly the same way – a nightmare for students with deficits in visual memory and/or rapid, automatic naming.
Flawed Practice
The practice of teaching words as whole words, be they regular or irregular, is flawed. Brain imaging studies undertaken since the 1990s have shown us that strong readers use the language and auditory centres of their brains as they read, decoding each sound so quickly that it appears instantaneous. They are not reading whole words – they are decoding the sounds in each word in milliseconds. According to Stanford research by Brian McCandliss, investigating how the brain responds to different types of reading instruction, beginning readers who focus on letter-sound relationships increase activity in the area of their brains best wired for reading (in the left hemisphere). In contrast, whole word learning is biased toward processing in the right hemisphere, the side of the brain that processes pictures and is typical of struggling readers. Read more here.
You need to teach about 44 sound-letter correspondences and the skills of blending and segmenting, for phonics to make it possible to read and write 95% of all words. How many sight words do you need to teach to make it possible to read and write 95% of all words? Learning one word as a whole word/shape does not help the student learn other words. Consequently, this practice is inefficient, time-consuming and frustrating for students. It encourages students to be ‘word guessers’ when a word is not automatically recognised. There are minor visual differences between some words e.g. ‘though’, ‘thought’ and ‘through’. Without using knowledge of sounds, it is difficult to memorise them and not mix them up. The fastest, most efficient and reliable way to learn sight words is with phonics.
Teachers should distinguish between words that can be completely decoded using letter-sound correspondences and those that cannot. Words that can easily be decoded and encoded phoneme by phoneme require less teaching time than the tricky, irregular words.
The irony of the teaching practice of presenting irregular words to be learned as unanalysed wholes is that exception words require more letter-sound and phonemic analysis than regular words, not less”.
David A.Kilpatrick, 2015, Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties
Naming and Identifying Tricky Words
I like to use the term ‘tricky’ rather than ‘irregular’ with young children when talking about words that cannot be fully sounded out, because, as I mentioned before, some are only temporarily tricky. The word ‘tricky’ is also more intriguing than ‘irregular’ because tricks are usually fascinating and something that a child would like to master. The Orton-Gillingham program refers to tricky words as ‘red words’. The red alerts the student to the fact that these words cannot be sounded out in full. The tricky bit is written in red and the rest of the word in green.
The tricky words chosen for teaching should be those most helpful for the immediate reading or writing of an otherwise decodable text. A school should move students through a sequence of tricky words that all teachers follow until the words are mastered. You can see the tricky words that Phonics Hero teaches in Part 1 and Part 2 of the program here. The number of words taught each week should reflect the student’s capacity for recall.
Tricky words should not be taught as whole units. Active analysis of words helps to put them into long term memory.
Steps for Explicit, Systematic Teaching of Tricky Words
Step 1: Read the tricky word to the student(s), then read it together. Say the word again, phoneme by phoneme, representing each sound with a counter in sound boxes. E.g:
Step 2: Identify the regular letter-sound-correspondences in the word. E.g:
Step 3: Identify the ‘tricky’ bit. In the word ‘many’, the short /e/ is represented by an ‘a’. Have the student(s) read then write the tricky word, using colour to highlight the tricky bit (red or a colour more meaningful to the student).
Step 4: If there is a reason for the unusual letter-sound correspondence that you are aware of, explain it. Explain the language origin, the etymology, the base word etc. E.g., ‘many’ is a short form of ‘manifold’ so is spelled like that word. English words don’t end in ‘i’ so the ‘i’ was changed to a ‘y’. The pronunciation of the ‘a’ was changed over the years.
Step 5: If appropriate, teach the student to use his ‘spelling voice’ in saying the tricky word, e.g. ’man-y’ (this is actually how some Irish people pronounce the word, so I get students to say it with an Irish accent!).
Step 6: Where needed, teach the student a mnemonic that will help him learn the tricky word. For example, there is a basket-shaped letter, ‘u’, in the middle of ‘buy’, which helps the student to remember that this homophone is associated with shopping.
Further Tips:
If there are other words with the same tricky pattern, teach these alongside the initial word, as a set. For example, if teaching ‘could’, teach ‘would’ and ‘should’. In the Dolch list, ‘could’ is assigned to Grade 1, ‘would’ to Grade 2. The word ‘should’ does not appear at all. This makes no sense. We want to help students to see letter patterns.
For some students, a tricky word is easier to remember if they draw a picture into it. E.g. the ‘o’ that isn’t heard in ‘leopard’ might be more easily remembered if there were lots of spots drawn on the named animal.
Developing Automaticity
Automaticity in encoding and decoding of tricky words is easiest to achieve when multi-sensory activities and opportunities to ‘overlearn’ are provided.
When the student feels that he is developing automatic recall, encourage the student to self-assess by looking, saying, covering, visualising and writing the word, saying the letters. He can then check what he has written by comparing it with the original.
We Can do Better with Tricky Words
The teaching of tricky or irregular words should be much more effective, efficient and interesting than the ‘Drill and Kill’ practice of teaching each irregular word as a whole, on its own, out of context and with no reference to phonics. Tricky words are an opportunity (or challenge) to do word study, to teach about the many layers in our words: sounds (phonology), spelling (orthography), meaningful parts (morphology), function in a sentence (syntax) and meaning (semantics).
10 tricky words in English & how to stop misspelling them
10 tricky words in English & how to stop misspelling them
Available in 30 languages:
Along with pronunciation and grammar, one of the biggest challenges for English language learners is vocabulary. You may not struggle with new words when speaking, but when the time comes to put them on paper, your spelling abilities are put to the test.
Although a beautiful and thoroughly awesome language (just check out these nine reasons why English rules), it isn’t the easiest to spell. Odd combinations of letters run amok and pronunciation is not always a loyal indicator of spelling – so it’s no wonder English learners (and native speakers!) sometimes struggle to write correctly.
We’ve rounded up ten of the trickiest words in English and provided tips that will help you stop misspelling them.
1. Necessary
What a pain! Is this devil of a word spelled with two “c’s”, two “s’s” or something in between? Resolve the conundrum by imagining yourself trying to put on a shirt with one sleeve. It isn’t easy, is it? Of course not – because it’s necessary for a shirt to have onecollar (the c!) and twosleeves (the s’s!).
2. Stationary vs. Stationery
These two words have completely different meanings: “Stationary” means not moving, whereas “stationery” refers to office supplies like pencils, erasers, paper, and envelopes. But how can you remember which one’s which? Take –ERY, the last part of “stationery”, as your clue: Now remember that the “e” is for erasers and envelopes – two very common pieces of stationery!
3. Separate
When we pronounce this word, it sounds like “seperate”. However, spelling it this way is wrong, wrong, wrong! Now, to never make that mistake again, think of a large, hairy rat. That’s an image that won’t get out of your head for some time! Just remember: there’s a rat in “separate”.
4. Affect vs. Effect
These homophones – words that sound alike but have different spellings and/or meanings – wreak havoc in essays across the globe! How do you remember which one to use? Look to the first letter of each word as your guide. “Affect” begins in “a” and refers to an action, while “effect” begins in “e” and refers to an end consequence.
5. Embarrassed
Embarrassed by not being able to spell this word? You’re not the only one! This is another case of double letters causing problems. This time, we need to remember the double “r” and “s”. To jog your memory, imagine a little boy who’s embarrassed by his sister’s terrible singing and think: “He goes really red when his sister sings.”
6. Compliment vs. Complement
A compliment is something positive that someone says about another person, whereas a complement is something that adds to or completes something else (for example, cheese is a good complement to wine). To remember which is which, look to their middle letter: The opposite of a compliment is an insult. On the other hand, a complement enhances something else.
7. Accommodation
Whew, another difficult double letters moment! To keep track of the two double letters in this word, try picturing yourself checking into a luxurious hotel room with two large beds. After all, the best accommodation has two double beds.
8. Rhythm
Ahh, rhythm. That tricky word devoid of vowels and with more “h’s” than usual. You’re not the only one who thinks it’s weird on the eye and hard on the memory. Now, imagine a dance floor full of dancers twisting to their hearts’ content and be a spelling pro with this easy mnemonic: “Rhythm helps your two hips move”.
9. Dessert vs. Desert
“Dessert” is far too similar to “desert” for most English language learners – and some native speakers too! Which word has the double “s”? Picture yourself indulging in a sumptuous chocolate cake, banana split, or sweet treat of your choice. Do you want more? We thought so! Get ready to add another “s”: When it comes to dessert, we always want a little bit more.
10. Dilemma
With all these spelling dilemmas, it’s only natural to learn this one! Very often, people drop the second “m” when spelling this tricky word. Pick it up and never let it go by remembering that “Emma has a dilemma.”
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Tricky words to pronounce in British and American English
We’re back with some more tricky words to pronounce in English. Hear how some English learners say them and then listen to how Vicki and Jay say them, in British and American English. It’s a fun way to improve pronunciation.
In this video you’ll learn the pronunciation and meaning of these words:
Mishap
Depth
Mishap
Posthumously
Choir
Asked
Onomatopoeia
Sword
Click here to see more pronunciation videos
Tricky words to pronounce in British and American English
Hi. We’re back with some more words that are difficult to pronounce in British English
And in American English.
Are you ready to try them?
Let’s get going.
Hello everyone! I’m Vicki and I’m British.
And I’m Jay and I’m American. We want to say thank you to everyone who has suggested words that are hard to pronounce.
You made some great suggestions and we’ve asked some English learners to try saying them for us
Yeah, here’s the first one. Let’s see how they did.
Ha! Oh dear, they’re all wrong.
This word is confusing.
Yeah.
Mishap? Mishap. Mishap? What’s this word?
She got it right the first time. It’s mishap. It’s an s sound, sss. Not sh.
And it means a small accident or mistake.
Yes, a mishap isn’t serious. It’s when something goes wrong, but it’s just a small thing.
He got it right.
Yes, he did well. He didn’t have a mishap with mishap.
Say it with us.
OK, what’s next?
Let’s see.
Oh dear, no no no no.
That was hard.
Yes. It’s a short word and you’ve got to say a lot of sounds very quickly.
They did well.
Yeah.
So what does depth mean?
It’s how deep something is, so the distance from the top of something to its bottom.
The depth of a swimming pool.
The depths of the ocean.
So you’ve got a p sound: p. And then you’ve got to move your tongue forward very quickly for the th sound.
Try saying it with us.
You know, I have hidden depths.
Really?
Yes, there are lots of interesting and unknown things about my character. I’m very deep.
Let’s see what’s next.
OK.
Oh. Posthumously.
Hmm. Posthumously.
Posthumously.
Posthumously. Posthumously.
Oh nearly, but they’ve all got the word stress wrong.
Posthumously? I don’t think I got that one.
Posthumously.
Posthumously.
So what does it mean?
OK. If something happens after someone’s death, it’s posthumous. Like someone might write a book and then die, and then they publish the book posthumously, so after their death.
Or heroes who died in battle might receive a posthumous medal.
Yes, and the stress is on the first syllable. Say it with us
Can we have a happier word now?
Yes, here’s a nice one.
Oh this is another hard one.
Yes.
Hey, she got it right!
Yeah. It doesn’t start with ch or sh sound. It starts with a kw.
So what does it mean?
A choir is a group of people who sing together. Like a church choir or a school choir.
Let’s show everyone.
[choir singing]
Wow, we’re good!
Yeah, let’s do that again!
[choir singing]
OK, say the word choir with us.
OK, what’s next?
Let’s see.
Ah, that’s not right!
It should just be one syllable, right?
Yes, and it ends with a t sound… t.
So we write E-D but we say T?
That’s right. It happens in the past tense when verbs end with an unvoiced sound.
We should make another video about that.
It’s on my list. We will.
Good. So subscribe to our channel everyone so you don’t miss it.
And we say the word ‘asked’ a little differently in American and British English.
See if you can hear the difference.
So in British English we say ‘ah’.
And in American English we say ‘a’.
This happens with quite a few words, like bath.
Bath.
Banana.
Banana.
So you can choose. You can say asked or asked.
Say it with our learners.
What’s next?
We’ve got a long word now.
Errr. Ono…Onomatopoeia. I don’t know.
Onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia. I don’t know.
Onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia.
They nearly got it.
Yes, what does this word mean?
It’s when you use words that sound like their meanings. Like the word hiss sounds like a hiss. SSSss
Or the beep sound your cell phone makes. Beep beep.
Or how buzz sounds like buzzing.
Onomatopoeia.
Great.
Onomatopoe… Onomatopoeia.
Fantastic!
They did a great job!
Yes. It’s all about getting the rhythm right. ONomatoPOEIa.
So how many syllables does it have?
ON-oh-mat-oh-PEE-a – six!
And the main stress is on PEE.
Yes, and there’s a secondary stress on ON. Here’s how we say it.
What’s that trick you use for pronouncing long words?
It’s called backchaining. You start at the back and then work forward. Try it with me.
-a.
PEE-a.
to-PEE-a.
ma- to-PEE-a.
o- ma- to-PEE-a.
ON-o- ma- to-PEE-a.
Did it help you say it? OK, let’s do one more word.
Another hard one?
Yes!
Nice tries but the W should be silent.
Now they got it right.
So what’s a sword?
It’s a weapon with a long metal blade and a handle.
There’s a famous saying. The pen is mightier than the sword.
Yes, it means words are more powerful than physical force, because you can change people’s opinions with words.
Yes, and it’s easier to write with a pen than with a sword.
We want to say a big thank you to all the learners who helped us make this video. You were very generous and such fun to work with.
And you were very good sports.
Yes. We should explain what being a good sport means?
If someone is a good sport then they are pleasant and cheerful, even in a difficult situation.
And we gave them some difficult words to say.
If you have any suggestions for more difficult words, write and tell us in the comments.
Maybe we can make another video about them.
And if you’ve enjoyed this video, please share it with a friend.
And don’t forget to subscribe to this channel.
Bye everyone!
Bye-bye.
Click here to see more pronunciation videos
прилагательное ↓
Мои примеры
Словосочетания
Примеры
She is a tricky devil, so be careful. 
Она — хитрая чертовка, так что будьте осторожны.
The lock is tricky to open.
Этот замок сложно открыть.
It can be tricky at first, but persevere.
Поначалу, наверное, будет сложно, но всё равно нужно продолжать.
She handled that tricky situation like an old pro.
Она разрешила эту непростую ситуацию, как видавший виды профессионал.
That was a tricky ball he served to me, there was no hope of returning it.
Он сделал очень хитрую подачу, не было практически никаких шансов отбить её.
I can get you tickets for the show but it’ll be tricky.
Я могу достать вам билеты на этот спектакль, но будет непросто.
This is a tricky corner; we must ease the piano round, not push it.
Тут острый угол, нам надо обнести пианино, а не толкать его.
He was seen by a shepherd, gamely negotiating a particularly tricky section of the mountain road to San Doloroso.
Некий пастух видел его, когда тот бодро пробирался по особенно коварному участку горной тропы, ведущей в Сан-Долоросо.
Примеры, ожидающие перевода
Hanging a door is quite a tricky job.