Working with Key Words

A final basic technique for working with phonics in the community literacy programs is the use of key words. We may define “key word” as follows:

A key word is a memorable word which a learner uses to remember a phonics guideline.

Key words are a very old technique. They are the principle behind alphabet books, which match pictures, words that refer to the pictures, and the beginning letters of the words.

In alphabet books, key words that are considered to be interesting to children are chosen. The key words that are used in the community literacy programs are words that come from discussion with the adult students, or words that are important in the learner’s lives. So, as with word families, key words can be a way of linking phonics work to meaningful language.

In the community programs that work with ESL literacy students as well as students whose first language is English, key words are used extensively by the ESL literacy students. Word families are harder for students who are just beginning to develop their English vocabulary.

At the Self-Directed Studies Program in Scarborough, the staff person, Alimamy, usually works in the following way with a new ESL literacy student.

1. He identifies words that are important to the student. For example, a person who is trying to get into Ontario Housing, and who needs to fill out the application forms, may be interested in words like NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, and other application form words. She may also be interested in words like HOUSING, APARTMENT, etc.
2. He helps the students to identify the words. He works with them on sight words.
3. He helps the student to identify sequences of letters that correspond to syllables: NUM - BER.
4. He uses the words as key words for easier-to-hear sounds. What is an easy-to-hear sound will vary according to the student’s first language. But, for example, NUMBER might become a key word for the phonics guideline N = “n”.
5. Sometimes students find it useful to associate a visual image with the key word, for example, the number on the apartment door with NUMBER.

In work with students whose first language is English, the systematic use of key words is not common, but it can be an important technique for beginning readers. For example, a student who had difficulty identifying letter shapes until he learned these shapes by studying key words in a picture dictionary. One literacy worker has discovered that, for people who work well with sound information, it is sometimes useful for her to make audio tapes of letter names and letter sounds for key words. On these tapes, she will say a letter name, then a sound for that letter, then a word beginning with that sound. Sometimes, she will leave room on the tape for the learner to record himself reading this sound information.

From these examples, it can be seen that, like working with word families, working with key words will involve different uses of information for words by different learners. The picture dictionary technique emphasizes sight information, using visual images, pictures for words, to elicit sound information for words. The audio tape technique emphasizes sound information, and, when students speak into the tape, it also uses speech information.

The most frequent use of key words in community literacy programs is the spontaneous use of relevant, important words to help students to remember phonics information, or to introduce phonics information. These relevant, important words will come from group work, from discussion about issues in the students’ lives, and from students’ work with written language. An example of this is in the earlier case study, Nancy’s use of “Maggie”, the name of a student in the Interesting Group, as the starting point for work on words beginning with M and words beginning with M-A.