Working with Contrastive Pairs of Words

Sometimes, a phonics guideline can become more focussed by means of a comparison between two words. A tutor/facilitator can point out the contrasting speech sounds in words, and their spellings, by putting the words next to each other, using the various media described above: pencil-and-paper, highlighter, cards, scissors, computer.

We may explicitly define a contrastive pair of words as follows:

A contrastive pair of words is a pair of words that are the same, except for a contrasting letter/sequence of letters, and a corresponding contrastive speech sound/sequence of speech sounds.

Here are some of the ways that people in community literacy programs told me that they used contrastive pairs of words:

  1. To work on difficult to hear/say sound differences, like the “i” and “e” sounds in “bit” and “bet”.
  2. To work on silent E and the vowel differences in pairs like PIN and PINE.
  3. To work on pairs which relate letters and sounds in unique ways, like WOMAN and WOMEN, WHO and HOW.

The use of contrastive pairs of words is illustrated in the case study which follows.

Case Study

An Evening at the Pharmacy Adult Basic Learning Centre Drop-In

When I walked into the drop-in, several students and a tutor were sitting around talking. As in many community literacy programs, it was difficult to tell who was a tutor and who was a student. It was just a group of people sitting around talking.

The people at the drop-in didn’t know who I was, and Sam, the staff person, wasn’t there to introduce me, but I was accepted, no questions asked. Effortlessly, I became one of the people taking part in the small talk.

More people came in. Eventually, there were about ten people sitting around the table.

Sam had been talking in another room with Jane, a tutor. When Sam and Jane came in, the work began. Sam reminded the students of the ongoing discussions about love that the group had been having. Then Sam handed out copies of the following poem, “I Have Lived and I Have Loved”, and led the students in the reading of the poem.

I have lived and I have loved;
I have walked and I have slept;
I have sung and I have danced;
I have smiled and I have wept;
I have won and wasted treasure;
I have had my fill of pleasure;
All these things were weariness,
And some of them were dreariness.
And all these things - but two things -
Were emptiness and pain:
And Love - it was the best of them;
And Sleep - worth all the rest of them.

Anonymous

Starting with Sam, everyone around the table read a line, tutors and students. People helped each other out. The poem was read three times. Because the number of lines in the poem didn’t match the number of people.