BASIC SIGHT WORDS

A sight word is any word that can be pronounced on its own without one being aware of analysing it (McKenna and Stahl, 2009:100). The words in sight-word reading are read from the learner‟s memory and not from a learner‟s conscious mind. The learner makes use of decoding and blending operations in the memory when reading sight words (Gaskins, 2005:163).The words in sight-word reading are read from a learner‟s memory, and the learner makes use of decoding and blending operations in their memory when reading these sight words (Gaskins, 2005:163).

Learners might be unable to read some or all of the basic sight words. These words make up to 50 to 70% of the words in most of the reading material used. One of the examples is words with similar beginnings: when, where and what – or this, that or those (Ekwall and Shanker, 1993:47).

According to Haager, Dimino and Windmueller (2007:220), high-frequency words are recognised on sight. A high frequency word is a word that is immediately recognised as a whole and without any analysis. The more high frequency words learners know, the more fluently they will read. They do not have to stop to figure out unknown words, and this will also improve their comprehension skills. High-frequency words, for example: them for then, was for saw, their for there are mostly confused. They can be visually similar.

Haager, Dimino and Windmueller (2007:220) and Broun and Oelwein (2007:48) recommend the following procedures for the learning of high-frequency sight words.  The teacher can give a word list of high-frequency words or create a word wall

from the high-frequency words as they come upon during contextual reading in the class.The learner reads the words from the lists or wall.

 Five to seven words can be added to the word wall weekly, and practised as a group when preparing to leave the classroom for “break”; or words can also be written on separate cards, if the learner becomes nervous after seeing the list of words.

 The new high-frequency words that have been added during the week can be put on the outside and the inside of the door. These words can also be used in an activity, where the learner uses a magnet on a stick to “fish” for these words, and when one is caught, the learner has to say the sight word. (fishing game)

 The learners then have to say the words on entering or leaving the classroom.  At the end of the week, this new list can be added to the classroom‟s high-

frequency word wall.

The best way to learn to recognise sight words is for the learner to read their favourite books over and over again, and in doing so, learn to recognise words quickly. Some learners, however, need an explanation and a lot of repetition in seeing and saying sight words (Duffy, 2009:193).

In the light of the above-mentioned, Duffy (2009:195-196) recommends the following scaffolding activity:

 The teacher writes a word on the board, and asks the learners to look at it, for example, “legs.”

 Ask the learners to close their eyes; and the teacher then asks the following question. “What is the first letter in the word? “l”

 The learners are asked to look at the word again, close their eyes and ask “What is the last letter in the word?” “s”

 The learners are asked to say the word “legs”, while writing it with a finger in the air.

 In addition, the teacher mixes up the letters l e g s, putting the correct and incorrect spelling on flashcards. For only one second, the correct spelling gets flashed to the learners, and they have to say the word “legs”. If the card does not have the correct spelling, the learner keeps quiet.

3.2.21 The use of context clues

According to Duffy (2009:85), and Guth and Pettengill (2005:156), context is a strategy used to solve problems. Learners make use of context clues, while reading – by using the surrounding words in a text, to make out an unknown word. This is an effective method to recognise words or to clarify the meaning.

Furthermore, learners are not taught how to remember the sequence of letters in words; they do not recognise words they have seen before and this makes reading an unpleasant experience for learners. The ultimate goal in reading is to recognise words quickly (Blank, 2006:63). Guth and Pettengill (2005:156-157,174); Johnson (2006:89); and Duffy (2009:88) suggest the following informal procedures to identify whether learners are using context clues, and to help them if they do not make use of these clues.

 The teacher can observe learners during oral reading. Learners who tend to stop and correct their mistakes when they realize that a sentence does not make sense, are making use of context clues.

 The teacher has the following sentence covered: “They are putting the cushion behind my back on the bed”.

 The teacher uncovers the word the learners are having difficulty with, for example, ”cushion”, and ask the learners if they can identify the word, while at the same time understanding it.

 The teacher uncovers the sentence by reading it out loud, and asks what the word means? Ask learners what context clues helped them to identify the meaning of the word? Did you have to look at the back or at the front of the sentence for context clues? Who thinks they know the word, and who is not sure?  The learners are asked to read the sentence out loud.

 Follow the same procedure with the following words, for example: yacht and couch.