The Word Mapping Standard
Have you ever asked whether the education department in your jurisdiction expects words to be mapped in a specific way when supporting a child who cannot yet read or spell them? Which letters are the graphemes? Which sounds do they represent?
Emma Hartnell-Baker is exploring this with teachers in England and Australia. If educators are expected to map words into phonemes and graphemes, and highlight unknown correspondences for children, do they know what is expected?
The Word Mapping Standard
The Word Mapping Standard provides a clear and consistent method for deciding:
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how a written word is divided into graphemes;
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which phoneme or phonemes each grapheme represents;
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how many phonemes and graphemes are identified;
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how variations created by accent are shown; and
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how the same principles are applied consistently across teaching programmes, assessments, resources and technologies.
The relevant jurisdictional standard is selected first, for exmple:
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US English.
Please refer to TheAlphabeticCode.com
For example, the Department for Education (DfE) expects phonics knowledge to be applied when children decode and spell words throughout the curriculum. Primary teachers therefore need to be able to identify which letters form graphemes and their corresponding phoneme values in words. National guidance defines early word reading and spelling in terms of the relationship between spoken sounds and written letters.
The Reading Framework states:
“Understanding that the letters on the page represent the sounds in spoken words underpins successful word reading. Pupils’ knowledge of the English alphabetic code, how letters or groups of letters represent the sounds of the language, supports their reading and spelling.”
(Department for Education, England, 2023)
The same document further states:
“This guidance explains why teachers themselves also need to understand the alphabetic code: evidence supports the key role of phonic knowledge and skills in early reading and spelling.”
(Department for Education, England, 2023)
This provides the reference framework. However, the mapping must then be adapted for the speaker.
The spelling of the word remains the same, but its pronunciation may vary. The phonemes shown must therefore represent the speaker’s own pronunciation and accent, rather than requiring the speaker to imitate the reference accent.
The jurisdiction determines the reference standard. The speaker’s accent determines the phonemes. The bidirectional word-mapping formula remains the same.
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Can you map the speech you actually use and hear?
Can you map the standardised pronunciation you need to use for phonics instruction?
Together, the two parts distinguish personal accent variation from the shared reference knowledge teachers need for instruction. Learn More on TheAlphabeticCode.com
Do your teachers have the knowledge to map words accurately and consistently?
The Teacher Test of Phonological–Orthographic Mapping (POM) is being designed to assess whether teachers can identify the phonemes in spoken words and map them accurately to the graphemes that represent them.
It consists of two parts.
PART 1: MAP YOUR OWN SPEECH
Teachers say words naturally in their own accent, identify the constituent speech sounds they actually use, and then map those sounds to the graphemes in the written words.
This assesses whether teachers can identify the phonemes in their own speech independently of orthographic knowledge or previously taught phonics correspondences, before applying their knowledge of the alphabetic code.
It matters because teachers need to be able to listen to the sounds children actually use, rather than allowing the letters they see or the GPCs they expect to influence the sounds they identify.
PART 2: MAP THE INSTRUCTIONAL REFERENCE
Teachers select the standardised pronunciation relevant to their teaching context, for example British English, Australian English or American English.
They listen to the supplied reference pronunciation, identify its constituent phonemes, produce those sounds accurately when saying the segmented sounds and whole word, and map them to the corresponding graphemes. This assesses whether teachers can work with a shared, standardised phonological–orthographic mapping for phonics instruction, even where that pronunciation differs from their own accent.