by Willette Coleman ©2020
Here’s a magical, top secret technique
or tool parents, teachers and tutors can use to help young and older
readers pronounce difficult words. As we all
know, pronunciation is one of the central components to reading comprehension,
noted in my previous three-part post How Parents and Grandparents can "Spark Joy" in Reading for Reluctant Readers.
The magical
tool is called “back-chaining” or “backward
buildup,” and involves teaching a child or adult (or an adult teaching her or
himself) how to say a word starting at the end of the word. That is, starting with the
last syllable of a word and working backwards to the beginning.
This strategy in teaching oral language skills,
especially difficult multi-syllabic or polysyllabic words, is used internationally. Many English
education experts believe back-chaining
retains phonological
structure better than front-chaining and that it makes natural stress easier for students.
Although
employed in other countries, back-chaining is considered top secret because
most teachers, tutors and parents in the United States never heard of it.
Until a world-traveling, multi-lingual, business associate
and wonderful conversationalist told me about it (thanks Barbara), I’d never
heard of back-chaining either. Barbara
shared this “secret” when I told her about my challenge with helping a second
grader pronounce the word “botanist.” The
charming little boy, I’ll call him Little “T,” exhibited a strong affinity for flowers, which I observed during a Project
Based Learning (PBL) class - From Garden to Table - that I, along with
other tutors, facilitated.
After five-weeks of witnessing Little T’s flower drawing enthusiasm border obsession, I concluded he was a born botanist. He reminded me of a young George
Washington Carver. The celebrated agricultural chemist, widely appreciated for his peanuts, soybean and sweet potatoes
research, “devoted considerable time to
painting flowers, plants, and landscapes” later in life. Some images show Carver holding/inspecting a
flower.
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| Agricultural Chemist - George Washington Carver |
We guided each student in making his/her own notebook
in which they wrote guiding questions, facts and other information about vegetables’ origin, and used
their imagination to draw their favorite vegetable. Little T insisted on drawing flowers. All
attempts to help him focus on vegetables were met with a sweet, tiny voice, “Okay,”
and without looking up, remained focused on drawing another group of flowers. Not wanting to thwart his enthusiasm and
creativity, we relaxed and went with his
flow. His finished book contained ten
pages filled with drawings of flowers including their roots - some colored in,
some not.
Then we gave the students small, colorful pots, soil
and seeds and guided them through the process of growing their own vegetables. Unfortunately (or fortunately), a packet of sunflower seeds were among the
packets of vegetable seeds. Small hands
are very quick, and before we could blink, Little T had grabbed the packet of sunflower
seeds. At the time, we didn’t know that,
technically, sunflowers
are classified as a fruit, according
to science. Here’s a fun video that simplifies
the classification differences between a fruit and vegetable.
After planting their seeds, the children ran into
the classroom each day excited to see what was happening beneath the black
soil. Five days later, carrot, green
bean, sugar snap peas and sunflower seedlings sprouted and flourished in the
sunny classroom window under the children’s careful watering and love. They measured the plants’ growth every day
and noted the progress in their notebooks.
When Little T gave me this picture he drew (below), I told he him could be a botanist. I simplified the definition and segmented
(forward chained/front to back), the word into its three syllables for him to
repeat. After numerous tries, he still
struggled, which
brings us back to back-chaining. Had I known, I would have started with the last
syllable and proceeded to the beginning. For
example, instead of bo-ta-nist (forward), I would have divided the syllables
like so: nist-ta-bo (sounds like “bah”).
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| Little T's black and white drawing of flowers and roots |
The procedure goes like this:
- Parent, teacher or tutor pronounces the last syllable, “nist,” first; the child repeats;
- Parent, teacher or tutor continues working backwards and says the next syllable “ta”; child repeats;
- Parent, teacher or tutor blends ta and nist (as in tanist); child repeats;
- Parent, teacher or tutor says the last (actually first) syllable, “bo” (sounds like “bah”); child repeats;
- Parent, teacher or tutor blends bo-ta-nist; child repeats.
- Parent, teacher or tutor says the entire word – botanist - and the child repeats.
The exercise is done a minimum of three times. Why three times (or more)? According to NemoursReading
BrightStart.org, “Repetition
helps to improve speed, increases confidence, and strengthens the connections
in the brain that help children learn.”
More assertively, Zig Ziglar
declared: “Repetition is the
mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of
accomplishment.”
Had I known about back-chaining, I would have done a
better job of building Little T’s confidence through a sense of accomplishment. Hopefully, going forward, his parents and teachers recognize and encourage
his natural talent, and, if he stays on track, maybe one day he’ll read Stefano
Mancuso’s The Incredible Journey of Plants, get one of the college scholarships
from Garden Club of America
and thrive in a career as a botanist or agricultural scientist, or he could draw and paint stunning flowers as did George Washington Carver.
Adults
also get frustrated when they come across difficult-to-pronounce words in prescription
medications and some food, health and beauty ingredients, such as methylisothiazolinone. Here’s
an excellent video/YouTube
that demonstrates how adults can use back-chaining to pronounce that polysyllabic
word.
As an effective tool or methodology that involves breaking down a particular task into steps, back-chaining is also used in learning tasks like training dogs to do tricks or change behavior, teaching a language, teaching children the proper way to wash their hands or tie their shoes, and in chess, teaching the closing moves first, proceeding to the middle, then to the beginning, as Jay Alden described in his book Back Chaining Teaching Task Performance.
As an effective tool or methodology that involves breaking down a particular task into steps, back-chaining is also used in learning tasks like training dogs to do tricks or change behavior, teaching a language, teaching children the proper way to wash their hands or tie their shoes, and in chess, teaching the closing moves first, proceeding to the middle, then to the beginning, as Jay Alden described in his book Back Chaining Teaching Task Performance.
Forward-chaining and back-chaining
each have pros and cons, but clearly, back-chaining is an opportunity for
parents, teachers and tutors to embrace an ELA (English Language Arts) teaching
technique from a different – shall I say, backwards – perspective.
So here’s to working some word magic
– forward and backward.
Magic, Miracles & Blessings,
Willette
Magic, Miracles & Blessings,
Willette
