9/19/2024

Alphabetic Phase Theory: 4 Steps to Literacy Success

“An important goal in teaching beginning readers is enabling them to store written words in memory so they can read them accurately and automatically by sight,” Dr. Linnea Ehri says about the concept of orthographic mapping.

A literacy researcher and professor emeritus at City University New York (CUNY), Ehri developed the four-stage Alphabet Phase Theory to portray the course of development children follow during their literacy studies. Building on that work, Dr. Katie Pace Miles earned her doctorate with Ehri as a teacher and has applied this theory during her own work through the CUNY Reading Corps. 

The four stages of Alphabet Phase Theory—pre-alphabetic, partial alphabetic, full alphabetic, and consolidated alphabetic—are foundational to understanding how students develop their literacy skills. Ehri explains that these “Four phases are distinguished based on the predominant type of alphabetic knowledge that students apply in their word reading.” And that “the transition from one phase to the next is gradual, so that at any point the child may be using more than one type of connection.”

Phase 1: Pre-Alphabetic

The first stage of Ehri’s Alphabetic Phase Theory is the pre-alphabetic phase. This beginning stage of literacy development is characterized by learners trying to remember how to read words using visual, non-alphabetic information. For example, using the golden arches logo to read the word “McDonald’s.” “Because the connections are arbitrary, they're hard to remember, and hence, students remain poor readers or non-readers,” Ehri says about the pre-alphabetic phase.

Phase 2: Partial Alphabetic

After the pre-alphabetic phase, learners move into the partial alphabetic phase as they begin to acquire phonemic awareness and letter knowledge. “They can use sounds and letter names to form partial connections in remembering how to read and write words,” Ehri says. Students are also able to invent partial phonetic spellings of words by detecting letter names in spoken words. In this phase, for example, learners may connect the initial and final letters of a word to their sounds and thus remember how to read the word in question. 

Phase 3: Full Alphabetic

The third phase of the alphabetic phase theory is the full alphabetic phase. To fully move into this stage, students acquire knowledge of major grapheme/phoneme relations and develop decoding skills. They are able to form more complete grapheme/phoneme connections to store words in their memories as orthographic mapping requires. In this phase, “When they orthographically map the words, for example, all the letters become connected to their sounds to read ‘milk’ from memory,” Ehri says. 

Phase 4: Consolidated Alphabetic

In the final phase, students’ knowledge of the writing system enables them to remember the complete spellings of words to move into the consolidated alphabetic phase. As learners acquire knowledge of multi-letter units they can orthographically map words into memory. “These multi-letter units include spellings of syllables, morphemes, affixes, root words, and common letter patterns that are connected to sounds in the words,” Ehri says. At this point, readers can look at words and immediately recognize their spoken forms and meanings, freeing their minds to focus on comprehending the text instead of having to pay attention to decoding the words. 

Putting Theory into Practice

During the pandemic, Pace Miles started a program called CUNY Reading Corps that trains pre-service teachers in the science of reading and provides tutoring to families who may not be able to afford private tutoring. With her oversight of the program, Pace Miles ensures it remains aligned with evidence-based best practices, facilitates students’ acquisition of orthographic mapping skills, and helps learners move from one phase of the Alphabetic Phase Theory to the next.

Pace Miles takes the program one step further—using examples of effective classroom implementation as educational resources for other CUNY educators. “We went and filmed in New York City public schools, and I was able to showcase outstanding teachers in New York who were themselves translating research into practice,” Pace Miles says. She used these videos along with other resources to create a micro-credential in partnership with New York City that educators can earn as a form of professional development. 

There are also two advanced certificates in the science of reading available for educators. “The City University of New York has been incredibly supportive of bringing more reading science work into its pre-service and in-service teacher training,” Pace Miles explains. “And so now starting this year, I have two advanced certificates in reading science where we are going to focus on the translation of research to practice.”

Pace Miles says that “[CUNY Reading Corps is] constantly getting feedback from pre-service teachers about how valuable this was and how they're almost done with their education, and they wish they had known this sooner, but at least they know it now and that they're equipped.” And now, the New York City Department of Education likes to hire CUNY Reading Corps tutors. Pace Miles and her team moved the science of reading undeniably forward within the CUNY system with the training, tutors, micro-credentials, and certificates.

When Research Becomes Real Life

When research-backed theories and practices like the Alphabetic Phase Theory and orthographic mapping are implemented in real-life situations, educators and students benefit. Literacy success rates can increase and both educators and students can feel more confident and accomplished in the classroom.