Skillful readers can read words effortlessly and automatically with full comprehension. This process often seems impossible to kids as they begin to learn basic phonics skills—how do adults read so easily, without trying? The answer is that there’s a crucial process involved that develops this reading fluency over time. This process is called orthographic mapping.
Essentially, orthographic mapping is the necessary bridge students cross from sounding out single words using lots of effort to automatic word recognition. Reading researcher Linnea Ehri coined this term.
In this article, we discuss what orthographic mapping is, how it works, and ways you can improve this process to encourage students to become fluent, confident readers.
What is Orthographic Mapping?
In simple terms, orthographic mapping is a process where words are decoded until automatically recognized. This skill develops over time. It happens when a reader permanently stores a word they’ve already learned and can retrieve it instantly from memory when they come across it.
When a reader decodes (sounds out) an unfamiliar word, they connect the word’s letters to corresponding sounds, blending them to formulate the word. For example, the word ‘bat’ is decoded by blending the sounds /b/ /a/ /t/. Every time the reader successfully maps the same word again, it’s committed to memory. Eventually, the reader no longer has to sound it out completely from scratch. Instead, they retrieve the word mapped during previous readings.
Even though orthographic mapping involves remembering, it’s not the same thing as rote memorization of whole, unfamiliar words. With whole-word memorization, readers associate the visual representation of a word directly with its meaning. This bypasses any mapping of letters to sounds.
While some high-frequency words may initially be visually memorized this way, orthographic mapping through proven phonics instruction is what allows readers to build their sight word vocabularies long-term.
How Orthographic Mapping Works
To turn an unfamiliar, printed word into a remembered word, children must form permanent connections between a word’s letters, its pronunciation, and its meaning in memory. Here’s how it works.
Letter-Sound Correspondences
The foundation of orthographic mapping is decoding. A beginner reader must first learn how individual letters and letter patterns represent the sounds in spoken words. These skills should be mastered for easy recall.
Decoding and Encoding
The practice of blending letter-sound correspondences to identify unfamiliar words in print is called decoding. Encoding is the ability to spell words by breaking up a word (segmenting) into its sounds. Practice with decoding and encoding is part of the process of orthographic mapping. Each time a reader sounds out or spells a word, they are mapping its written form and its spoken form.
Repetitive Mapping
Successful orthographic mapping requires repeated practice. The first few times readers decode a new word, the mapping can be forgotten quickly. But with repeated mapping of a word’s spelling to its pronunciation, the connection gradually builds a strong representation in the reader’s long-term memory. The number of repetitions that will be necessary depends on the individual profile of the child. Some children will need many more repetitions of decoding and encoding than others.
Connect to Meaning
Once a new reader has successfully decoded a word, it is important to connect this word to its meaning. This helps new readers remember words more quickly. Building vocabulary knowledge also improves reading comprehension.
Building Sight Word Vocabulary
Successful repetition of decoding gradually results in sight word knowledge. Sight words develop when a word has been mapped so many times that it can be instantly recalled. The reader recognizes the word as a familiar unit rather than consciously decoding the individual letters.
Skilled readers have robust mappings for between 30,000-90,000 words in their vocabulary, allowing them to read quickly without having to stop and analyze every letter. Additionally, decoding and mapping are lifelong skills. Even highly literate adults learn new words that they haven’t orthographically mapped yet, pausing upon a new, complex word to sound it out and learn its meaning.
Orthographic Mapping vs. Rote Memorization
While orthographic mapping and sight word mastery rely on memory, the process is different from rote visual memorization. Relying on memorization to build a sight vocabulary is problematic for several reasons:
- How the brain works: Words and images are processed differently in human brains. Learning to read by sounding out is more efficient and effective than learning to read by visually memorizing words. A great deal of scientific research has demonstrated that we do not remember words based on visual memory.
- Reading new words: Rote memorization teaches words as unanalyzed wholes, ultimately discouraging readers from developing the decoding skills they need for lifelong learning. It is impossible to visually memorize all words needed for foundational reading ability and comprehension. Decoding skills help readers figure out new words they haven’t previously memorized.
- Difficulty memorizing longer words: Memorizing words by visual shape is difficult to apply to longer, more complex words. Additionally, human memory can only memorize so many entire word shapes, preventing students from advancing their full vocabulary.
Orthographic mapping avoids these pitfalls by accurately linking spellings to pronunciations through phonics practice. Words are mapped, not traced like pictures. This lays the groundwork for an expansive, efficiently-acquired sight vocabulary.
Orthographic Mapping Strategies for Reading Instruction
Understanding orthographic mapping is crucial for educators and parents who are helping kids learn to read. With a knowledge of what it is and how it works, you can implement supportive strategies to help kids become stronger readers.
Systematic Phonics Instruction
Since orthographic mapping stands on solid phonics skills, beginners’ reading instruction typically involves explicit, systematic phonics lessons. Students must learn to proficiently decode words, which explicit instruction provides.
Guided Practice
Building up skillful readers doesn’t stop at teaching. Students must be given many practice opportunities to apply these skills and develop automatic word-reading abilities. Repeated, successful mappings are required for orthographic representations to become firmly set.
Decodable Texts
To facilitate this essential mapping practice, students benefit from reading decodable texts containing a high number of words following the phonics patterns they have learned. Texts should be readable for the child’s skill level, with only a few unknown words to allow for productive challenge.
Assessment and Progress Monitoring
Students’ reading progress and behavior must be monitored so you can discern whether they are actively mapping spellings to pronunciations, rather than guessing words from context. The key to this is using a phonics survey or inventory that breaks down the phonics skills by type and uses nonwords to determine if a child can read a new word they haven’t seen before.
Resources for Orthographic Mapping and Other Phonics Skills
Orthographic mapping is an important bridge that allows beginning readers to turn their hardworking attempts at decoding into automatic sight word recognition. While rote memorization alone provides an inefficient shortcut, orthographic mapping through systematic phonics practice helps children build a solid foundation for long-term reading development.
Equipping students with this mapping ability is key to helping them become fluent, skilled readers. To learn more about similar strategies and evidence-based phonics instruction, visit Phonics.org.
