Do you remember how hard spelling words reading was as a child? You may have been able to read simple sentences, but when it came to sight words or tricky words that weren’t part of your everyday vocabulary, things became complicated. As an adult, you may find that reading is still challenging. Some people struggle with reading out loud in front of others (a known fear called lexicophobia), but they also find that they can’t read certain books because they don’t understand the more complex words. It’s not easy being an adult learner sometimes!
In this article, you will learn all you need to know about sight words and why it’s so important for you as a reader.
What are Sight Words?
Sight words are a list of the most commonly used words in English that are not predictable by the context of the sentence. This means that the spelling of these words doesn’t change based on the structure of the sentence. Sight words are typically found in children’s books because young readers aren’t yet at the point where they can decode the more complex words in a sentence.
This doesn’t mean that these readers aren’t reading the books; they are just reading them in what is known as “silent” reading. Most adults have forgotten many sight words or have never been taught how to recognize them. This means that many adults have to rely on their children’s books and simplified books or use special software that “reads” the words for them.
Why Are Sight Words Important?
If you have tried reading a book, newspaper, or magazine and found it too difficult, you may have been reading many words without realizing it! Many of the most commonly seen words in print are not decodable in the traditional sense. Since the words are not predictable by the structure of the sentence, people who don’t recognize their sight words have to sound them out letter by letter.
If you can’t recognize words just by looking at them, reading can be a real challenge, not only because you may be embarrassed to read in front of others, but you may also find that you can’t read some more complex books.
How to Start Learning Sight Words?
Recognizing sight words test will help you improve your reading testing level, especially if you have been struggling to read books with more complex or unusual words. There are many ways you can start to recognize sight words. The first step is determining which words are the most commonly seen in print. You can do this by looking at a list of the most commonly seen words or by reading a book with a high-frequency list. Once you have a list of the words that you find challenging, there are a few different ways you can go about learning them.
Tips for Remembering Sight Words
The first step is to make sure that you recognize the words rather than sounding them out. Sounding out a word letter by letter can be extremely time-consuming, especially for words you don’t know. Since many of the most commonly seen words do not follow the typical spelling pattern, you will be better off recognizing them than trying to spell them out. Let’s take the word, for example. If you were to sound this word out letter by letter, you would come up with the following: a s s, s a s, a s s a s s. This is a lot of effort to read a single word! Instead, you should try to recognize this word as a single unit. Many of the most commonly seen words have distinct and unique shapes or patterns. This means that if you can recognize this unique shape, you will be able to remember it easier.
Strategies to Learn Sight Words
Once you have identified the most commonly seen words in print, you can break them down into smaller pieces. You can do this by looking at the sentence structure, the number of syllables in the word, or the unique shape of the word itself. The sentence structure is beneficial for those who read a lot of newspapers or magazines. Since newspapers and magazines often use a more complex sentence structure, you will often find that the words you’re struggling with belong to the same paragraph.
You can also break the word down based on syllables. Many words have fairly consistent syllable structures, so if you’re struggling with a word, try to break the word down by syllables. Finally, you can also try to break down the word based on its unique shape. Many commonly seen words have a very distinct shape, meaning that if you recognize this shape, it will be easier to remember.
Conclusion
Recognizing sight words will help improve your reading level, especially if you have been struggling to read books with more complex or unusual words. There are many ways you can start to recognize sight words. The first step is determining which words are the most commonly seen in print. Once you have a list of the words that you find challenging, there are a few different ways you can go about learning them. Let’s hope these tips and strategies help you recognize and remember the most commonly seen words in print!
