An initial sound table (German: ) is a table, list or chart which shows a letter together with a picture of the things whose word start with that letter. They are commonly used in German classrooms for language teaching. The first initial sound table was created in 1658 by

John Amos Comenius John Amos Comenius (; cs, Jan Amos Komenský; pl, Jan Amos Komeński; german: Johann Amos Comenius; Latinized: ''Ioannes Amos Comenius''; 28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670) was a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is consider ...

Orbis Pictus ''Orbis Pictus'', or ''Orbis Sensualium Pictus'' (''Visible World in Pictures''), is a textbook for children written by Czech educator John Amos Comenius and published in 1658. It was the first widely used children's textbook with pictures, ...

, a picture book intended for children. They were popularized in the German-speaking areas by Jürgen Reichen who used initial sound tables to assist students to recognise initial sounds and to get

first reading A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature. In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming ...

and writing skills.Fabian Bross (2016): Anlauttabellen – Segen oder Fluch im Schriftspracherwerb?
Initial Sound Tables—Blessing or Curse for Learning to Read and Write?
In: ''Kritische Ausgabe. Zeitschrift für Germanistik & Literatur'', 30, pp. 108–117. ''Alternative names:'' initial sound list, initial sound chart, initial sound

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a s ...

, alphabet chart, alphabet picture chart

Writing to read

In the German-speaking countries, language experience is often based on children's writing of stories that involves invented spellings (e.g. with the help of an "initial sound table" picturing words that start with a specific sound). The Swiss teacher Jürgen Reichen (

progressive education Progressive education, or protractivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. The term ''p ...

) founded this "writing to read" method 1982. The method combines two basic features of in favour of "

phonics Phonics is a method for teaching people how to read and write an alphabetic language (such as English, Arabic or Russian). It is done by demonstrating the relationship between the sounds of the spoken language (phonemes), and the letters or gro ...

" (unduly equated with "

direct instruction Direct Instruction (DI) is a term for the explicit teaching of a skill-set using lectures or demonstrations of the material to students. A particular subset of direct instruction, denoted by capitalization as Direct Instruction, refers to a speci ...

", stepwise teaching, etc.). According to this approach children should be encouraged to "write words as they pronounce them" with the help of an "initial sound list" of pictured words. Constructing words in this way is supposed to help them to understand the basic relationship between spoken and written language.

Johann Amos Comenius John Amos Comenius (; cs, Jan Amos Komenský; pl, Jan Amos Komeński; german: Johann Amos Comenius; Latinized: ''Ioannes Amos Comenius''; 28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670) was a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is consider ...

already added 1658 an initial-sound-table to his „

Orbis sensualium pictus ''Orbis Pictus'', or ''Orbis Sensualium Pictus'' (''Visible World in Pictures''), is a textbook for children written by Czech educator John Amos Comenius and published in 1658. It was the first widely used children's textbook with pictures, ...

“.

Initial sound keyboard

There are software for children which has a multimedial ''initial sound keyboard'' for text input (

virtual keyboard A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the input of characters without the need for physical keys. The interaction with the virtual keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also take place in a different form ...

). Several hardware

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

for kids also have ''initial sound pictures'' on its keys. With ''initial sound

stickers A sticker is a type of label: a piece of printed paper, plastic, vinyl, or other material with temporary or permanent pressure sensitive adhesive on one side. It can be used for decoration or for functional purposes, depending on the situation. ...

'' and a standard computer keyboard you can create your own initial sound keyboard.app0l

Initial sound examples

There are

initial sound In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph tha ...

medial sound Medial may refer to: Mathematics * Medial magma, a mathematical identity in algebra Geometry * Medial axis, in geometry the set of all points having more than one closest point on an object's boundary * Medial graph, another graph that repre ...

s and

final sound Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

Bibliography

* Günther Thomé, Dorothea Thomé (2016)

''Deutsche Wörter nach Laut- und Schrifteinheiten gegliedert'', Oldenburg: isb-Verlag.

References

{{Reflist

External links