Take the guesswork and stress out of learning to read…
OpenWayEnglish is an innovative method of teaching children to read English, using color as an aid to mastery. The innumerable inconsistencies in English spelling is a significant hurdle for young readers. The OpenWayEnglish solution to the problem is simple: one color = one sound. The use of color to indicate variations in pronunciation of letters, and letter combinations, will help young readers recognize pronunciation at a glance. Color is gradually reduced as a student’s proficiency grows. This is the palette for the colors used to signal vowels and target consonants.
Click the image above to enlarge.
In the following clip, the long ‘o‘ sound is introduced showing the various ways it can be spelled. For example, in ‘sew’, the sound of ‘ew‘ is long ‘o‘, but with ‘new’, or even ‘few’, the ‘ew‘ sound is very different. These spelling inconsistencies do not exist in most languages, such as Italian or Spanish. Studies have shown that it takes three times longer for native English-speaking students to learn to read a set of 3000 English words as it would for native Italian students to learn those same words in Italian.
The video below is a recorded session of three Japanese children using the OpenWayEnglish method, practicing the long ‘a’ vowel sounds for the first time.
Here is an example of OpenWayEnglish in use with a children’s poem by Elizabeth Froemke, Cool Cars.
Another example using OpenWayEnglish colorized text is Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit. Standard vowels are distinguishable, as each has a target color. Light grey is used for silent letters. Purple, called the ‘catch all’ color, is used for several spelling anomalies, such as: – ‘one’ – ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’ – the soft ‘c‘ as in ‘lettuce’ – the ‘v’ sound of ‘f‘ in ‘of’ The reason for using purple in these cases, as well as others, is to minimize the overuse of colors, so that colors can be recognizably different.
Below is G. Nolst Trenite’s poem English Pronunciation. It demonstrates the many irregularities of English spelling. This poem is difficult to read even for native English speakers. The first version is in black and white; the second uses OpenWayEnglish colorized text.
OpenWayEnglish Challenge Poem – Black and White
OpenWayEnglish Challenge Poem – Colorized
Once children have learned all the colors, they will be able to read the colorized version effectively, even if they do not understand what the words mean. Here is a recorded version of the poem in a slideshow format:
Below is the alphabet, OpenWayEnglish style: