Meet Wug the alien!

Alien words for tutoring phonics and early literacy.

Potentially unpopular opinion here, but I am not a fan of using alien words to teach or tutor phonics and early literacy. Alien words have their place but don't need to be a major feature in early literacy lessons.

Wug's story is the hook into phonics children love.

But Wug the alien is one of the much-loved Jigsaw Phonics amigos - so how to square being a teacher who never used alien words to teach phonics with being the co-creator of an alien word character?

First things first. Let’s unpack why alien words are not optimal for teaching phonics.

1. For learners on the dyslexia spectrum, or the lower achievers in literacy, researchers have identified something called the "non-word reading deficit". The relative weakness that dyslexics have in reading alien words is well-researched and well-understood. So why make them do it?

2. Vocabulary development: if it’s a real word, just not in my vocabulary, does that make it an alien word for me?

3. EAL: if it’s an alien word in the language I’m learning, but not in one of the languages I speak, does that make it an alien word?

4. Regional variations: will my reading of an alien word be acceptable if my accent is different from my teacher's/other children in the class?

5. Regional variations again: keks isn’t an alien word. It means trousers where I come from (and ‘biscuit’ in the other language I speak, it’s just pronounced differently)

6. Plausible spellings: kod isn’t an alien word, it’s a fish.

Galactic joyriding ... don't do it, kids!

It’s not just weaker readers and non-native readers, either. Here’s a real (and tongue in cheek) comment from a teacher about alien words:

“Strom. I will never forget strom. I don’t think a single one of my higher-ability readers got that correct that year as they all, without fail, confidently read “storm” and moved on. Bl**dy strom!”

The key words here are higher-ability readers. Reading alien words as real words is showing how well these children are becoming skilled readers. Their brains are doing what the brains of skilled readers will do - automatically recognizing potential real words. We’ve all read this postcard to prove it, assuming we are not dyslexic, that is.

Aoccdring to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rgihit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sittl raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

These “storm” readers don’t need alien words any more because those alien words have done their diagnostic work. They have shown that these skilled readers need more challenging real words to sharpen their skilled reading brains on. And because all new words are effectively alien words the first time we see them, why not spend time on words the children will really need?

One teacher who used Jigsaw Phonics in the classroom found Wug to be a brilliant way to NOT get her children to autocorrect alien words to real words. “They see Wug on the flashcards”, she said, “and they know it’s going to be rubbish, so they deliberately read the words as alien words now. Wug has been really helpful!”

And the key word is: diagnostic. As a level-7 qualified dyslexia specialist who has assessed very many readers for dyslexia, alien words have their definite diagnostic place. It’s a very limited place in formal assessments, but they provide useful insights.

By looking at how children read alien words, we get an insight into how they are processing language. How do they segment the alien word? What graphemes can they identify? What phonemes do they associate with those graphemes? How do they blend the alien word in order to read it? It’s not just about how many they get right or wrong, although that is significant when identifying those on the dyslexia spectrum because dyslexics, we know, typically have more difficulty with alien words.

But what about Wug? First, Wug is a nod to psycholinguistic research. Once, back in the early days of language research in the 1950s, a cognitive scientist called Jean Berko Gleason developed an experiment to investigate how children acquire plural formation. A child was presented with an imaginary object - a small, blue, bird-like creature - and given its name. The child was then given a second one of this imaginary object and asked what two are called.

And the name of that blue, bird-like creature? Wug. Asked what two of them were called, and the children answered wugs. The s at the end of wugs was a voiced /z/ as in the s in dogs, because the plural-forming s follows the voiced consonant g. The s is cats in the voiceless /s/ because it follows the voiceless /t/. The “wug test” showed that children were able to produce the correct plurals of words they had never heard before because they had internalized abstract linguistic rules.

Wug is in the Jigsaw Phonics lessons to expose UK-schooled children to alien words. And tutors have all the resources to add as much alien word practice as they wish to lessons. But Wug is much more of an EAL/second-language mascot inside the Jigsaw Phonics lessons, a character non-native English children can identify with and relate to. Wug speaks Wuggish so Wug has struggles and confusions learning English, and needs help from others. All the things it’s great to model for children - both native and non-native English speakers - on any learning journey.

Children love Wug!

And when I talk to tutors in the Tutor Like a Pro! membership about alien words, I have not yet met one who raves about them and can talk about how vital they are to their teaching or tutoring practice. Members love the role Wug plays in some of the 90, ready-to-teach phonics and early literacy lessons inside the Tutor Like a Pro! membership. The lessons hit the right balance between exposing children to alien words allowing tutors to get the diagnostic benefts alien words give, but they aren't a main teaching tool. And of course, for all the international tutors in the membership tutoring children with English has a second languge, Wug is a great mascot.

Lots of "alien word" games in the lessons contain lots of real words too.

Have your say about alien words in the comments below!

Or get in touch to chat about joining the membership if you want to start tutoring phonics and early literacy with ease - the lessons and so much more are read-prepped and waiting for you.