THE ENGLISH ALPHABETIC CODE

Can your teachers calculate it?

Education departments expect teachers to understand and use the English alphabetic code.

But do education departments and school leaders actually know whether teachers have the knowledge required to do this?

Can they independently determine:

Which phonemes? How many?
Which graphemes? How many?
Which phoneme value does each grapheme represent?

Government guidance tells teachers what they need to identify. But no universally agreed formula has been provided for calculating the answer.

What does the Department for Education in England expect?

The Department for Education (DfE) expects phonics knowledge to be applied when children decode and spell words throughout the curriculum.

Primary teachers therefore need to be able to identify which letters form graphemes and their corresponding phoneme values in words.

National guidance defines early word reading and spelling in terms of the relationship between spoken sounds and written letters.

The Reading Framework states:

“Understanding that the letters on the page represent the sounds in spoken words underpins successful word reading. Pupils’ knowledge of the English alphabetic code, how letters or groups of letters represent the sounds of the language, supports their reading and spelling.”

(Department for Education, England, 2023)

The same document further states:

“This guidance explains why teachers themselves also need to understand the alphabetic code: evidence supports the key role of phonic knowledge and skills in early reading and spelling.”

(Department for Education, England, 2023)
 

So what does that require teachers to be able to do?
 

PRINT → SPEECH

In reading, pupils are taught to decode by identifying graphemes in written words from left to right, saying the corresponding phonemes, and blending those phonemes to say the whole word (Department for Education, England, 2023, p. 47).

That requires teachers to know:

Which letters form the graphemes?
How many graphemes?
Which phoneme value does each represent?


SPEECH → PRINT

In spelling, pupils are taught to say a word clearly, segment it into phonemes, and select graphemes to represent each phoneme in writing (Department for Education, England, Writing Framework, 2025, p. 41).

That requires teachers to know:

Which phonemes?
How many phonemes?
Which graphemes represent them?


SPEECH ⇄ PRINT

The process is bidirectional.

And teachers need to be able to apply this knowledge beyond the correspondences children have already been explicitly taught.

Statutory spelling guidance states:

“Pupils’ attention should be drawn to the grapheme-phoneme correspondences that do and do not fit in with what has been taught so far.”

So teachers need to recognise and explain correspondences that have not yet been taught.

There is therefore a clear difference between knowing the GPCs taught within a programme and having the code knowledge required to analyse the words children encounter throughout KS1, KS2 and beyond.

Children need to continue extending their knowledge of the alphabetic code as they encounter new words.

But that creates an important question for education departments and school leaders:
 

DO YOUR TEACHERS HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE TO DO THIS?

And, as importantly:

HOW DO YOU KNOW?
 

AUSTRALIA EXPECTS TEACHERS TO UNDERSTAND AND USE THE CODE

The NSW Department of Education states:
 

“Phonic knowledge refers to the relationship between speech sounds (phonemes) and their letter symbols (graphemes).”

It describes the Standard Australian English alphabetic code and states:

“Understanding and using the alphabetic code is essential for fluent and meaningful reading and writing in English.”

(NSW Department of Education)

The Australian Government Literacy Hub makes the required operation particularly clear. It states:
 

“Mapping words in the early stages of reading and spelling development involves:

identifying the phonemes that you hear
indicating how many there are
representing those phonemes using single letters.”

(Australian Government Literacy Hub)
 

The same government resource states:

“Knowledge of the alphabetic code is the glue that connects the way a word is said, the way it is spelled and its meaning.”

Again, teachers are being told what they need to do.

Identify the phonemes they hear.
Determine how many there are.
Determine how those phonemes are represented in print.

But this leaves the critical question:

HOW DO THEY KNOW THE ANSWER?

Given a word:

Which phonemes?
How many?

Which letters constitute the graphemes?
How many?

Which phoneme value does each grapheme represent?

Knowing the definitions of phoneme and grapheme doesn't provide the analysis.

Someone has to calculate it.

The DfE itself states:

“The chart is not definitive because the alphabetic code can be analysed in various ways.”

(Department for Education, England, Reading Framework, 2023, Appendix 5)

Education departments tell teachers what they need to identify.

They expect teachers to understand and use the alphabetic code.
 

INTRODUCING THE WORD MAPPING FORMULA
 

This is a Phonological–Orthographic Mapping (POM) Formula that works bidirectionally. 

The Word Mapping Formula provides a systematic way to calculate the relationship between the phonological and orthographic structures of English words.

It answers the practical questions teachers are already expected to answer:

Which phonemes? How many?
Which graphemes? How many?
Which phoneme values?

And it works in both directions:

SPEECH ⇄ PRINT

The Word Mapping Formula provides a consistent framework for analysing the code, while recognising that pronunciation varies.
 

This is why the Teacher Test separates personal pronunciation from the standardised pronunciation selected for phonics instruction.

Teachers first demonstrate that they can identify and map the sounds in their own speech. They then demonstrate that they can identify, produce and map the sounds in their selected instructional reference, such as British English, Australian English or American English.

The distinction means accent variation isn't treated as an error, while teachers can still demonstrate the shared reference knowledge required for phonics instruction.

The Word Mapping Formula makes the analysis:

explicit • consistent • teachable • checkable • assessable

ASSESS. TRAIN. RETEST. CERTIFY.
Assess teacher knowledge

The Teacher Test of Phonological–Orthographic Mapping establishes what teachers can actually do, rather than assuming knowledge from completion of phonics training.

Train teachers to calculate the alphabetic code

Where gaps are identified, the Word Mapping Formula training teaches educators how to independently calculate the phonological and orthographic structure of words.

Not another list of mappings to memorise.

A formula for working out the answer.

Retest and certify mastery

Teachers are reassessed after training.
 

Those who demonstrate the required knowledge and skills receive a:

CERTIFICATE OF PHONOLOGICAL–ORTHOGRAPHIC MAPPING MASTERY

Give teachers tools to use the knowledge

A free Alphabetic Code Mapping tool supports teachers in checking grapho-phonemic analyses, investigating unfamiliar correspondences and applying their knowledge to words encountered throughout the school day. 

IF TEACHERS ARE EXPECTED TO MAP THE CODE, DON'T ASSUME THEY DO.
 

Assess it. Train it. Retest it. Certify it.

Programme-independent Word Mapping Training for education departments, school systems, multi-academy trusts, schools, universities and teacher education providers.
 

This training is not linked to any phonics programme and does not teach an alternative programme or methodology.
 

It develops the specific knowledge teachers need to do what education departments expect them to do: identify the phonemes in spoken words, identify the graphemes that represent them, and map the correspondences bidirectionally for reading and spelling.

This is especially important when supporting children in the primary grades who will encounter words containing grapheme–phoneme correspondences that have not been explicitly taught within their school phonics programme.

BOOK WORD MAPPING TRAINING

Learn how to calculate the English alphabetic code, independently of any phonics programme.

Contact us for more information.