What is the difference between ‘a blend’ (‘blend’ as a noun) and ‘to blend’ (as a verb)? Now that most schools are getting used to using synthetic phonics programmes, some old terms are being dropped and new terms are introduced. So, how do we now use the word ‘blend’: as a noun or a verb?
‘Blend’ as a noun
In the past, ‘blends’ were used in phonics programmes to teach children to split up words into parts. Take the word ‘black’: the word would be split up into two ‘blends’: the onset (beginning) ‘bl’, and the rhyme (end) ‘ack’. This was called ‘analytic’ phonics, because one would analyse the word and break it up into its parts. Teachers would teach different ‘blends’ (e.g. ‘gr’, ‘fl’, ‘tr’ etc.).
The problem with this approach was that children then always recognised each ‘blend’ as a discrete sound. This meant that, when they came to spell words, they could miss out letters. This was also an extra burden on their memories, as each ‘blend’ was taught and then remembered as a unit on its own – and there are may such ‘blends’ to learn. Some words had beginning blends (e.g. ‘stop’), others had end blends (e.g. ‘hand’) and still others had both (e.g. ‘print’).
‘Blend’ as a verb
In synthetic phonics now, blends are called ‘adjacent consonants’ because they are taught as separate phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (written letters). A great deal of emphasis is placed on teaching children to ‘blend’ throughout the word. This means that each grapheme is sounded out separately and then ‘blended’ into a word.
The opposite process happens when teaching children to spell. Children are taught to segment a word into phonemes and then to write a grapheme to spell each sound. Initially, they may not get all their spellings right – but, from the very beginning, they learn to expect to be able to read what they have written.
We now talk about word structures CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant), CVCC, CCVC and CCVCC to indicate where adjacent consonants are in a word.
So, to summarise: Out goes the noun and in comes the verb.