What is blending?

Blending is the process of forming a word by combining parts of words.

In blending you sound out a sound or phoneme and combine it with the next sound or phoneme of the same word. Eventually, all sounds or phonemes of a word form the word itself.

Blending is used in the phonics approach to teaching reading and works well with phonemic orthographies.

Here are some examples of blending:

• When you blend the sounds /b/ /a/ /t/ , they become the word bat.
• When you blend the syllables /ba/ /na/ /na/ together, they make the word banana.

• Concept module: blending
• In overview module: Glossary (Literacy): B
• In modular book: Glossary of literacy terms
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 27 July 1999

© 1999 SIL International