LETRS Unit 2 Practice Exam for Teachers of Reading and Spelling – Prep

The phonological error illustrated when a student confuses the sounds /sh/ and /ch/ is correctly identified as confusing an affricate with a fricative.

Both /sh/ and /ch/ are distinct sounds in English, but they belong to different categories of articulation. The sound /sh/ is a voiceless fricative, produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing the tongue close to the roof of the mouth, creating a turbulent airflow. In contrast, /ch/ is a voiceless affricate, which begins as a stop sound (made by a complete closure in the vocal tract) and then releases into a fricative. This means that /ch/ starts in a way that /sh/ does not, which makes this confusion one of category substitution rather than mere voicing or nasality.

Understanding this distinction is crucial for addressing phonological awareness, as it highlights specific areas where instruction can be targeted to help students improve their speech and reading skills. The confusion between these two sounds indicates that the student may be struggling to differentiate between the types of sounds, which is an important aspect of developing phonological processing skills.