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Mastering Multisyllabic Words

Writer's picture: Matthew DixMatthew Dix

Updated: Jan 15

For many children, reading fluency falters when they encounter multisyllabic words. These longer words can break the natural flow of reading, causing hesitation or mispronunciations, which ultimately disrupt comprehension. As teachers, supporting students in mastering multisyllabic words is essential for building fluency. Research shows that breaking down these words into manageable parts not only enhances fluency but also increases reading confidence. Here is a specific, actionable approach to help students tackle multisyllabic words with more confidence.


1. Teach Syllable Types and Patterns

Chart showing six syllable types: open, closed, magic e, vowel team, robot, and candle L. Colorful illustrations and text examples.
"Educational poster illustrating the six types of syllables in the English language with examples and colourful visuals from Letterland."

Start by explicitly teaching the six common syllable types: closed, open, vowel-consonant-e, vowel teams, r-controlled, and consonant-le.

  • Closed Syllable: A syllable that ends in a consonant, and the vowel is usually short. Example: cat, dog.

  • Open Syllable: A syllable that ends in a vowel, which often results in the vowel being long. Example: me, go.

  • Vowel-Consonant-e (VCE) Syllable: Also called "magic e" or "silent e," this syllable has a long vowel sound followed by a consonant and an "e" at the end. The "e" is silent but makes the preceding vowel long. Example: cake, bike.

  • Vowel Teams (or Digraphs): Two vowels working together to make one vowel sound. Examples: boat, team, rain.

  • R-Controlled (Bossy R) Syllable: A syllable where the letter "r" follows a vowel, altering the sound of the vowel. Example: car, bird, fur.

  • Consonant-le (C-le) Syllable: A syllable that ends with a consonant followed by “le.” This type of syllable is often found at the end of words. Example: table, candle, simple.

By understanding these patterns, students can more easily decode unfamiliar words. For instance, in the word “conclusion,” children will see that “con-” is a closed syllable (short vowel sound), and “-clu” is a vowel team syllable (long vowel sound). Encouraging students to spot these patterns helps break the word into digestible parts.


Actionable Tip: Provide a "syllable cheat sheet" that lists these six types with examples here. During reading, students can refer to the cheat sheet to analyse and decode words independently.


2. Chunking Practice

A highly effective strategy for decoding multisyllabic words is "chunking," or breaking the word into smaller, pronounceable units. For example, take the word "independent." First, cover the second half of the word and focus only on "in-de." Once the student has mastered this part, reveal "pen-dent" and blend the entire word together. This approach ensures that students don’t feel overwhelmed by the word's length.


Actionable Tip: Use a whiteboard or digital tools like Google Jamboard to visually break words into syllables. Then, ask students to practice chunking by reading the smaller parts aloud before blending the whole word.


3. Spelling and Writing Multisyllabic Words

Writing multisyllabic words reinforces decoding skills. When students practice spelling longer words, they naturally break the words into syllables. This tactile approach helps solidify their understanding of how these words are constructed.


Actionable Tip: Include multisyllabic words in spelling practice, focusing on syllabication. Ask students to spell words aloud while clapping for each syllable. This multi-sensory technique deepens the connection between reading, writing, and syllable recognition.


4. Break Multisyllabic Words Apart

Help students better understand syllable division by getting them to break words apart. You can can make this simple by giving them some multisyllabic words and having them separate each syllable with a line.


Actionable Tip: Get children them physically cut the words apart is more hands on, more engaging, and more memorable.



5. Practice with Nonsense Multisyllabic Words

Sometimes, children may recognise and read longer words because they’ve seen them before, rather than because they understand how to decode them. Using nonsense words helps evaluate their true decoding abilities. There's a great little nonsense word generator which is based on a frequency list of phonemes as they occur in legitimate English words here.

Actionable Tip: You can write syllables on cards and mix them to form nonsense words. For added fun, create one long nonsense word for the whole class to read or use the following examples here to get children to create some of their own!


Have a go at tackling some multisyllabic words with your class using these techniques and let us know if you have tried anything else in the classroom which worked for you, and if you think reading fluency might be something your class might benefit from, take a look here to see how we could help!



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