English is a global language of communication, but the spelling system can be illogical, tricky and un-phonetic. This is the first of a series of short articles dedicated to a topic which has always been part of my learning and teaching journey.
English for kids
Listen carefully!
The first step in the phonics journey is to help children listen to the sounds of English and learn to discriminate between the different sounds that make up the language. It is important to provide lots of fun and engaging opportunities to be able to hear the differences between sounds and say the words clearly over and over again. For example:
· The ship/sheep is sailing.
· I like green pears/bears.
Minimal pairs vary only by a single sound, but there are infinite activities that can be done with young learners to help them increase their understanding of speech sounds. Having fun with sounds and words through songs, rhymes and chants can help build phonological awareness.
Pronunciation teaching not only makes students aware of different sounds and sound features (and what these mean), but can also improve their speaking immeasurably.
Harmer, J 2001 The Practice of English Language Teaching Pearson Education Limited 2001
The ability to learn how to listen carefully, thus the title of this article, and discriminate between the individual sounds is fundamental and research shows that children who receive good teaching of phonics will easily learn reading and writing. The English language can be complicated and tricky when it comes to writing because different sounds do not necessarily correspond to the same letters. There is no one-to-one relationship between the 26 letters of the English alphabet and the 44 sounds they represent.
Think about how many different sounds vowels represent: cat, cake, sheep, day and sometimes ‘y’ functions like a vowel in by, style, and gym.
· The cat likes the cake.
· The sheep sleep all day.
· Jim goes to the gym every day.
The word alphabet comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta. (ph letters = ‘f’ sound)- as you can see / sea there is no / know correspondence between the letters / lettuce and the sound these words make, and this can be / bee challenging for young learners.
Lots of English words come from Latin or Greek and learning about these roots can help us understand spelling. Sea comes from the Latin word ‘mar’ maritime and marine. Ten comes from the Greek root ‘dec’ which means ten decade, decathlon.
It is important that children learn how the sounds of English are represented by letters or groups of letters and how spelling aids reading and is the connection between sounds and letters.
We need our ears, eyes, mouth and hands to remember and write words correctly.
