Have you ever wondered what phonics actually is, and how you can use phonics with your young learners? Karen Elliott has all the answers.
What is phonics?
Phonics is the study of the relationship between the spoken and written language. Each letter or combination of letters represent a sound or sounds. The information is codified, as we must be able to recognise which symbols make which sounds in order to read. This information is found in the Alphabetic Code.
Since the English language comes from many sources, different spelling patterns can represent the same phonemes. The Alphabetic Code provides us with this information. Words which don’t follow easily recognisable patterns are called ‘tricky words’. We have to learn these words in their entirety.
Do I have to be a native speaker or have near-native pronunciation to teach phonics?
Certainly not! The Alphabetic Code is an integral part of the language and every English teacher needs to be aware of the information contained within it. In fact, learning how the different phonemes are represented will help non-native teachers improve their pronunciation. Non-native teachers will be able to share their experiences of learning the code and will know what areas will cause their students special problems.
How do I teach phonics?
The best advice I can give is to jump in where you are – and learn as you go along. All English teachers already know a lot of the information they need to teach phonics. Look at the Alphabetic Code and try some of the activities below. You will soon get the hang of it.
What about tricky words?
Once you’ve studied the Alphabetic Code and the alternative spellings, you’ll see that some words fall outside of the code. Native speakers learn a lot of these at school through poetry, so one way to teach them is to say a word that rhymes with the tricky word (for example, shoe rhymes with zoo and key rhymes with tree).
How do children learn phonics best?
Phonics is taught in phases:
• Phase 1 phonics concentrates on teaching the sounds of the language.
• Phase 2 phonics attaches a letter or letters to each sound (called a letter sound). Children learn to blend letter sounds to make simple decodable words (for example, cat, pen, sun). At this stage children need to learn some high frequency tricky words so that they can read simple sentences (e.g. the, I, me).
• Phase 3 and 4 phonics present digraphs and trigraphs: sounds which are represented by more than one letter (for example the ai in rain, the alternative spelling a_e in cake, called a split digraph, and the trigraph igh in light).
• Phases 5 and 6 continue to present and practise alternative spellings and less frequent tricky words, as well as other aspects of the written language.
Below are some examples of phonics activities. Good luck with teaching phonics and I hope you enjoy the fun and positive results I have experienced with my students!
A. Match the words to the pictures.
B. Words on the wall.
Look at your handout. Some words are missing. One student must run to look at the paper on the wall to find the missing words. They all have the /ee/ sound.
C. The long /er/ letter sound (alternative spellings and tricky words)
Say the words with /er/ phonemes in the questions. Then answer the questions.
- Are you an early bird?<l/i>
- Would you prefer to work as a nurse or a journalist?
- What new words did you learn this term?
D. Match the tricky words with the decodable words they rhyme with:
Key: 1D, 2E, 3B, 4A, 5C.
You can watch Karen’s webinar on Phonics for Young Learners here.