Teacher Discussion Forums

[Maymei]

We are now attending a course which aims to teach children phonics in EFL class. According to the teacher, children are more interested in English if they know how to read all or at least most of the words. In this way, teachers tech the sound of word letter by letter, then students read the word. But teachers only teach one sound of each letter, I wonder whether it will affect students' prononciation in the long run as a lot of researches have suggested that students learned words the first time they encountered.

[Yangxi]

It depends on whether the pronunciation of the teacher is good or not
and whether he/ she is careful and patient to correct his/her students. Children can learn very fast if they are interested in the things their teacher teach or even the teacher.

[blackmagicABC]

Without turning this into a whole word vs Phonics discussion, there is no evidence that students find English more interesting if they are able to pronounce English words. They have to understand what they are reading. Phonics education by itself does not guarantee that.
As for only teaching one part of the word sound at a time...that is fine as long as it is done correctly. If you teach a short a sound with words like cat, man it is fine as long as you stay away from words like math or bath where the th sound is most likely going to create problems. When you teach the th sound you can teach bath and math since they should already know the rest of the sounds.

[Mdream]

I think that Phonics is a very important part of teaching kids, but should not necessarily be the main focus of all the lessons. It is important to have a well rounded curriculum with a lot of speaking opportunities, not just phonics and reading.

I have made a free downloadable Phonics program for kids. Each letter has a Song mp3, Audio Lesson Mp3, Worksheet and flash card. It can make a really nice introduction to Phonics for your classes. You can check it all out here:

http://www.dreamenglish.com/phonics

I hope this helps!

[Lorikeet]

I think you have to teach phonics if you want kids to learn to read in English. All the recent articles have gone back to more of a phonics approach, although with meaning attached, as far as I can tell. However, I certainly don't teach phonics letter by letter. For example, you can teach the /ae/ sound in cat, but then when you practice, you can use /aet/ and teach cat, bat, sat, hat, etc.

[mesmark]

Supporting the phonics method and balance ...

I think teaching phonics is very important and especially to students with first language isn't a Roman alphabet based system. The idea that the letter combinations (and not only the letters themselves carry) have particular readings can be enlightening. Most people logically figure these out over time, pronouncing new words similar to old patterns they've memorized. If anything phonics is certainly useful information.

Using phonics worksheets will help those students that are geared for that kind of systematic learning. Some students won't get it at all it seems. That's OK. You should use both approaches and let the students find value in the information that best helps them.

[lip420]

Here you'll find a fun and efficient method for teaching phonics. And also a number of games and activities for phonics.

[silencedobetter]

[silencedobetter]

Teaching phonics in ESL is a step-by-step process that essentially familiarizes students with the sounds needed to produce English in order to develop their reading and writing skills. Rather than teaching the 26 letters of the alphabet, students learn the correct pronunciation of over 40 phonemes of the English language