I have just recently started teaching a few korean students. They learned their alphabet from the previous teacher (not well) but now I am having a hard time turning the letter sounds into words. I am struggling to get the students to pronounce words. I am desperate. How does one go about doing this? Any ideas on how to make it fun would be helpful as well.
thanks....i need all the help i can get!
alphabet to reading
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Sally Olsen
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The sounds of the letters don't follow consistent patterns - "a" has six sounds at least. It is useful for the students to know the names of the letters because they might have to spell something or to put things in alphabetical order and so on. But it is not very useful to teach them the sounds because there are many exceptions. It is better to teach them words in context and then point out some of the difficulties as they encounter them. For beginners like this, I would take pictures of the surroundings and name the objects in the pictures and then try to get them to write stories about the picture giving them some verbs to work with. Make a pciture dictionary by putting the stories they write in themes - transportation, my classroom, my house, my body, etc. Make up books that they can share and read to each other. Gradually take pictures in sequence so they can make longer and longer stories.
I think phonics is a very important part of teaching children to read. I'm a math/science person so I really like reading rules. I think students can benefit from both whole reading and phonics.
Although there are many exceptions to phonics rules, there are more consistancies. Being aware of the rules is helpful and you can also work on pronounciation at the same time (practice making single English sounds.)
How to:
I generally teach the children 2 words that start with each letter (A - apple and alligator) Then I repeat the words over and over saying a-a-a-a-a-alligator a-a-a-a-a-apple as I point at the spelling and follow with my finger. Then I ask them how do you read 'a.' After you get to around d, e, and f they start to really get the hang of it and understand the connection. As they get further along in the alphabet you can have them start sounding out 3 letter words - bed, bag, big, bad ...
My advice is to go slow. I do one letter a day for lower ele. and kindergarten. For upper elementary beginners I do 3-4 letters.
I have some phonics flash cards and handouts you might find useful. www.mes-english.com/phonics.html
If you have computer access for the students www.starfall.com has fantastic on-line phonics flash programs for presentation and reading practice.
Good luck.
Mark
Although there are many exceptions to phonics rules, there are more consistancies. Being aware of the rules is helpful and you can also work on pronounciation at the same time (practice making single English sounds.)
How to:
I generally teach the children 2 words that start with each letter (A - apple and alligator) Then I repeat the words over and over saying a-a-a-a-a-alligator a-a-a-a-a-apple as I point at the spelling and follow with my finger. Then I ask them how do you read 'a.' After you get to around d, e, and f they start to really get the hang of it and understand the connection. As they get further along in the alphabet you can have them start sounding out 3 letter words - bed, bag, big, bad ...
My advice is to go slow. I do one letter a day for lower ele. and kindergarten. For upper elementary beginners I do 3-4 letters.
I have some phonics flash cards and handouts you might find useful. www.mes-english.com/phonics.html
If you have computer access for the students www.starfall.com has fantastic on-line phonics flash programs for presentation and reading practice.
Good luck.
Mark
I have no experience teaching reading to EFL learners, but I've done some reading on the subject of "reading" and my kids learned to read before they went to school. I think recent research has shown the importance of language play in reading readiness. (Rhyming, alphabet games--what words start with /b/? Ball, bell, balloon, etc.) I used to play games with my kids where I would take the alphabet and make a word, like "cat". Then I'd take off the "c" and take a "b" and ask what sound the "b" made. The B would then go "bbbbb" and walk over to the /at/ and become "bat". etc. My kids were probably 2 or 3 at the time--I don't remember--might be too juvenile for 5 year olds 
I was just playing with my kids at the time. I didn't really know I was teaching them how to read until it happened. Heh.
I was just playing with my kids at the time. I didn't really know I was teaching them how to read until it happened. Heh.-
Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
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- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
I guess I was just going on my experience of learning Mongolian, Japanese, Greenlandic and Spanish as an adult. I found that showing me the pictures of an alligator or apple didn't do me any good because I had to learn the name of that animal or fruit in Mongolian, Japanese, Greenlandic and Spanish first and then learn the sound. The Mongolian first grade teacher was super keen on phonics in Mongolian and tried the same with me but was frustrated because I couldn't remember the name of the flash card in Mongolian - there are three or four different sounds of "o" that I am not sure I ever learned. So I think we are asking a lot of kids to learn the name of the object and the sound as well. Of course, they do it and so much faster than adults but I wonder then, if they don't learn it by learning the names of things as well and why spend time on something they will learn anyway. Of course, there are always sounds you have to zero in on that are different or difficult and that makes a good lesson and for lots of review. It seems to me that research shows that we learn things in categories rather than sounds so we learn animals, fruits and so on in different areas of the brain and they tend to stick together. Doctor and nurse are more easily learned than doctor and bread. Since we often have such limited time when we are teaching English and I know some children have trouble with sounds even in their own langauge, it seems it might be easier to just teach words and special sounds if they come up.
Sally - I agree with you that it's more helpful if the students already know the words. I do my best to pre-teach the words (in groups -animals, fruit ...) so they aren't foreign to the students when we use them in phonics. Also when I move to reading I always use words they will recognize if sounded out correctly. For this reason many phonics books published in the US, England, ect. are very difficult for EFL students.
I don't teach phonics to my adults, at least not formally. I might explain some rules if they are having a hard time reading something. I think adults as well may benefit from phonics but like you said there is only so much time in a lesson. They also generally have an understanding of what sounds letters make through vast experience. Example: they can understand why game, name, came and same are all read similarly, even if they don't really know why. They can also make educated guesses at reading words they haven't been taught, but again relying on all that they already know.
With kids, they don't have that experience to help them along and you get Ss who read volleyball as baseball. They eventually get through and can read, but those that I have taught phonics to do much better in reading comprehension test and make less mistakes (results not widely tested and judged probably a bit biasly.) They also generally have more reading confidence. Basically, I 've found they can read words they have forgotten where students who are memorizing just freeze. They can also read words they know or have heard but not yet learned the spelling where again the other students just freeze.
I think is's also very helpful in regards to spelling. If they understand the sounds letters or combinations make then it's a little easier to understand why things are spelled that way. Exceptions will have to be memorized but they would have to be memorized anyway.
I was and still am a hourrabel speller. I was taught some phonics at a private school until 2nd grade where I moved to a public school and fell under the rein of the whole reading Nazis. I hated English. I'd like to think that if I had learned more phonics I wouldn't be this embearassing fonetick speller.
- Mark
I don't teach phonics to my adults, at least not formally. I might explain some rules if they are having a hard time reading something. I think adults as well may benefit from phonics but like you said there is only so much time in a lesson. They also generally have an understanding of what sounds letters make through vast experience. Example: they can understand why game, name, came and same are all read similarly, even if they don't really know why. They can also make educated guesses at reading words they haven't been taught, but again relying on all that they already know.
With kids, they don't have that experience to help them along and you get Ss who read volleyball as baseball. They eventually get through and can read, but those that I have taught phonics to do much better in reading comprehension test and make less mistakes (results not widely tested and judged probably a bit biasly.) They also generally have more reading confidence. Basically, I 've found they can read words they have forgotten where students who are memorizing just freeze. They can also read words they know or have heard but not yet learned the spelling where again the other students just freeze.
I think is's also very helpful in regards to spelling. If they understand the sounds letters or combinations make then it's a little easier to understand why things are spelled that way. Exceptions will have to be memorized but they would have to be memorized anyway.
I was and still am a hourrabel speller. I was taught some phonics at a private school until 2nd grade where I moved to a public school and fell under the rein of the whole reading Nazis. I hated English. I'd like to think that if I had learned more phonics I wouldn't be this embearassing fonetick speller.
- Mark
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
If it is any consulation, I think that they have tested people and found that good spellers are always good spellers and poor spellers are always poor spellers. I am in your group as you know from my posts. Actually, I am doing my thesis on trying to find out how to use those mistakes to predict children who will be identified as learning disabled at some point with more extensive and expensive testing. I use my own posts as samples so rarely correct them.
There seems to be three kinds of learners - visual, kinesthetic and aural. What about all the kids who don't learn well aurally? If you have them listening for sounds they don't really hear, you will spend a lot of time on lessons that are very frustrating. It reminds me of the story of the school for ducks, chickens and other birds. The teacher tried to teach the ducks to climb trees and the chickens to fly and so on. It might be more important to teach those students how to figure out words visually, how to look up words in the dictionary and how to ask others for help, to carry a Bad Spelling dictionary and so on.
There seems to be three kinds of learners - visual, kinesthetic and aural. What about all the kids who don't learn well aurally? If you have them listening for sounds they don't really hear, you will spend a lot of time on lessons that are very frustrating. It reminds me of the story of the school for ducks, chickens and other birds. The teacher tried to teach the ducks to climb trees and the chickens to fly and so on. It might be more important to teach those students how to figure out words visually, how to look up words in the dictionary and how to ask others for help, to carry a Bad Spelling dictionary and so on.
Sally - That's funny. I never noticed any spelling mistakes. 
Seriously.
You make a good point about some kids just might not do well with phonics. I have some kids who don't really get it or can't make the connection between rules, sounds, and actually reading. I generally just tell them to do their best and not to worry about it. I tell them there are kids in the States and other native countries who don't get it either.
- Mark
Seriously.You make a good point about some kids just might not do well with phonics. I have some kids who don't really get it or can't make the connection between rules, sounds, and actually reading. I generally just tell them to do their best and not to worry about it. I tell them there are kids in the States and other native countries who don't get it either.
- Mark
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natkingcole
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 3:10 pm
Alphabet to reading
About a year ago I started teaching three 5 year olds English.
The time came for reading, these guys were an experiment as I hadn't taught reading or phonics. This how I did it with excellent results and I recommend that you could do it this way too and even improve on it.
1) First they had to know the alphabet well.
2) Now create or buy easy to remember flashcards ie/ A-apple, ant etc
Note/ I taught the short sounds for vowels first, long sounds are taught a few weeks or months later.
3) I gave them 3 letters to learn each lesson, that was Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We would play all sorts of games to remember the cards. Revision of sounds is a must of course.
4) This is when I made them aware that letters have their own name sound and a different phonic sound. ie/ A (eh), but when we say 'apple' the A (eh) sound is aah....apple. (Its hard to write the A sound for apple).
5) From here I made up handouts in which they had to draw things that had the sound of each letter they were learning. Then we would put some learned letters together to form a word. ie 'cat' I would sound out each letter slowly with the kids and then they could do it themselves. It takes time. caaaaaat caaat cat
I kept it simple but gave them plenty of material (objects or animals) as a resourse.
(There are some great books out there which can help when teaching, try SRA, phonic books)
6) Next we made up short sentenses using 3 letter words,
The cat.
The cat is fat.
The fat cat sat.
The fat cat sat on a mat.
7) Next we started using phonic stories, they help you deal with long vowel sounds and blends etc. You can get them at good book stores. But try to find a book that instructs you on how to teach.
To date I have taught 15 students to read this way, out of the 15 two students are still struggling a little but are reading well enough to read classic story books.
Each time I get new students I find out more ways to teach phonics and improve the program.
If you have any questions I will try to help you.
Natkingcole
The time came for reading, these guys were an experiment as I hadn't taught reading or phonics. This how I did it with excellent results and I recommend that you could do it this way too and even improve on it.
1) First they had to know the alphabet well.
2) Now create or buy easy to remember flashcards ie/ A-apple, ant etc
Note/ I taught the short sounds for vowels first, long sounds are taught a few weeks or months later.
3) I gave them 3 letters to learn each lesson, that was Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We would play all sorts of games to remember the cards. Revision of sounds is a must of course.
4) This is when I made them aware that letters have their own name sound and a different phonic sound. ie/ A (eh), but when we say 'apple' the A (eh) sound is aah....apple. (Its hard to write the A sound for apple).
5) From here I made up handouts in which they had to draw things that had the sound of each letter they were learning. Then we would put some learned letters together to form a word. ie 'cat' I would sound out each letter slowly with the kids and then they could do it themselves. It takes time. caaaaaat caaat cat
I kept it simple but gave them plenty of material (objects or animals) as a resourse.
(There are some great books out there which can help when teaching, try SRA, phonic books)
6) Next we made up short sentenses using 3 letter words,
The cat.
The cat is fat.
The fat cat sat.
The fat cat sat on a mat.
7) Next we started using phonic stories, they help you deal with long vowel sounds and blends etc. You can get them at good book stores. But try to find a book that instructs you on how to teach.
To date I have taught 15 students to read this way, out of the 15 two students are still struggling a little but are reading well enough to read classic story books.
Each time I get new students I find out more ways to teach phonics and improve the program.
If you have any questions I will try to help you.
Natkingcole
Flash cards.
I just spent a fair amount on some nice flash cards made by Teacher Created Materials and they have proved very good for my young kids.
Step one: use the pictures until they can say the name of all the pictures.
Step two: Use the words to get then to be able to recognize the word in it's written form.
I've been using this tutoring and progression is very rapid.
In a classroom environment, you'll just need to get a little creative and have them work in pairs or small groups.
I just spent a fair amount on some nice flash cards made by Teacher Created Materials and they have proved very good for my young kids.
Step one: use the pictures until they can say the name of all the pictures.
Step two: Use the words to get then to be able to recognize the word in it's written form.
I've been using this tutoring and progression is very rapid.
In a classroom environment, you'll just need to get a little creative and have them work in pairs or small groups.
Sally Olsen wrote:The sounds of the letters don't follow consistent patterns - "a" has six sounds at least.
what language are you talking about? there are 44 sounds in English... the phonetics system says 48... there are 2 sounds for the letter a long and short a. learn the phonics system it's what we learn in England, the country that spawned this awful language.
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billjordan
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:08 pm
yeah phonics is the only way to teach language arts.
I'm a huge fan of Diagnostic Spelling Assesment. It allows you to break down the class to thier individual developmental stage. It also allows you to focus in on phonetic trouble spots.
"Word Journies" by Geneske is the text I use for the DSA
"Words thier Way" is another resource for phoetic activities
"Kid Writting" is good for K-1
These are the three core books that I use. All three are phonics based.
The great thing about these books is that they are based on the developmental stages of learning english. They start with pre-emergent and go all the way to derevational constant. You can tailor you language arts classes to student development.
I'm a huge fan of Diagnostic Spelling Assesment. It allows you to break down the class to thier individual developmental stage. It also allows you to focus in on phonetic trouble spots.
"Word Journies" by Geneske is the text I use for the DSA
"Words thier Way" is another resource for phoetic activities
"Kid Writting" is good for K-1
These are the three core books that I use. All three are phonics based.
The great thing about these books is that they are based on the developmental stages of learning english. They start with pre-emergent and go all the way to derevational constant. You can tailor you language arts classes to student development.
I teach English here in China, for my sins, I would like to know this: what age do they start to teach reading in the USA? in England we start at first year of school usually 5... actually I went to school when I was 4! The thing is my mother taught me to read before I went to school. when the other kids were asking how to spell dog and cat I was already onto stuff like aeroplane, submarine and dinosaur.