INTRODUCING PHONICS

1
INTRODUCING PHONICS Letter / sound
relationships Presented by Rachel Collins July,
2005
2

How is English language learning different to
Language learning in Chinese?

• Chinese language has one sound per word. The
  focus is mainly on mastering the tones which
  define the meaning of the word.
• English language focuses on the sound, as each
  word can have more than one sound. For a student
  to really see how the English language works,
  they must see the difference.
• Understanding phonics will help students to learn
  English.

3

Letter-sound relationships

• Ten - initial consonant
• Ran - final consonant
• Head - diphthong (two vowels, one sound)
• Phone diagraph (2 consonants, new sound)
• Break - blend
• Knife - silent letter

4
Initial Consonant Sounds

• Initial consonants consonant sounds written
  with one letter
• e.g. b, d, f, h, k, l m, n, p, r, s, t, w
• Initial consonant diagraphs single consonant
  sounds written with 2 letters
• e.g. ch, ph, sh, th, wh
• Initial consonant blends 2 or more individual
  consonant sounds blended together and written
  with 2 letters or more
• e.g. bl, cl, fl, pl, sl, br, cr, dr, fr,
  gr, tr, sk, sl, sn,
  
  .. sp, st, str,
  spr, chr
• Letters with hard and soft sounds e.g. c, k

5
Ending Consonant Sounds

• Ending consonants consonant sounds written with
  one letter b, c, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, s, t
• Ending consonant diagraphs - single consonant
  sounds written with 2 letters ch, ck, gh, ng,
  nk, ph, sh, th
• Ending consonant blends 2 individual consonant
  sounds blended together and written with 2
  letters ft, ld, lk, lt, mp, nd, nt, sk, st
• Silent letters autumn, climb, column, comb,
  high
• Consonants which cannot be found at the end of
  words j, qu, wh

6
Short Vowel Sounds

• Vowels are a, e, i, o, u
• When vowel sounds are made, there is no
  obstruction to the air flow
• When consonant sounds are made, there is
  obstruction of the airflow

7
Long Vowels (magic e)

• Try these
• mat...mate fat...fate mad...made
• rat... rate sham...shame can...cane
• win...wine rip...ripe fin...fine
• bit...bite shin...shine trip...tripe
• mop...mope rod...rode rob...robe
• us...use fuss...fuse hug...huge
• What do you notice about the vowel sounds?

8
What are the limitations and problems of
phonics?

• Number of letters 26
• Number of sounds 44
• (i) SAME LETTER HAS DIFFERENT SOUNDS
• e.g. Letter a past what pat paint
  auction warm again
• (ii) SAME SOUND HAS DIFFERENT LETTERS
• e.g. /OR/ - for four more poor war
• (iii) WORDS SOUND THE SAME BUT LOOK DIFFERENT
• e.g. there their theyre
• (iv) WORDS LOOK THE SAME BUT SOUND DIFFERENT
• e.g. bow / bow wound / wound wind / wind
• EFL students - When students are not exposed to
  English letters and sounds in their natural/daily
  environment, the process of phonics learning can
  be hindered.

9
Peters Letter
My dear wif, How are you? I hop you are well.
Im having a good tim at King Sau. The weather up
here is very fin every day. I have mad a nic kit
in the shap of a cut bird. Ill fly it with you
when I come hom.
Love, Pet
10
Peters Letter

• My dear wife,
• How are you? I hope you are well. Im having a
  good time at King Sau. The weather up here is
  very fine every day. I have made a nice kite in
  the shape of a cute bird. Ill fly it with you
  when I come home.
• 
  Love, Pete
• Long vowels say the name of the letter

11
When do we use phonics in the classroom?

• The teaching of phonics should be and is
  occurring in the English classroom all of the
  time. From the introduction of phonic sounds in
  P1 to the correction of pronunciation and sounds
  in higher grades (Key Stage 2 and above), the
  importance of phonics should be reinforced.
• When we read to students, we naturally sound out
  words and ensure that they are said correctly.
  Through the modelling of correct phonic sounds in
  our everyday usage of the English language,
  teachers are reinforcing the requirements and
  limitations of phonic sound. Thus it becomes
  essential that phonics is taught in the context
  of reading.

12
What are the stages of phonics education?

• Start with base knowledge of phonics (i.e.
  letter/sound recognition) leading to phonemic
  awareness (the understanding of the ways in which
  sound combinations interrelate with each other
  e.g. c hch.)
• Letter/sound recognition ? phonemic
  awareness
• First stage - Knowing that every letter in the
  English alphabet has one sound.
• Second Stage - when letters are combined some
  basic sounds can change.
• Third Stage understanding that meaning is
  changed with different letter/sound choices.

13
Important games/activities for teaching phonics

• All sensory channels are used in a variety of
  games and activities so that the teaching target
  transfers from short-term memory to long-term
  memory.
• Rhymes, songs, jingles, nursery rhymes, poetry,
  big books, stories with repetitive and rhythmic
  language, tongue twisters, games with a
  beat/rhythm and movement are essential, to
  heighten the students awareness of letter-sound
  relationships, i.e. phonics.

14
Phonics Games and ActivitiesGeneral 1

• Action Alphabet
• Sky writing/ Body writing
• Feeling letter shapes
• Moulding letter shapes
• Human words/letters
• Big Books
• I spy
• Poetry
• Clapping a beat with a partner
• Floor Boggle
• Hopscotch
• Circle game pass a bean bag - rhyme

15
Phonics Games and Activities General 2

• Barrier Games
• Battleship
• Tic-Tac Toe
• Art and Cooking
• Collage of letters, words and pictures
• Moulding clay letters
• Expressive letter/word drawings
• Alphabetic recognition in their environment
• Cooking/making letter shapes in food

16
More Phonics Games and Activities

• Relays - Written / Oral
• Silent relays - Tongue Twisters
• Letter sounds - the first student writes / says a
  sound of an onset / rhyme then passed on down the
  line
• First letter of previous word in alphabetical
  order
• Last letter of previous word
• Word ladder - change one letter each time
• sat ? pat ? pet ? pen
  ?

17
Words consist of Onsets and Rimes

• Onsets are the opening unit of a word or syllable
  prior to the vowel
• Rimes begin with a vowel and are the ending unit
  of a word or syllable
• Onset Rime
• C at
• Gl ad
• m eat
• Words with the same rime rhyme.

18
Words can be broken into Syllables

• Words can be broken in chunks of sounds called
  syllables
• Children should be taught how to blend chunks of
  sounds and then pronounce the whole word
• Pan/da ti/ger pup/py tur/tle
  ba/bies flow/ers don/keys Nan/cie

19
Teaching phonics will help my students

• to recognize differences in sounds
• to recognize the relationships between letters/
  combinations of letters and their sounds
• to develop some enabling skills in reading aloud
• to work out the sounds of unfamiliar regular
  words
• to develop confidence and proficiency in reading
• to improve spelling and extend vocabulary.  

20
Word attack skills dinner

• Do you know any part of this word? (IN)
• Does it sound like anything you know? (BIN)
• What sound does the word start with? (d)
• So what is the first bit of the word (din)
• What about the next bit? Can you sound that out?
  (ner)
• What is the whole word? (dinner)

21
Rules rule!

• E.g. You can drink coffee in me when you eat
  cakes. I am not a classroom but you can find me
  in some schools. My name begins with the same
  letter as certificate, cinema and century.
• Can you work out a rule to determine when to
  pronounce the letter c as the hard sound (k) or
  the soft sound (s)?
• (CUP)

22
Activities for teaching phonics

• Action alphabet daily - the letter sounds must be
  automatic
• Use the mouth shape flash cards for vowels
• Familiarise the students with the terms letter
  names , letter sounds, starts with and ends
  with
• Start with a series of letters that can be
  combined to make words, e.g. a, b, m, n, t, d
• Put some word families on flashcards flash them
  daily
• Demonstrate blending and segmenting
• Human words, students are given large letter
  flash cards asked to come out the front to make
  words
• Use the web site www.starfall.com to demonstrate
  blending (sounding out)

23
The All-Important Environment

• Create an English language-rich environment by
  displaying the alphabet and matching sound
  pictures
• Create word walls of words beginning with each
  letter, words beginning with the same sound,
  words with the same rime, high frequency words,
  new vocabulary, labels, charts, dictionaries

24
An alphabet word wall continue creating
throughout the year
25
A word family word wall
26
Another word wall example - ee