| I've found that the main issue with a lot of people | | | | read words that use them. |
| teaching ESL phonics is that they seem to make more | | | | 2. Step 2: Sounds of the letters: There are 44 sounds |
| mistakes than some of the other commercially | | | | in the English language and 120 graphemes (ways of |
| available phonics programs. Some of ESL teachers | | | | representing those sounds). The sound /f/ can be |
| are trying to teach phonics when it's quite clear that | | | | represented by "ph" and "f" for example. Elephant and |
| they have no practical experience on teaching reading | | | | fish both have the /f/ sound, but it's spelled in different |
| skills to children. | | | | ways. For a full list of these sounds, visit my site or just |
| This issue stems from the fact that many ESL | | | | search for "synthetic phonics phonemes and |
| teachers go into teaching English without much training | | | | graphemes" and you'll find charts that will show you |
| at all. It's an easy field to get into, with no stringent | | | | how these sounds and grapheme correlations work. |
| screening requirements. Anyone can put up a few | | | | Also, if your native language isn't English you might |
| classified ads offering their teaching services and start | | | | have some tiny worries about pronunciation. When I |
| making money teaching. But do you really want just | | | | taught in Japan, we had a lot of practice on students' |
| anyone teaching your children phonics? Of course not! | | | | properly saying "l" and "r" sounds. |
| You want the best phonics training available. And the | | | | 3. Step 3: Blend the letters together to form words: I |
| excellent part isn't, even if your native language isn't | | | | usually start with two letter combinations, like "at" and |
| English there are ways to quickly teach your child the | | | | "ut" and see if it's possible for your child to sound them |
| skills to learn English. There are some minor issues that | | | | out. If they've already done step two, they'll find it |
| crop up though that I want to discuss (if your language | | | | surprisingly easy to do. Then I move into three letter |
| native language isn't English and you plan on teaching | | | | words, like "cat" and "cup". |
| reading skills in English). | | | | 4. Step 4: Practical application: In this stage, I move |
| The process of learning to read can be broken down | | | | onto reading. Not just any books, mind you, but |
| into some pretty simple steps. Simple to understand, | | | | "decodable readers". These are books that your child, |
| but they take time to be understood and absorbed by | | | | with a little assistance, practice, and phonics training, will |
| your child. | | | | be able to read on their own. It will be really exciting for |
| 1. Step 1: Letter Recognition Skills: Make sure your child | | | | you and your child in this stage, because they'll actually |
| can recognize and name all the letters of the alphabet | | | | be reading. A lot of people find "decodable books" a |
| (both upper case and lower case). This can be | | | | little too dry and boring, and they want to start with |
| challenging for some of the lower case letters (like p | | | | something too difficult. I like to make the skiing |
| and q and b and d which are quite similar to young | | | | comparison. Even though black diamond is more |
| children). Some people consider being able to write | | | | exciting than the bunny hill, would you really want to |
| these letters another critical part of learning to read, | | | | learn to ski on it? |
| but I think some young children who lack the motor | | | | That concludes my little article on ESL phonics. Hope |
| skills to write the letters will still be able to learn how to | | | | you enjoyed it! |