Phonics

From Freepedia

Phonics is the study of the way in which spellings represent the sounds that make up words. It is related to phonetics, which is the study of speech sounds in general.

Contents

Phonics in English

The European languages share the Roman alphabet, while several of the Slavic languages use the Cyrillic alphabet. Since English pronunciation rules are so inconsistent, students of the English language must memorize hundreds of words whose spelling hints at pronunciation ambiguously, if they are to pronounce such words correctly. In reading education, children are taught the phonetics of letters and how the letters combine to form other phonics and words. English-speaking children typically learn hundreds of such words, by rote, in primary school.

Teaching English reading using phonics involves relating certain rules about English pronunciation:

Basic rules

  • Each letter is like an animal, which has a name and the sound(s) that it makes. e.g. A cat says "meow", a G has a name of "Gee" but it says "Gaa" (with the Aa sound suppressed.)
  • Each vowel has two sounds: one long and one short. The long sound is the same as its name. The long sounds are in Ape, Eat, Eye, Oh, and You. Their short equivalents are A (a as in at), E (e as in elm), I (i as in it), O (o as in hop), and U (u as in up). (A criticism of this statement would be that in fact every vowel has a third sound -- the schwa -- the sound of a vowel that is unstressed in an unstressed syllable. The schwa is the most frequent vowel sound in English. Additionally, the 'a' in 'father' is different from the 'a' in 'cat'.
  • Each syllable is made by blending the sounds of each component. e.g. reading the word by adding one sound at a time, as in -e, -ed, bed.
  • When a single vowel letter is in the middle of a word (or syllable), it usually says its short sound. e.g. "Got", "Bed". But there are many exceptions to this rule. See irregular vowels below.
  • When a single vowel letter is in the end of a word (or syllable), it usually says its long sound (or its name.) e.g. "Go", "Be".
  • When two vowels go hand in hand in the same word (or syllable), the first vowel usually says its own name (long sound) and the second vowel stays silent. e.g. "Bake" (Ay sound + silent E), "Goal" (Oh sound + silent A), etc. But there are many exceptions to this rule. See irregular vowels below.

Irregular vowels

  • Irregular vowels: Many combinations of letters do not follow the single or two vowel rules mentioned above. These special combinations and sounds must be memorized. Common examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
    • IGH as in "High" and "Sight"
    • -NG as in "Sing", "Song", "Sung".
    • OST as in "Most" (but not "Lost" or "Cost"!) uses the long sound instead of the usual short sound.
    • OW has two different sounds as in "Low" and "Cow"
    • ED has three different sounds as in "Lifted", "Walked", "Played".
    • OI does not follow the two vowels rule, e.g. "Moist", "Boil".
    • Double O has two different sounds as in "Book" and "Loose".
    • OUS as in "Nervous".
    • AU as in "Fault", "Haul", etc.
    • -SION and -TION and -CIAN are pronounced as "shun".
    • OUGH has at least seven different sounds, e.g. in "bough", "cough", "hough", "tough", "thorough", "thought", and "through"

Sight words

  • Many words do not follow these rules; they are called "sight words". Sight words must be memorized since the regular rules do not apply. e.g., "The", "Are", "You".

This was the belief before the discovery of the forgotten phonics rules from the 19th century. (See external links below). There are phonics rules for these, and all but a very few words in the English language.

There are complete phonics programs available online for free that teach reading without the use of sight words. You can find free downloadable books and mp3 files at Don Potter's Education Page and free quicktime movies at The Phonics Page.

Theory and alternatives

Synthetic phonics is a method employed to teach phonics to children when learning to read. This method involves looking at every part of the phonic without necessarily taking into account the blends or meaning (e.g. "s-t-r-e-e-t").

Analytic phonics involves looking at the phonic blends (e.g. "str-ee-t").

Some educators who support the phonic method believe that when children master the pronunciation rules, they can read on their own. The children will be able to tie the written words with the spoken English they hear on television and around the house. (Kids living in non-English-speaking households could have a hard time learning to read this way.)

Educators who oppose this method believe knowing the sound without knowing the meaning of the word does not work. Some educators do not teach the pronunciation rules; words in books are read aloud in class. The children are supposed to remember how each word sounds one by one as they encounter them in the context of a story or other reading materials. Some "smarter" kids recognize certain pronunciation patterns on their own and can then extrapolate how to read new words; the less fortunate can become illiterate if they fail to do enough reading exercises.

Some school systems, such as California's, flip-flopped between the two controversial extremes over the years. Nowadays, some schools would do both Phonic and the whole language approach because many educators now recognize that the two systems complement each other and each alone has its drawbacks(*). This is disputed by advocates of synthetic phonics who argue that their approach must be used alone if it is to succeed, with the comprehension strategies involved in the whole language approach introduced only after the student can decode words on the page.

There has been a resurgence in interest in synthetic phonics in recent years, particularly in Britain. A recent report by the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee called for a review of the phonics content in the National Curriculum. The Department for Education and Skills have since announced a review into early years reading, headed by Jim Rose.

Notes

Note (*): For support of this view, see Marilyn Jager Agams, Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1994. ISBN 0262510766.

See also

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Phonics.html"


Views
Personal tools
Similar Links