What is 'Phonetics'?

 

Phonetics or Phonics is one method of teaching children how to read.  Phonics places a strong emphasis on the auditory skills towards learning English, thus enabling it to be taught at the early stages of a child's development. Reading is learned through the ears though many think it's through sight.  It is one of the steps for reading success. Over 80% of the English language is phonetically based. It is an essential decoding tool for children, especially for those who have only begun to learn reading. It provides children with a formula to sound out unfamiliar words. Phonics is a series of rules that children have to memorize and apply when they are sounding out new words. Children are taught how to "sound out" new words by learning the following items: Consonant letters sounds: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z Blend sounds: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, wr, bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl, scr, str, sm, sn, sp, sc, sk, Short vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u Always teach short vowel sounds first: a - apple, e - elephant, i- igloo, o - octopus, u - umbrella) Digraph sounds: sh, ch, th, wh, ph Two letters combine to make a totally different sound. Double vowel sounds: ai, ea, ee, oa These pairs say the name of the first vowel. Other double vowel sounds: oi, oo, ou, ow Silent e: Silent e is bossy, it doesn't say anything but makes the vowel before it say its own name. R controlled vowel sounds: ar, er, ir, or, ur Notice that er,ir and ur make the same sound. Word families (also known as phonograms or chunks) can really help students by providing some predictable patterns within words. Phonograms help us when we try to decode new words.  A child cannot learn to read without proper knowledge in phonics. It is the foundation for success in reading. They will succeed to read if they know phonics.  I personally have found that a combination of phonics and Whole Language [learning words by sight] seem to give the best results, but there is always going to be a debate as to which works best!

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