the phonics method inset

The Phonics Method.The Phonics Method.(A strategy to help (A strategy to help Dyslexics and poor Dyslexics and poor

readers)readers)Making links between

Sounds (phonemes) and Letters (graphemes)

by Mr. H. Lim,SEN Dept.

WHAT IS READING?WHAT IS READING?• How does a person learn to read?• Describe the process of how a person reads,

silently as well as aloud.• What components does it consist of?


Reading and ListeningReading and Listening• Reading is actually linked originally to the ability

to hear and listen to sounds accurately.• To replicate the sounds of a word, you first need

to have heard the sounds correctly.• Thus, hearing problems can lead to inaccurate

reading.


Phonological Phonological processing.processing.

• There is now much evidence that people with dyslexia have a phonological processing deficit in their ability to make a phoneme-grapheme link.

• This means that they have problems linking the letter to the sound you make when you read the letter and vice-versa.


• In the English language, every word there is can be made up from one, or a combination of several of the 40+ sounds, that in various permutations, make up all the words of English.


• Any writing and reading system uses a conventionally agreed set of symbols or pictures to represent a sound. Some systems use characters or pictograms, as in Chinese or Japanese. And others use an alphabet, as in the Roman or Greek alphabet. The 40+ sounds in this phonics method when they are written or spelt are known as “sound-pictures”.


• There is a major difference between the name of a letter and the sound that a person makes when the letter or letters which make a sound-picture is read as part of a word. For example, “cat” is spelt with the 3 letters c, a and t; which when we name the letters sound like “see”, “ay” and “tee”. However, the sounds we make when we say the word “cat” do not sound like the names of the letters. “Cat” would then sound like seeaytee. We say the 3 component sounds that make up the word “cat”.


• Segmenting: Each word can be segmented or broken down into its component sounds. We can represent or symbolise these sounds by using the sound-picture which are within the inverted commas or brackets. For example, the word “cat” when it is said is actually made up of 3 component sounds, which are made up of the sounds “c”, “a” and “t”.


• Blending: Different sounds can then be blended or combined to make up the words of the language. For example, the word “chips” is a combination or blend of the 4 sounds “ch”, “i”, “p” and “s”.


• Phoneme Manipulation: Every word in the language is therefore a manipulation or the combining of the 40+ sounds into the many hundreds of thousands of permutations that make up the words of the English language. Good readers should be able to recognise the sound-picture/s and then vocalize or pronounce the word. Good spellers should be able to recognize the correct sound-picture/s that goes into the correct spelling of the word.


• Problems arise in that there are such things as homophones, where different words which are spelt differently and have a different meaning sound the same. Eg, no and know. Therefore, when testing spelling, words should be heard in its context.


• Other problems for readers and spellers of English words arise from 2 major facts. Namely:

• Firstly, the English language evolved from several other languages like – Latin, French, Anglo-Saxon, German, Greek and others.


• Secondly, the 40+ sounds in the language can be spelt in different ways using different sound-pictures due to the evolution of the language. For example, the “k” sound can be spelt using 4 different sound-pictures. K as in kite; C as in cat; Ch as in Christmas; ck as in duck. In another example, the “ee” sound can be spelt with 10 different sound-pictures.


• Homophones, homographs and homonyms.• Homophone: a word pronounced the same as

another but having a different meaning or spelling or both, such as bear and bare.


• Homograph: a word spelt the same as another but having a different meaning, such as bear (to carry) and bear (the animal).

• Or words which are spelt the same but pronounced differently and has a different meaning, such as row (to paddle a boat) and row (to quarrel).


• Homonym: a word pronounced AND spelt the same as another but having a different meaning, such as novel (a book) and novel (new), right (correct) and right (opposite of left), left (opposite of right) and left (what remains after taking away).


• The problem of OVERLAPS.• There are overlaps in the spelling of

different sounds. For example, the picture ow can be pronounced “ow” as in now, or “oe” as in show. Another example is ou, where it is pronounced “o-e” as in soul, “ow” as in out, and long “oo” as in soup.

• There are other such examples and students need to practice their phoneme manipulation to help them improve their reading and spelling.


• Special endings.• There are words with common endings which are

pronounced in a special way. They need to be memorised.• Examples=• te-le-vi-sion • trea-sure• struc-ture• an-xious• na-tion• pre-co-cious• am-ne-sia• mi-li-tia


INSET SUMMARYINSET SUMMARYSEGMENTING• The ability to “break up” a word into its

component sounds.• Eg. Cat (3 letters) is made up of 3 sounds (k) (a)

(t). • Chips (5 letters) is made up of the 4 sounds (ch)

(i) (p) (s).• Sick (4 letters) is made up of 3 sounds (s) (i) (k).

Note that ck = (k)


SEGMENTING SEGMENTING SYLLABLESSYLLABLES

• Long words can be first segmented into syllables and then the syllable segmented into its sounds.

• Segment word into syllables by the “jaw dropping” method.

• Eg. Harmony = 3 syllables; Har-mo-ny.• Har= (h) (a) (r); mo= (m) (o); ny= (n) (ee).


BEWARE THE SCHWA BEWARE THE SCHWA

WHEN SEGMENTING A WHEN SEGMENTING A

WORD.WORD.• The schwa is the “sixth” vowel. Along with a; e;

i; o; u. It is the “uh” sound.• When segmenting a word, each sound must be

kept “pure” by avoiding sounding the schwa.• Eg. Cat = (k) (a) (t) NOT “kuh” “auh” “tuh”.• Otherwise cat would sound like kuh-auh-tuh.• Eg. Man = (m) (a) (n) NOT “muh” “auh” “nuh”.• THIS IS A PHONICS ERROR TAUGHT BY MANY

SCHOOL TEACHERS.


BLENDING SOUNDSBLENDING SOUNDS• Blending is the ability to put together a word by

putting together sounds.• Eg, the 4 sounds (k) (r) (a) (sh) can be blended

into the word “crash”.• The 4 sounds (w) (i) (k) (d) can be blended into

the word “wicked”.


PHONEME (sound) PHONEME (sound)

MANIPULATIONMANIPULATION• This is the ability to make use of one or

more of the 44+ sounds in the English language in various combinations to make up all the words of the English language.

• Unfortunately, though there are only 44+ sounds, a sound can sometimes be spelt in more than one way.

• Eg, (k) can be spelt c (cat), k (kill), ch (christmas) or even ck (duck).


READING AND SPELLINGPROBLEMS WITH ENGLISH SPELLING Eg, (ee) has 10 different spellings: • ee: meet• ea: seat, meat• ie: chief• y: funny• e: she• i-e: petite• i: variation• ei: receive• e-e: eve• ey: ey


READING AND SPELLING READING AND SPELLING

WITH PHONICSWITH PHONICS• English spelling is the most difficult of all the

European languages; due to its historical development.

• Therefore, this being a reading programme, we are more concerned that the children can read and understand words and sentences. Spelling is not the priority.


the phonics method inset

Education

different soundpictures

spelling of different

different words

word cat

letters sound

sounds ch

itscomponent sounds

word chips