Teaching the sounds of English to young children

2. When to start?
• Ages 3 to 4, generally
• Shows attempts to read a word
• Individual letter sounds in
kindergarten
• More advanced phonics, such as
rules for short and long vowel
sounds, in the first and second
grades

3. How important is it?
• Learn to read and spell
words
• Knowledge to decode
unknown words
• understand important
concepts of print

4. Why teach it?
• at least half million words in
the English language
• choice in teaching
reading:
emphasize memorization
or teach phonics!

5. Why teach it?
• Memorization
• repeatedly exposure
to as many words as
possible
• ‘Seeing’ words
becomes the means
by which they learn
the words.
• Success due to ability
to memorize and
recall words instantly
• Phonics
• reading foundation
based on letters and
sounds of the
alphabet
• Once aware of the 26
letters with their 44
sounds, they have the
tools to read any
words, whether they
have ever seen them
or not

6. What are the
considerations?
• strong picture support
• use repetition & rhyme
• have controlled, repeated
vocabulary
• use natural language

7. What are the
considerations?
• text is large and clear with
only 1-2 sentences per
page
• Associate a given letter to a
corresponding sound they
represent

8. What are the
considerations?
• Tell a story while doing
actions the child can
remember
• Ask pupils to draw letters on
the board or in the air

9. Let’s give
a try

10. But hey, which
letter will we
start?

11. Generally, we can
do the ABCs
sequence or the
letter grouping
technique

12. What are the
techniques?

17. Let’s test
your phonics
teaching
skill

44. The letter
grouping
technique

45. s – a – t – i – p -
n

46. c/k – e – h – r – m -
d

47. g – o – u – l – f - b

48. ai – j – oa – ie – ee
– or

49. z – w – ng – v – 00
- oo

50. y – x – ch – sh – th
– th

51. qu – ou – oi – ue –
er – ar

52. E
is
for
- END -

53. THAT’S ALL
for
NOW