Phonics

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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. In the United States the term is also sometimes used to refer to a particular instructional design such as that used by the commercial Hooked on Phonics products.

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Phonics in English

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

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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".
  • Each vowel has two sounds: one long and one short.Template:Ref The long sound is the same as its name. The long sounds are in ape, even, nice, home, and tune. Their short equivalents are cat, bed, sit, hot, and cup. Template:Ref
  • 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.
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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"
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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".
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Criticism

  • Template:NoteThis is not the sense in which the terms long and short are used in linguistics.
  • Template:NoteA 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'.

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.

Don Potter's Education Page and free quicktime movies at The Phonics Page.

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Phonics symbols

Teachers who use phonics to teach reading often use a set of symbols to help pupils learn to sound out words in text. Typically, "long" vowels are marked with a horizontal line above the letter (a macron), while short vowels are left blank or given a curvy line above (a breve). Texts might also cross out silent letters or use other symbols to represent irregular vowels.

A text used in a phonics classroom might look like this:

"Mȳ căt āte cāke."

A pupil familiarized with the phonics symbols will read the vowels correctly (although, in this case, the symbols do not help differentiate between the two possible sounds of the letter "c.") Eventually, the pupil will not need the symbols to be able to read the words correctly.

A similar system is used in teaching Hebrew, which has only consonants and silent letters in its alphabet. Beginners first learn to read with vowel symbols next to the letters, then move onto texts without the vowel symbols.

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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"). (see synthetic phonics)

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 drawbacksTemplate:Fn. 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. The subject has been promoted by a cross-party group of Parliamentarians, particularly Nick Gibb MP. 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.

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Notes

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

Jim Rose's group has now reported and the UK Government has decreed that synthetic phonics should be the method of choice for teaching reading in primary schools in England.

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See also

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External links

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