phonemes momemes...la la la

seng htoi wendy Tue Nov 11, 2008 12:47 pm

Phonemes and much much more....

The way in which children learn the sounds of letters in order to be able to read whole words seems to be far more complex than the average person would think. Not that the average person would even think about such a mind exhausting concept such as the psychology behind how we learn to read. However, as future educators of this country, we are the lucky ones who do need to think about these concepts and practice them in the classroom. Plus, now that the Rose Report has been instated in the new Primary National Strategy, as teachers we will be expected to know the depths of phonics and the joy it brings to all. No, seriously, we will have to use their new system of teaching the basic phonics to Key Stage 1 pupils with the target of making them into able readers by the time they are age seven. This six phase strategy, with ‘high quality phonic work’ as a main objective, is the government’s attempt to raise the reading and writing standard of children in the UK. Not every educator will agree with their concentration on phonics by breaking apart words and learning to read by each sound of every letter, but the Rose Report had enough evidence for the government to believe that this system is the best in improving literacy. There are others that believe that studies of children’s learning prove this theory to be wrong to some respect. They see synthetic phonics as something that will destroy the child’s enjoyment of a book, thus making the child less motivated to read and ‘could deprive children of literary experiences.’

From my experience reading with children, mainly in an EAL classroom, I found that synthetic phonics need not be a bore. If you, as the teacher, create a fun type of game to teach phonics then the children will view the skills they acquire from knowing synthetic phonics as a tool to read out more accurately. When they are confident about their pronunciation of the words, they began to enjoy reading books with a sense of pride at their achievement. The concept of word recognition and comprehension was not one I was aware of at the time, but I instinctively decided to ask them questions about the story that they read to me. I would point out at different items on the picture and ask them if they knew what it was. If they knew the name, I would then ask them if they knew the purpose for that specific item. The children I taught were mainly from Afghanistan or Poland, so their understanding of English culture was limited. I would ask them if they understood what was said in the book because often they would just ‘read’ the words, as in making the right sounds, yet not bothering to understand what it meant. I found it strange that the teacher there had not picked up on this. The pupils told me that they found it more fun to read with me because I would engage with them about the story, explaining the story to them in a way that put meaning behind the letters and their sounds. I have also noticed that if children only learn words as a whole, they can easily mistake words that look similar because they do not look at individual letters. So I have seen the pros and cons of both arguments to teaching children how to read and spell. I believe that most teachers would use an appropriate mix from both systems to make reading an enjoyment rather than a chore.

Phonics with its phonemes, graphemes and so on, is not the most thrilling subject but it explains the basic skills we all learnt somehow, in either system, so that it helped us to read better. I am not for or against either and think they both have their merits and as a teacher I will be utilising both. With education, we should not be opposed to anything that obviously works for a large majority of people. It is good that we have two systems since not everyone learns in the same way, so we are able to pick and choose from both and adapt them to suit each pupil. This is definitely an advantage!