Integrating Synthetic Phonics and EFL Teaching sound-spelling relationships to improve our students’ pronunciation and literacy skills Karen Elliott

Sounds and language

splashcluck tap tapcrunch drip beep tick tockboom knock moo popoink

Pictures, symbols and phonemes

bc / kdfgh bat rabbit cat kick dog daddy fish puff elephant golf dog bigger hat jlmnpr jam giraffe orange bridge leg silly map mummy net sunny know pig happy rock hurry write stvwxyz sun dress horse circle top kitty vanwind when boxyeszoo buzz cheese legs chshth / thqung chips witch ship chef that / threequeen king think The English Alphabetic Code with some alternative spellings: consonants Graphemes: one letter = one sound. Digraphs: two letters = one sound

aeiou anteggininononupup aieeieoaueoi rain day lake see eat scene funny pie my light mine boat yellow home cue new cube oil boy ouoo / ooarorer house brown look / moon blue rule parkshort talk awful autumn her bird nurse sister The English Alphabetic Code with some alternative spellings : vowels Graphemes: one letter = one sound; digraphs: two letters = one sound

Blending and segmenting Blending is putting the letter sounds together in order to read words Segmenting is separating the letter sounds out in order to write words r – e – d gr – ee – n bl – a – ck

Tricky words... Don’t follow the sound- spelling patterns of the Alphabetic code Are usually still semi- decodable Can be learned through words that rhyme or have the same sound Are taught progressively A, the, I We, he, she, me, be You, to, do, two Go, so, piano One, done, come, some

Pronunciation: consonant pairs Vic sells fans from the back of his van. f / v Snakes hiss and bees buzz. s / z

Pronunciation: key vowel phonemes Short vowel sounds a (fan) / u (fun) Short / long vowel sounds i / ee (sit – seat) o / oa (got – goat) Other important vowel sounds or (for, saw, walk) er (person, circle, purple, learn, word) er / ǝ / (computer)

Pronunciation: vowel sounds rain cheese tied road blues noise noun fern boys plane news code town please turn ride

Green words Go! bag pen rubber bb is the same as b Yellow words Check pencil crayon pencil case file Sometimes c has the s sound ay has the ai sound: day a_e has the same sound as ai (train, rain) i_e is the ie sound: it’s a split digraph Red words Stop! notebook ruler sharpener note rhymes with boat and book rhymes with look The u in ruler is long /’rooler/; it comes from rule (u_e is a split digraph) sharpener is an easy word but it’s long! It has two short er sounds / ǝ /. Topic: Classroom objects. The green words below are easy to read. You need to learn some basic spelling rules to read the yellow words. There are no tricky words in this list, but you need a bit more information to read the red words.

Some websites Videos Phonics at Brookland’s School Phonics without tears resource/Teachers-TV-Phonics-without- Tears / uk/http/PhonicsWeb.htm toryCode= sounds.com/ cy/#.T0UWpHm4KSo archive.cfm/NewsletterID/24.cfm#1 23

Good literacy skills give access to rest of the curriculum