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- don't teach phonics in isolation

- use a combination of phonics and whole word approach

- L1 may influence how YL react to the phonics approach

- understanding differences between L1 and L2 helps

- involve parents and explain your approach

- in some circumstances a 'top down' ie whole word approach, might be more effective

This discussion started with a request for information from:

Mario Escobar in Peru

' ... I would like to read opinions with regard to 'The use of PHONICS in the primary and pre-school class...'

Sally in Korea responded with:

' ... I'm strongly in favour of a phonics approach, however I think it shouldn't
be taught in isolation from whole language/whole word strategies. Here in
Korea our first level classes for 7 year olds is based on phonics and
previously I taught 5 and 6 year olds in the Middle East using a phonics
approach. In the Middle East I had a number of parents whose children learnt
'whole words by sight' thank me for the teaching because it gave the kids a
tool to decode new words with ... '

Helen Doron in Israel replied:

' ... about phonics: I have understood that the whole-word approach is best used with the up to 5-year-olds for whom the idea of sounds and letters is too abstract. I have understood this to be the approach used in UK schools for teaching English kids to read English. From age 6 up, it appears that phonics makes a lot of sense, but, as Sally points out, not without also combining it with the whole-word approach.

The learning set used within Helen Doron Early English for teaching the basis of reading and writing (the set is called "Botty the Robot Teaches You English") uses the principle of phonics + whole language and whole words.

I have also taught kids in Israel that had severe learning disabilities and aged 13 still couldn't do more than read a few isolated letters in English. For them, the phonic approach combined with reading the same words again and again + recording for them passages to learn to read (once they had the basis), had them reading within weeks! It gives the kids so much self-esteem to succeed like this... '

Sally in Korea reponded with:

' ... I know that some schools in UK have a great deal of success with phonics at younger levels (including pre-school ages). My own experience with 5 years olds was fine. One thing we have to watch out for is that in an English speaking environment kids will pick it up much quicker because their
exposure is greater. I'd have to say that in the Middle East the 5/6 year
olds heard a lot of English outside the classroom, whereas here in Korea
it's much harder for them to grasp despite having an L1 which is
phonetically regular (sound/spelling).

Helen raises another point re: children with a learning disability... it
appears they learn better from a top down approach. They really need the
context to help them understand the language and then finally the words. If
any of you can get a hold of "Educating Second Language Children", Genesee, Fred (ED), 1994, Cambridge University Press, then Chapter 6 is very informative on second language literacy in general (chpt. 11 also deals with literacy and learning disabilities in immigrant bilingual children).

As with most of these things an important thing to consider is the
children's mother tongue...is it phonetically regular, is it a different
script, does it share any/many/most of the same phonemes. And, just as
important, do the parents have any knowledge of it! Here we've had to run
parent's training sessions so that they could understand our approach (Mums
just didn't understand why we weren't doing A,B,C). Pron is a big issue here
and I'm thinking of making a cassette to accompany our programme so that the students have a 'good' model to copy (I've got an INSETT course at the
moment for Primary teachers and one proudly stood up and said "I teach
Ponics") As a rule I avoid taking on any one approach 100% as nothing is
perfect!...'

Suggested website:-

http://www.frontlinephonics.com/research.html

Wendy Arnold in Hong Kong added:

' ... "Phonics, the latest bandwagon (in Hong Kong) , do you/don't you, how much/how often ... my gut feeling is THANK GOODNESS I learnt English (and Spanish, I was born in Lima) as a child.  And WHY does English have to be soooooooooo contrary, compared to a language like Spanish.  Basically Spanish is a case of what you see/hear is what you get, every single letter has it's own sound that doesn't change by its position of another letter, UNLIKE its counterpart English who makes a fuss and nonsense depending upon who it sits next to.  

So Mario, phonics, yes, important but NOT in isolation.  The vowel sounds I think are essential BUT your learners need to understand that unlike the Spanish sounds which don't change, the English ones DO change depending on the other letters which sit next to them. I think is it about 70% of English words which can be 'sounded' out like Spanish (although probably you won't get the stress and intonation right without hearing it), so basically if you've learnt the sounds you can work out how to say the word. BUT that nasty other 30% are a nightmare and have just got to be learnt.  There is really no rhyme or reason for them and to make matters worse depending on what part of the UK/English speaking world you come from, the stress is different, making it sound completely different!

An understanding of both languages, ie L1 of your learners and English is crucial, I think this one of my problems in Hong Kong, I don't speak/understand Cantonese and it has taken me soooooo long to get to grips on common problems.   A fabulous resource is Coe, N (1987)  Speakers of Spanish and Catalan. In M. Swan & B. Smith (eds) Learner English. A teacher's guide to interference and other problems. UK:Cambridge University Press.    Having a quick scout through under phonology it agrees that there are similarities between Spanish and English (and remember, but of course you do know, latin american spanish is yet again different to Spain spanish, so take these generalisations with a pinch of salt ...) but the vowels systems and sentence stress are very different (I promise I hadn't read this when I wrote the above ...) and it is these differences that '... cause great difficulty for Spanish-speaking learners of English ...'.  Spanish has 5 pure vowels and 5 dipthongs, Spanish learners find it difficult in differentiating between English vowels, especially 'where length is a part of the difference'.  Two English vowels share the 'phonetic space' occupied by one spanish vowel, so 'one-to-one correspondences are 'practically impossible'!!!!!   This book goes on to identify the differences in consonants, consonant clusters (which are less frequent in Spanish, so learners have difficulty 'perceiving and producing English clusters'), influence of spelling on pronounciation, rhythm and stress and tinotnation - it then goes off into the realms of orthography and punctuation.   

I think what is vital is having an awareness of these differences BUT a huge caution young learners may well not care less!  Older ones who are keen to master the language MIGHT take an interest in learning about the differences but the little ones .... stick to telling them 'well it's just like this, no reason for it, that's the way the English do it, end of story' (and they, the English, don't know why EITHER ...)!

Helen Doron in Israel responded with:

' ... the cassette sounds a good idea. However, it isn't just a case of "a good model to copy". It's the ear of the child / student getting used to the sounds of the language as well as being able to associate the sound with its written form and to independently be able to do this again and again... '

Jennifer Dobson in Spain added:

' ...   where I work, in Southern Spain, reading and writing really begins from the age of 6 in L1. Although many children may well be doing so earlier you cannot assume that any under this age can even write their name. However, like another contributor to this group, I believe very much in a top down approach for my learners and have had great success in playing games matching whole words to vocab at, in theory, non reader level. In my particular circumstances I found a phonic approach, even though the simple vowels are similar in Spanish, to be less effective.   My question here might be, do the children feel more immediate rewards from getting to know the whole word, as to feeling slightly cheated in the fact that with phonics they are often only half way there? ...'