I am always bemused that the phonics versus whole language debate is, well, a debate. Education systems swing back and forth between the two, much to the annoyance of many educators and the detriment of children. First I will give you an overview (admittedly simplified) of each approach.
by Jonathan Zeen Yick Quek
What Is Phonics?
To put it simply, phonics is the method of teaching children to read, which focuses on the individual sounds of letters, or groups of letters, and blending them together. A word is broken down and sounded out (decoded), and then blended together to reveal what the word says.
Advantages Of Phonics
• Many words can be taught at one time in a phonic family. Here's an example of a phonic family: words that end with "at" like rat, cat, sat, etc.
• Phonics equips readers with a strategy to sound out unfamiliar words.
• It helps children to develop spelling skills, and cuts down on them guessing at a word when attempting to read it.
What Are Sight Words?
Sight words are words that a reader recognises instantly. They form the basis of the whole-word approach to teaching reading. In this approach, a word is perceived as a whole unit, without analysis of its subword parts. Young readers are encouraged to recognise the whole word, rather than sound out the individual letters ...
I would have to say that something that is sometimes missed when teaching ESL students English pronunciation is intonation. For ESL students English intonation is an important part of learning English because it not only gives English its rhythm, it also helps you in understanding what a person is saying.
English Intonation comes from the extra emphasis (stress) that native speakers and good non-native speakers place on certain words. The rhythm in English comes from the emphasis that is placed on some words and not on others. Native speakers place extra emphasis on the key words when they speak to make them stand out. The key words are the nouns, main verbs, adjectives, and some other words when needed. If you are able to only hear the emphasized words, you will still be able to understand most of what the person said. You will also notice that native speakers from different countries may place different emphasis on some words.
Native speakers listen for the stressed words because ...
1. What is the American accent, actually?
In fact, there is not one kind of American accent.
The US is huge, and people from different regions speak with different accents.
A guy from Texas can sound quite different from one in New York. There isn't even one type of New Yorker accent.
Similarly, there are different types of Californian accents.
Want some proof for the diversity of the accents? One movie can show you right away.
If you have watched Cars, by Pixar, you'll notice that Lightning McQueen (The red car) speaks English very differently from Mater (the truck). This is because Mater has a strong Southern American accent.
2. What type of accent should you learn?
Most people focus on the "General American" or the so-called Standard one because it doesn't seem to have the regional tastes from various parts of the US.
It is the accent you often hear while watching Hollywood movies or listening to CNN or VOA news.
Furthermore, the General American is also perceived more positively ...
Speak to me only with thine eyes and I will hear every word you say.
Unique in a mix of sounds and intonation, an accent can be an aural delight to the listener. Often he or she will stare at the speaker quizzically, and in some cases smile and even comment with something such as, "What an interesting accent you have!"
What is really going on in that exchange considering the speaker and listener have their own unique accents? Every person has a specific speech pattern within the first language, based on how and where the language was acquired; and it's usually part of regional, cultural, and personal identity. That is deemed a regional accent or regional dialect. Moreover, when a person takes on an additional language, there's usually a degree of overlay of the first language onto the second, which creates a foreign accent. A close linguistic examination might reveal the person's origins, language experiences, and even socio-economic and educational background. While it does not ...
Phonics are the building blocks of learning to read. But lately they have taken a back seat to the Look See method in some countries. Most students can learn to read, no matter what method they are being taught, but the struggling learners need phonics. It has been shown time and again, that phonics are a better way to learn to read, for struggling readers.
The Look See Method has the beautiful books with lots of pictures, while the phonic books are pretty drab, filled with rhyming text that don't always make sense. But you need rhyming to learn to read. And students will learn to read using the Look See Method, but struggling students will have problems.
To be honest, I don't know why some students learn to read easier than others, especially nowadays. But I think it has a lot to do with home life. Parents of reading kids help their kids. They don't live in front of the TV, and they use the computer for knowledge, not to play games or watch videos. But that is not always the case. I ...
Speak to me only with thine eyes and I will hear every word you say.
Unique in a mix of sounds and intonation, an accent can be an aural delight to the listener. Often he or she will stare at the speaker quizzically, and in some cases smile and even comment with something such as, "What an interesting accent you have!"
What is really going on in that exchange considering the speaker and listener have their own unique accents? Every person has a specific speech pattern within the first language, based on how and where the language was acquired; and it's usually part of regional, cultural, and personal identity. That is deemed a regional accent or regional dialect. Moreover, when a person takes on an additional language, there's usually a degree of overlay of the first language onto the second, which creates a foreign accent. A close linguistic examination might reveal the person's origins, language experiences, and even socio-economic and educational background. While it does not ...
I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough...
Others may stumble, but not you,
on hiccough, thorough, slough, and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps, to learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
that looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead;
for goodness' sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
they rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
A moth is not a moth in mother, not both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose,
just look then up - and goose and choose!
And cork and work and card and ward and font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart - come, come! I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Why, man alive! I mastered it when I was five!
And yet, to write it, the more I try, I'll not learn how til the day I die.
Need I say ...
Speak to me only with thine eyes and I will hear every word you say.
Unique in a mix of sounds and intonation, an accent can be an aural delight to the listener. Often he or she will stare at the speaker quizzically, and in some cases smile and even comment with something such as, "What an interesting accent you have!"
What is really going on in that exchange considering the speaker and listener have their own unique accents? Every person has a specific speech pattern within the first language, based on how and where the language was acquired; and it's usually part of regional, cultural, and personal identity. That is deemed a regional accent or regional dialect. Moreover, when a person takes on an additional language, there's usually a degree of overlay of the first language onto the second, which creates a foreign accent. A close linguistic examination might reveal the person's origins, language experiences, and even socio-economic and educational background. While it does not ...
