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Phonics, The Basics Explained
Parents of children who are learning to read will most likely have come across the term phonics. The purpose of this article is to give information about how to provide reading help for kids using phonics.
Tell me, what is phonics? Letters and sounds have a particular relationship that is at the same time complicated and simple, this is what phonics is all about. It is the pairing up of spoken and written words. The link between written or printed letters and the corresponding sounds is the essence of phonics, and its that relationship that is taught to children in a phonics learning system. Mixing words to create sentences comes from mixing letters to make words, which in turns comes from blending sounds to make letters etc.
Phonics provides strategic guidance to help early readers ‘sound out’ words. An example might be that they learn that the letter T forms the sound of ‘t’ as in ‘Tiger’. The next stage is to teach how to blend the sounds together to make words. That might sound easy but if you think about the fact that there are 26 letters in the alphabet and they can correspond to 44 sounds maybe not so? The power of phonics is that once mastered it lends the ability to read common words and also spell words that the learner has not seen before.
Whats the big deal about phonics? The whole purpose of reading is to be able to understand things. Being able to read quickly without stumbling is the key to understanding and this is the core strength of phonics teaching. Students need adequate exposure to phonics skills and practising them in tandem with letter recognition and writing skills for example leads to the formation of reading competence.
How do you teach phonics? Using a system and in a sequence. Teachers need to allow children to practice extensively before moving to the next stage. Children are given books at the right level containing words they can decode because they have been working on them. The key here is to offer frequent opportunities for the child to read with the teacher or parent, who can guide and correct, then let them do some writing to really drill the lessons home, and this is a high quality way to provide reading help for kids.
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