English faculty II english language Teaching methodology department№2

§1.2. Theoretical basis of strategies in teaching phonics to young learners
The phonics emphasis in reading draws heavily from behaviorist learning theory that is associated with the work of the Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner while the whole language emphasis draws from constructivist learning theory and the work of the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky.Teaching phonics Focus on vowels.Almost every word in the English language contains a vowel, so teaching children vowel sounds is a great starting point for your phonics strategies. But, vowels have short and long sounds to differentiate between, so this is a big phonics skill to learn - for example, the letter 'a' has a short sound in 'cat' but a long sound in 'cake'. Learning the vowel sounds early on will provide children with solid building blocks of phonics learning, and will make more sense when you start adding consonants to make words. Try our wonderful Short Vowels Bingo Game.After vowel sounds, focus on CVC words (consonant - vowel - consonant). It will allow children to start to read simple, single syllable words - and if they can master this, they will soon be able to apply this knowledge to read multi-syllabic words too! You may like to start with teaching them the most common consonants first, such as m, s, f, c, p and t. These sounds are nice and simple to pronounce, and can open up a whole range of CVC words to get children started, such as 'mat', 'sit' and 'cup'. Take a look at our CVC Word and Picture Interactive Matching Activity
to young pupils is extremely remunerating since they are less-cognizant than older pupils. However, the instructors think that its troublesome since the students need to learn vocabularies, pronunciation, structure, function to say what they want. Moreover, puts forward two core values in teaching speaking youthful pupils:Use your arm to sound out words.
This is one of many reading strategies for kids that involves kinaesthetic learning - that is, tactile learning using the sense of touch. It involves sounding out words on your arm and encouraging children to do the same. Here's how you do it: hold your arm out in front of you with your other hand at your shoulder, then tap down your arm, saying each sound in a word as you go. Once you've reached the end, return your hand to your shoulder and say the whole word, sliding all the way down your arm as you do so. For example, say 'c - a - t' with a distinct tap for each sound, then say 'cat' as you slide.Visual and tactile tools, like the word slide, are beneficial for some visual learners: it can really help children focus in on the sequence of letters and how words are structured; improve memory and allow them to retain and recall information; enable them to work independently to decode a word (even if no other tools are available); and it can be more fun and engaging that other methods too!Use nonsense words
Nonsense words are words like 'blurst' or 'terg' which sound like they could be real words, but have no meaning. You may ask, what is the point of teaching children words that are not real, and they will never use? Well, using nonsense or silly words is an important part of your reading strategy for kids. Firstly, it's important for children to practising reading all and any word, real or not! This will help them practice the sounds they have learnt so far and put their decoding knowledge to use. Secondly, it's a great way for teachers to assess children's phonetics ability by seeing if they know individual sounds, and whether they can blend them together to decode words they have never seen before. Check out this Phase 2 & 3 Phonics Screening PowerPoint.
Phase 2 and 3 Phonics Screening Support PowerPoint
Phase 2 & 3 Phonics Screening PowerPoint.Introduce word families
Word families are groups of words that have a common feature, for example 'bake', 'cake' and 'make' all belong to the word family 'ake'. If children can learn what these common feature are, then it will make reading and spelling new words in this word family easier. Great phonics strategies for teaching about word families include using onset and rime - onset are the sounds at the beginning of a word, and rime are the groups sounds that follow. Breaking words down into these elements makes it easier for children to see different word families in action and improves phonological awareness. For example, take the word 'fig' - the onset is 'f' and the rime is 'ig', put them together to make the word 'fig'. Then when a child faces the word 'jig' they can spot the pattern (and the word family 'ig') and decode the word. Why not try our Onset and Rime Activity Pack?Try chanting
It may sound very old-fashioned, like learning grammar in a turn of the century schoolroom, but chanting can be a very effective phonics strategy for children. This technique involves holding up a series of flashcards, each one featuring an individual phonics grapheme. You say the sound out loud and the children repeat, using the cards as a visual clue. It's a really simple, quick and easy activity to do at the start of each day to revise the sounds you are learning that week - you can make it fun too by doing a little dance, or some actions as you work through them! Repeating the sounds on a regular basis help children to retain the information. This Phoneme Phonics Flashcards Pack could help.
Phase 2-5 Phoneme Phonics Flashcards Pack
Phoneme Phonics Flashcard Pack
Use pictures and props.We mentioned using the word slide as a visual learning tool earlier, but there are lots of other ways you can use visual examples as part of a reading strategy for kids. Why not try using flashcards that feature the phonics sound as well as a bright and colourful image of an item with that sound? Picture examples are important for visual learners as they can help them make the connection between the sounds and their associations, and help them remember. Playdough or other toys can be used to add a visual element to words and bring some fun into the activity. Or you can even break words down using your fingers as props - for example, for the word 'car' hold up your index finger which represents the 'c' sound. Then hold up your middle and ring fingers together (so they are touching) to represent the two letters 'a' and 'r' that make the one sound 'ar'. Try these Phonics Playdough Mats.
Look for patterns.Children may grasp phonics when they are dealing with individual words or sounds, but when you put all these into the context of a sentence, paragraph or a larger text, they may get a little lost. Pattern searches make a useful addition to your reading strategies for kids, to help children spot repeating sounds, word families and categorise words which have the same form - and they can be fun too. Provide children with a piece of text, a story or even a magazine or newspaper and send them on a mission to hunt out a particular phoneme - can they find all the words that start with 'st'? Can they find all the words that end in 'ake'? Use highlighter pens to make the activity even more colourful and to make the patterns easier to spot! Break it down When children have grasped single syllable words, they will be ready to move on to tackling more complex, multi-syllable words. But sometimes when faced with a long word, children can feel a little overwhelmed. The solution is chunking! This involves covering up the word with your hand, or a piece of paper, and revealing it in 'chunks' at a time, so that children can decode each syllable separately and finally put it all together. For example, the two chunks 'mon' and 'key' go together to make the word 'monkey'! Play computer games
There are many digital games and apps out there to help children with their phonics, so don't be afraid to use them as one of your phonics strategies. Children love computer games, so it's the perfect way for them to learn and have fun at the same time. They provide an ideal visual tool to help children with all the reading strategies for kids mentioned above. It allows children to be creative, to experiment and to not be afraid to get things wrong - they can always try again! Plus, it encourages them to want to improve, to beat their score, or see if they can get it right next time. Why not check out some fun phonics games on TwinklGo!
Phonics is a crucial part of the Irish primary curriculum for children.






Imitatives the learners' ability to parrot back or repeat the others’ speech as a word, a phrase or a sentence. This type of repetition involves grammar and lexis which are useful to interact in a conversation or to convey the meaning. Intensive speaking is the product of short discourses where the learners have to complete the tasks like reading aloud and completing sentences and dialogues. The role of teachers in training the learners in speaking skills is crucial in English classrooms. According to Vilar (2003)¹, “Teachers have two primary functions in education: the managerial and the instructional functions. The latter refers to the conditions that teachers create for learning to take place and the other is the knowledge that the teachers impart in the classrooms. Teachers should carry out these functions simultaneously for efficient language instruction because they cannot be separated”. The teachers are expected to play a key role in imparting quality education in ELT classrooms, both in ESL/EFL settings, especially in teaching language skills. To achieve this quality, teachers should use their skills, knowledge and various techniques to motivate the learners towards the learning of language skills. In this context, teachers should act as facilitators, motivators, organizers, monitors, participants, assessors, models, observers, and so on. When it comes to teaching speaking skills, the role of teachers is essential because speaking skills can be taught effectively by teachers applying various techniques such as interaction, motivation and encouragement. After proper training in these areas, the teachers have to provide the learners with a number of opportunities to make use of them in their speaking practice sessions.
Moreover, the teachers are supposed to conduct some learner-focused activities like activity-based or task-based activities that involve the learners to develop their speaking skills in the real classroom environment. Here the teachers can implement innumerable activities such as JAM (Just a Minute) sessions, roe-plays, group discussions, preparing for both interviews and presentations and preparing the learners to present papers in conferences, seminars, workshops, etc. The role of teachers is very crucial here to prepare the learners for their future career and prepare them to be competent in their speaking skills as the classroom is the main platform for learners to perform these tasks.
Harmer (2007, pp. 58-59)² says, “The role of a teacher is related to organize learners in the classroom when doing different tasks, this means grouping students and providing them with information about the way they are going to do such activity in a limited time. The teacher, when plays this role in the classroom, has to be aware of making learners understand what they are going to do in order to make them involved and benefit from the activity they are practising”. The teachers should organize his students in terms of group work and pair work and involve them in their activities because they cannot be successful without their active participation in speaking activities. The teachers should guide the learners in their activities by giving them instructions, instruct and monitor the tasks and give them their feedback at the end. Furthermore, Harmer shows the role of a teacher as an organizer in the following way:

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  engage
  
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  instruct (demonstrate)
  
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  initiate
  
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  organize
  
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  feedback.
  

Speaking skills help learners in getting success in all fields of life. A good knowledge of vocabulary and a wide range of English language skills help learners in getting better opportunities in their future career. Once the learners attain good command over both grammar and vocabulary, they can perform well in their speaking skills. Having talent in expressing their own ideas with good speaking skills is a passport for success in their life. Good speaking skills even widen the options in selecting a suitable job.
With excellent speaking skills, they can advance in their professions or jobs in the fields of business, sales, communications, computers, teaching, information technology, law, administration, management, marketing, reception, software industry, pharmaceutical industry, hospitality industry, tourism, government jobs, doctorates, customer service, and what not. Moreover, Freeman (1994, p. 153)³ state that “language develops in context of functional use”, teachers should “create situations in which all their students use language for a variety of purposes and with a variety of people” (As quoted in Mc Cafferty et al, 2006, p. 21⁴). From this quotation, we can deduce that doing a group work in the classroom increases the learner-learner interaction since working in groups provides learners with opportunities to speak with one another, give suggestions and so on. Therefore, English language teachers need to conduct various activities in the classrooms and language labs such as JAM (Just a Minute) sessions, role-plays, discussions, interviews, presentations, seminars and so on in the process of developing speaking skills among the learners by adopting activity-based or task-based approach. Without the active participation of learners, it is not possible for teachers to train them in speaking skills. Thus, both teachers and learners have to engage themselves in various activities.