Teach English in Yuegai Zhen - Yushu Zangzu Zizhizhou

As I live in Macau, China, I teach mostly Chinese students. This is how I explain Phonics to my Chinese students as an introduction to Phonics. I use the whiteboard to write a lot of this down as I explain Phonics. The English language has 26 symbols, or letters. These 26 letters combine to make 44 sounds in the English language. With these letters we make words, unlike the Chinese language which uses symbols for words. With these words we make sentences. With these sentences we express ideas visually and verbally. What is the Alphabet? The alphabet is composed of 26 letters. These 26 letters are divided into two types; vowels and consonants. Vowels are further divided into two types of sounds: short vowels and long vowels. Some letters are combined to create different sounds then the individual letters that compose them. These are called and digraphs and diphthongs. What is Phonics? “Phonics” is all about teaching the sounds in English words. With phonics, you will have the confidence to identify the vowels, consonants & syllables and can at least attempt to read the word. Phonics basically teaches you how to sound out words in the English language. Phonics has proven time and again to be the most effective way to get new English learners reading early. What is a phoneme? A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can differentiate meaning. For example, in the word cat, we can hear three distinct phonemes (or, sounds) /k/ /a/ /t/. If we change /k/ /a/ /t/ to /k/ /a/ /p/ the meaning of the word will change completely. Therefore, it is very important for you to be able to clearly hear and distinguish phonemes (sounds). What is a grapheme? A grapheme is the smallest unit of written language that can differentiate meaning. A grapheme could be a letter or a symbol. The letter 'a' is an example of a grapheme. The sound (phoneme) the grapheme 'b' make can be /b/ as in boy. The problem with English is that we have 26 letters of the alphabet, but over 44 phonemes, or sounds. For example, 'c' can make two sounds. We have 'c' as in cat and 'c' as in city. Also, 'c' can combine with 'h' to make a different sound /ch/ as in cheese. Another letter that can make two sounds is 'g'. There is 'g' as in get and 'g' as in giraffe. Another of these letters is 'y'. The letter 'y' makes 4 different sounds as in these words: yellow, gym, candy, fly. This means, the letters of the alphabet are unreliable for teaching phonemes, but they can be a good start for teaching key graphemes and phonemes. That is why phonics goes way beyond letters of the alphabet. There different types of phonemes (sounds) in English. Sounds are commonly broken up into three groups - Vowels, Consonants and Diphthongs. Vowels are sounds that are said without stopping the flow of air from your lungs. The most commonly known vowel sounds are made by the letters a, e, i, o, u. These letters can represent short and long vowels. Try to say the following words: apple, egg, igloo, octopus, up. Did you notice that when you say the short vowel sounds of a, e, i, o, u, the air in your mouth isn't stopped? That's what vowels do. The most common misconception people have is that there are 5 vowels in English. There are 6 letters (a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y) that commonly represent vowels, but there are at least 19 vowel sounds in English. Consonants are sounds that are made by partial or complete closure of air coming from your lungs. Consonants are most commonly represented by all other letters that are NOT vowels. The consonants are most often represented by symbols b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y & z. There are 25 consonant sounds in English. A digraph is when a pair of letters come together to make one sound. There are consonant and vowel digraphs. For example, s + h combines to make the sound we hear at the end of push. Common consonant digraphs include: ch as in chair, sh as in ship, th as in thank, ng as in ring, ph as in elephant, ck as in truck. Common vowel digraphs include: oa as in boat, ee as in feet, ai as in rain, oy as in toy, etc. There are 26 letters of the alphabet. The 26 letters can be manipulated to make 44 sounds in the English language. Of these sounds, 19 are vowel sounds, while 25 are consonant sounds. The vowels are most commonly represented by the symbols a, e, i, o, u. The consonants are most often represented by symbols b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y & z. By playing around with these 26 letters, through phonics, we can learn the 44 sounds (phonemes).