The word that is read must then find a match in the semantic meaning area of the brain for comprehension to occur. Beginning readers do not make direct connections between print and meaning in the same way that skilled readers do. However, as children become proficient readers with a large store of familiar words via a process called orthographic mapping, the phonological route to meaning is required less often. This presentation by David Kilpatrick addresses the nature and causes of reading difficulties; the importance of explicit instruction in advanced phonemic awareness, and fluency as a byproduct of having instant access to most or all of the words on the page.
While some other alphabetic languages have close to letter sound correspondence each letter has one sound associated with it , written English has 44 sounds associated with the 26 letters of its alphabet — some sounds are represented by combinations of letters eg.
This characteristic of English makes good phonics teaching more rather than less important — the complexity of English makes it difficult for children to learn the rules and the exceptions without careful and explicit teaching. Letters stand for sounds in spoken language. The majority of words young kids come across are decodable, from simple words like top to more challenging ones like peach or raccoon.
Phonics is, hands-down, the best way to teach kids to read words. This is well-supported by research: we know that systematic phonics instruction is better than any other approach when it comes to learning to read. Why is it so effective? Because phonics gives your child the tools to read almost every word he or she comes across.
Learning phonics will have a big payoff for your child. The more success your child has using phonics to read words, the more capable and confident he or she will feel about reading. Phonics is best taught systematically, starting with the easiest elements and working up to more challenging ones. For most kids, it begins in kindergarten and wraps up by the end of second grade.
From kindergarten through second grade, learning to read is exciting, but it can also be challenging. This is completely normal. With the right instruction and lots of practice and encouragement, your child will master these skills.
So, how can you support your child? Your child will learn phonics at school, but there are some great ways you can support your child at home. For example, some programs, such as Embedded Phonics, teach phonics by asking children to guess unfamiliar words using cues, such as the meaning of a word gleaned from sentence context. Other programs ask children to look at words for example, pig , page , pen all start with the same sound and learn letter-sound rules by analysing or making comparisons between those words analogy or analytical phonics.
These programs are not as effective as those focusing on letter-sound knowledge taught in an explicit and systematic fashion. Phonics instruction teaches children how to decode letters into their respective sounds, a skill that is essential for them to read unfamiliar words by themselves.
Keep in mind that most words are in fact unfamiliar to early readers in print, even if they have spoken knowledge of the word. Having letter-sound knowledge will allow children to make the link between the unfamiliar print words to their spoken knowledge. Another aspect that is rarely discussed is that the letter-sound decoding process itself is a learning mechanism.
For example, make a mental note of how you feel when reading the following words:. When you first read these words, you probably used your letter-sound knowledge, which involved two important processing stages:. To read English well and have strong communication skills, students must learn the sounds of English letters and understand how they work together. When phonics is introduced as a way to teach English, language learners can learn correct pronunciation and grammar to avoid flaws that will result in poor communication.
Phonics provides a foundation of learning meant to help make reading easier. Phonics builds a foundation used to help children learn to read by breaking down words into sounds and building letter and word recognition. This can enhance a child's ability to use unknown words in the future.
0コメント