Phonics and its Need
- As a PARENT or a TEACHER do you want to improve your children’s ENGLISH READING, WRITING and SPELLING?
- Are you eager to teach children SKILLS by means of which they are able to MASTER the ENGLISH LANGUAGE?
- Have you heard of PHONICS? Do you know that Phonics is a LANGUAGE LEARNING METHODOLOGY?
Mastery over English
English has come to be accepted as a global language of communication at personal as well as professional levels. Command over both written and spoken English is considered essential not only to scale career heights but also for social acceptance.
However, English is a complex and unpredictable language as compared to most other languages. English is still considered a foreign language by many Indians and a large section of our population still finds it hard to master the English language.A vast majority of schools in India have the English language as a subject in their curriculum, and many schools use this language as a medium of instruction as well as assessment.Hence, there is a general desire among majority of Indian parents that their children should learn English very well and gain mastery over both English reading and writing.
Development of Literacy Skills
It has been universally recognized that reading, writing and spelling skills primarily develop in children between the ages of 4 to 7 years. Up to 9 years of age, children can be said to be developing foundational literacy skills. The period spanning nursery through grade four is the most critical for instruction in the language arts.
Therefore, parents at home and pre-primary and primary teachers in schools, play a crucial role in developing in children pre-reading and pre-writing skills in children pertaining to the English language.
But, unfortunately, a large number of children fail to read and spell well even by the end of pre-primary or primary schooling because of the methods employed by parents and teachers to teach children reading and writing skills. Many of the methods used rely essentially on memorizing and symbolism, which in the long run, don’t prove to be that successful.
Phonics
Teaching Phonics Sounds
Phonics is a branch of linguistics where the sounds and physical properties of human speech sounds are studied. Simply put, it is a system of relationships between letters and sounds in a language.
Phonics is an effective tool and a multi-sensory method to teach young children to read and spell as they are taught to link an individual letter or letter combination with its appropriate sound and then blend the sounds to form words. The goal of phonics is to enable ‘beginning readers’ i.e. young pre-schoolers to decode new written words by sounding them out so that they are able to read and spell well.
Phonics is appropriate for young children because, as a method, it:
- is easy to follow and more systematic.
- does not rely on memorizing words, which children may find very difficult.
- is impactful, as it employs a multi-sensory approach; multiple intelligences like auditory, visual, kinesthetic ability of children are put to use.
- is fun, as use of activities, worksheets, games etc. is made to enhance learning.
Need and Importance of Phonics
Phonics Teaching
Research shows that phonics is the most effective way of teaching young children to read, write and spell. It is particularly helpful for children at the pre-primary and primary levels.As a teaching method it is thought to provide many benefits to children who are just beginning to learn the English language.
Phonics helps kids to
- decipher words on their own
- decode words they encounter while reading
- learn new words, building up their vocabulary
- read faster, independently ,effectively and accurately from very early on
- master writing skills
- develop their spelling skills
- improve their independent writing ability
- better their comprehension skills
- initiate progressive learning
All in all, phonics makes it much easier for the children to acquire, learn and masterliteracy skills of reading, writing and spelling.
Not only these, we must understand that children who are able to communicate ably in English are bound to perform well in their academics because they can use English as a means to read more and more and further their knowledge. Such children actually enjoy success in school. They experience less stress and are high on self-esteem and self-confidence. They, thus, develop a remarkable personality.
Phonics in Schools
Learn Phonics for Kids
The teaching of phonics is commonplace in schools in many countries around the world. Several pre-schools and schools affiliated to CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE,IB and State boards in India are also successfully employing phonics in teaching literacy skills to their students in the pre-primary and primary sections.
However, schools face an acute dearth of trained phonics teachers. To ensure that children get appropriate and intensive phonics training, professionally trained phonics teachers are essential.Most schools are always on a look out for professionally trained phonics teachers so as to be able to appoint them. Therefore, an ocean of career opportunities as phonics teachers and trainers lies in this field, ready to be availed.
Phonics and VES
And here comes into highlight the role of Phonics Teacher’s Training Institutes like Vidhyanidhi Education Society (VES).
We at VES have taken upon ourselves to provide professional phonics training through the’Certificate Programme in Phonics Teacher’s Training’.Therefore, the need of the hour for those aspiring to teach phonics to young children, whether parents or teachers is to join this Certificate Programme offered by VES.
