MFL & INCLUSION

LEARNING & TEACHING
the importance of phonics

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Personal experience and recent research suggest that we do our learners a severe disservice if we fail to give them a solid grounding in the sound/spelling links characteristic of the foreign language they are learning. This applies equally to gifted learners and to those who are struggling with the language. Gifted learners will be able to learn more independently if they are able to sound correctly any new word they come across. Struggling learners' self-confidence grows if they can be reasonably sure at least of sounding right.

Not so long ago, it was suggested that learning the sound of a new word should precede introduction to the spelling. Flash cards typically had a picture on one side, and the printed version of the word on the other. Learners did not get to see the spelling until they had mastered the sound of the word. The argument being that their pronunciation would be affected by a tendancy to apply the sound/spelling rules of the mother tongue. But this technique has been shown to be erroneous; learners who are NOT introduced gradually and systematically to the sound/spelling system of the language they are learning have not other option than to refer to the only rules they know: those of the mother tongue. Failing to demonstrate text and sound in association disadvantages learners who rely on visual 'hooks' to support their learning.

Many test books in current use still ignore the emerging evidence, so provide little help for teachers wishing to develop this aspect of their teaching. Find below the evidence I have found to date which supports my own experience, and links to the very few materials I have tracked down. If you know of any others, please let me know. (Contact details)

EVIDENCE

• This is an abstract from a study done in Finland and it's about learning English as a foreign language, but it's quite short and very interesting:
  http://kirjasto.utu.fi/julkaisupalvelut/annaalit/2004/B276.html
• Another short piece on Using Phonemic Awareness with ESL Students which concludes that by failing to teach phonics we're condemning all but the brightest learners to reading AS IF they were dyslexic...
  http://support.plato.com/downloads/instructional/readinghorizons/PhonemicAwareness.pdf
• A book published in2006 by CILT deals with phonics, vocabulary learning and grammatical awareness. See Patterns and Procedures: focus on phonics and grammar by Heather Rendall. Heather maintains that current practice often leaves learners with no option but to struggle with the foreign language in ways similar to the difficulties that dyslexic students experience in learning and using English. She offers practical advice on how to present and practise newvocabulary and grammar in the early stages so that that learners become competent and self-sufficient and above all literate in their new language. Find further details here: http://www.cilt.org.uk/publications/cpf6.htm
• For a piece of home-grown research, see Lynn Erler's article on Near-beginner learners of French are reading at a disability level in the ALL Journal 'Francophonie' (No. 30, Autumn 2004, pp9-15). Reproduced here with permission.

• I am grateful to ALL and Llewelin Siddons for permission to make available here some extracts from the author's article Practical reflections on the sound/spelling link. The complete article was published in 'Francophonie', Spring 2001, No 23, pages 10-14.

RESOURCES

• See the French website: http://phonetique.free.fr
• A paper on language immersion amongst the 5-14 resources. From page 2 there are some ideas on how to teach phonics in French and German: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/5to14/Images/immersioninlanguage_tcm4-122211.pdf
• A Guide to German pronunciation from the University of Portsmouth:
  http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~joyce1/abinitio/pronounce/
• The only other teaching resource I've found to support teaching of 'foreign' phonics is the Glasgow 5-14 pack. Some sounds/spellings are included in each unit, and the resources on the disc provide a compilation. A similar listing for French is available to download from the site linked to above. Perhaps you could customise it with examples of words from your own text book.

Looking for phonetic fonts for your Mac or PC? The Interntional Phonetic Association can provide information and links. You'll find a link to the relevant pages here: http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipafonts.html
 

If you are teaching English as a foreign language to children whose dyslexia requires a stronger focus on phonics, this BBC site may be of interest: http://www.bbcactivefunwithphonics.com

Online pronunciation guide to nine varieties of the English language, plus varieties of French and German. Also Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese, Mandarin and Thai. Includes pages on voiced and voiceless sounds, stress and tone, suggestions for teachers and learners.
http://www.fonetiks.org
 

21.3.09 See John Bald's weblog for his comments on French Spelling Unpacked (in 3 parts)
http://johnbald.typepad.com/language/french-spelling-unpacked/
 

21.3.09 Facilecture A website to help young French readers and their teachers with sound-spelling correspondance.
http://www.facilecture.fr/

23.5.09 Facilealire A tool kit contaiing all you and your pupils need to know about how to read French words correctly.
http://facilalire.fr/
 

9.6.09 Fun with phonics An article from CILT's primary Languages website.
http://www.primarylanguages.org.uk/teaching%20and%20learning/using%20the%20ks2%20framework/oracy/fun%20with%20phonics.aspx
 

SOUND BITE:

If we fail to teach phonics, we are condemning many of our pupils to be quasi-dyslexic in the foreign language.

ALPHABETS

3.9 09 A number of websites have recently come to my attention. Some of them may be relevant to the question of phonics and all are interesting:

A webpage with recordings of each letter being pronounced and links to other alphabet-related article.
http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/a/alphabet.htm

An interactive website in which each letter takes you to a page with a colorful graphic of that letter to attract your kids' attention while you play sound files of that letter's pronunciation as well as several words that begin with that letter.
http://french.about.com/library/teachers/kids/bl-kids-alpha.htm

A Wikipedia article about the French alphabet is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_alphabet

A short article, “French Alphabet and Pronunciation,” is available from the Learn French website.
http://www.learnfrenchlanguageguide.com/learn-french-grammar/french-alphabet-and-pronunciation

On the British Council's Learn English Kids website you will find a wide range of activities and materials for teaching and practising the alphabet. Go to http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-alphabet.htm . You will find ideas for using and exploiting the available alphabet materials at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/teaching-kids/alphabet

A webpage, “Evolution of Alphabets,” is part of the course material for "History of the Alphabets" taught by Prof. Robert Fradkin at University of Maryland. See animate demonstrations of the evolution of cuneiform, the Phoenician character set, the Greek alphabet, the Arabic alphabet, the Aramaic/Hebrew character set, the Cyrillic alphabet, and the Latin alphabet at http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~rfradkin/alphapage.html

Hear the alphabet pronounced in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German at http://www.alphabetpage.com

Omniglot is a guide to the writing systems and languages of the world. It also contains tips on learning languages, language-related articles, quite a large collection of useful phrases in many languages, multilingual texts, a multilingual book store and an ever-growing collection of links to language-related resources. You can find a list of all the writing systems and languages featured on the site in the A-Z index at http://www.omniglot.com/writing/index.htm
 

14.9.09 Fun with phonics
Some practical ideas from the Primary Languages website.
http://www.primarylanguages.org.uk/teaching__learning/using_the_ks2_framework/oracy/fun_with_phonics.aspx
 

3.11.09 French phonics
Resources to download from the TES website, contributed by a practising teacher:
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=3013522
 

4.11.09 Phonology
CILT reports that the new specification for upskilling primary teachers will include a short pronunciation module. It will be supported by sound files and a guide to pronunciation, which will be made available on the Primary Languages site. There will be a facility for learners to record their own attempts at accurate pronunciation including syllable stress and intonation and for them to assess their efforts against an on-screen graphic evaluation.
Ref: http://www.primarylanguages.org.uk/training_zone/language_upskilling/outline_content.aspx#phonology
 

Page last updated: 4.11.09

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