1.0 INTRODUCTION OF LEARNING ENGLISH THROUGH PHONEMES

Living in the 21st century makes it important for our nation to understand and speak in English.

Now days, English language has been claimed as lingua franca by people worldwide. However,

some people assume that it is better to learn our mother tongue languages as it will helps to

enhance and preserve our own culture and tradition. Acknowledge this issue has been raised by

the society years before; the Ministry Of Education have made several changes to our education

system in order to provide an acquaintance and knowledgeable nation.

Despite of all the fuss that has been made, learning English as our second language is

definitely not a bad thing. Instead it will help us nourish and enhance our competency in social

skill. For example, in daily life, we might need to speak and conversing in English due to

differences of religion and races. In Malaysia, the diversity of its ethnics makes it hard to

understand their languages and dialect. Apart from that, whenever people travel nationwide,

English language has become the common language to converse.

Thus, our society plays an important role to educate and teach our young ones to read and

understand the English language. Learning to read is a crucial step to understand the language.

Reading is the process to understand the letters and the relation between it’s before ones learn to

spoke the written language. In short, it is a process to crack a code of written language.

Technically, if you know the spoken word and its meaning, this decoding process leads to

word recognition - a triggering of the meaning of the written word. For example the word “sip”

contains the letters (/s/-/i/-/p/) means ("sip - a small mouthful of liquid"), allowing people to

understand theirs reading. Written English is a symbolic representation of the speech sounds of

the language, an understanding of the individual speech sounds of language helps children to

understand the relationship between spoken and written language, making learning to read and

spell easier. This is call as phonemic awareness.

Specifically, phoneme is a single "unit" of sound that has meaning in any language.

English has only 26 letters (A-Z) it has 18 vowel phonemes, more than 25 consonant phonemes

and 43 distinct sounds. In the standard British Model, There are 44 phonemes in English, each

one representing a different sound a person can make. Since there are only 26 letters in the

alphabet, sometimes letter combinations need to be used to make a phoneme. A letter can also

represent different phonemes. Here is a good example:

chef = /ʃef/

choir = /kwaɪə/

cheese = /tʃi:z

The "ch" letter combination has three different pronunciations, which are represented by three

different phonemes: /ʃ/, /k/ and /tʃ/. Of course, this is confusing when someone needs to learn

new words, but unfortunately, we are stuck with a strange spelling system in English. Students

really just need to learn the pronunciation of every new word, along with its meaning. Unlike

other languages, English spelling is not phonetic.

Sometimes, there is more than one way to pronounce a phoneme. These different

pronunciations are called allophones. They are not phonemes, because they do not change the

meaning of the word. Allophones often show up when people have different accents. One good

example is the word "butter". Some native speakers will say [bʌɾə]. Others will say [bʌtə]. There

are 2 types of phoneme named vowels and consonants.

It takes time for children to learn all the phonemes at once. Children need to learn from

easy to hard, simple to difficult and concrete to abstract. Thus, we spend time with each

phoneme they will need to read and spell words. Start with vowels right away because there is

no word can be put together without a vowel. Long vowels are easier to identify than short

vowels. However, short vowels should come early because they are typically the first to be

introduced in reading lessons since they have simple one-letter spellings. Continuants phonemes

such as /f/, /m/, and /s/ are easy to stretch and pronounce by themselves. Unvoiced consonants

like /t/ and /p/ can come soon after. Children do not need to be taught every phoneme. As they

get used to identifying a limited set of phonemes, they will learn how to identify others.

There are 8 importance steps in learning through phonemes. First one is blending

skill. It is the ability to join speech sounds together to make a word and the ability to divide

words into their separate speech sounds (a skill called segmentation) are two of the most

important phonemic awareness skills for students learning to read. The other step will be reveal

in the next pages.

In conclusion, learning through phonemes is the process of understanding the speech

sounds that each letter represents, one after the other, then join or blend the speech sounds

together, to enable people to say the word they are trying to read. To short of, learning through

phonemes is an understanding of the relationship between sounds and words to allows a reader to

"crack the code” of written language. According to Trevor Fletcher in “Literacy teaching guide:

Phonics” these code cracking skills, combined with vocabulary knowledge, form the backbone of

reading and writing ability in English language.

Diagram 1: Phonemic Chart

2.0 IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING ENGLISH THROUGH PHONEMES

Phonemes are the easiest way to approach the young learner and those who have difficulty in

literacy. It gives an important lesson to help them nourish this ability for a better reading and

understanding.

Smith, Simmons and Kame'enui, 1998 state that the ability to hear and manipulate

phonemes plays a causal role in the acquisition of beginning reading skills. In short, the

importance of learning English through phonemes will help these children to read and

understand the written language.

Apart from that, learning through phonemes also encourages the young learner to

understand the blending and segmentation process. These 2 simple steps have a greatest transfer

to reading and spelling. In short, it will help them to spell the words correctly based on the sound

produce.

In addition to that, learning through phonemes also important as it is a systematic ways to

strengthen sound and symbol of the relationships. For example words “fish” contain of these

letter [f],[i],[s],[h]. In Phonemes, children learn to segment a word as a sequence of sounds. For

example, fish is made up of three phonemes, /f/, /i/, /sh/. Hence, it helps learner to relate the

letter with its sound (blend) and saying out the right words. This is called “moving mouth” while

pointing out each of the letters from the word.

The emphasis on the sound of the letter itself to spell the words also makes it easier for

the learner. It enhances the ability to recognize and manipulate speech sounds. For example, if

the learner knows the sound that is produce from the 26 letter, they can manipulate the words

itself. The learners can add, delete or substitute other letter into the words. For example,

substitute the phoneme of /s/ with letter /b/ in the word “sun” to “bun”.

3.0 ADVANTAGES LEARNING ENGLISH THROUGH PHONEMES

Learning through phonemes, develop the ability to manipulate sounds and to create long, multi-

syllable words when they move into more advanced books. If children are not taught Alphabetic

Recognition through enriched and varied writing and reading activities, confusion over letter

names will interfere with students’ adequate progress in learning how to read.

Secondly, young readers are constantly reminded that print has meaning. Through

phonemes, the learner will be taught the sound that is produced from each letter. It allows

children to hear phonemes, identify them, and understand how the sounds and their associated

letters correlate with one another. Once they mastered every sound from the 26 letters in

English, they will be able to blend the sound and saying out the words. Apart from that, learner

also can manipulate the words either by deleting, adding or substituting the letter.

Apart from that, learning through phonemes will benefit the learners because the

instruction is focused on one or two Phonemic Awareness (PA) skills rather than a multi- skilled

approach (blending and segmenting are the most powerful PA skills). The instruction is also

enriched because it does not occur in isolation of other elements of the reading process. For

instance, as children learn to track print, they are taught how to increase their listening, speaking,

reading, and writing vocabulary as well as their comprehension skills.

In addition to that, learners also are introduced to many hundreds of words. Through

phonemes, learners will be listening to a sequence of separately spoken phonemes and

combining the phonemes to form a word. Learners also learn to pronounce the words correctly.

As a long term result, this will enable them to read alphabet books and nursery rhymes which

contain easy words especially for the beginner.

Learning through phonemes also is fun. It is interesting and enables learners to enjoy and

having fun while experimenting with words. Thus, teacher will have various option and activities

to teach the learners. This fun-filled activity will definitely attract learners to learn better.

Meanwhile, teachers also should focus on student social skill. The student should learn either in

group or pair so that it will arouse theirs attention to study. This will set their motivation once

they see their friends excel in the study. In short, the phonemes activity should center on the

student itself. For examples, the easiest activity is playing oral blending games.

In the meantime, it will also help to grow out their vocabulary. Learning the sound of

each letter will make them realize the differences of every word that they read. This would

definitely help improving theirs spelling. In advanced to that, better spelling will definitely help

them understand English grammar.

4.0 TECHNIQUE OF LEARNING ENGLISH THROUGH PHONEMES FOR YOUNG

LEARNERS.

There are 8 steps of learning English through phonemes. This effective Phonemic Awareness

instruction teaches children to recognize, understand, and manipulate sounds in their spoken

language. An effective instructional program contains eight types of phonemic awareness

instruction:

1) Phonemic Isolation

Children learn to recognize individual sounds in a word. This activity can be done verbally or by

using a picture, flash card or real things. While carrying out this activity, teacher should ask the

student the sound of the letter mention in the words. For example, teacher can show the picture

of apple and ask the sound of the first letter of the words. The student should answer it is /a/.

2) Phonemic Identity

Children recognize the same sounds in different words. For this activity, teacher can use 2 or 3

different words illustrating with pictures. This is because, it is compulsory for the young learners

to learn something by seeing the things that are mention. At this stage of ages they learn

something by seeing, touching, smelling, hearing the real or concrete things. Thus, it is a good

idea if the teacher could replace the concrete things with picture or video. In this step, teacher

shows either 2 or 3 words and asks student the sound that is similar to each other in the words

mention. For example, asking the same sound between words bag and ball. It should be the

sound /b/in the first letter.

3) Phonemic Categorization

Students learn to recognize the word in a set of three or four words that has the “odd” sound.

This involves the student skill to compare the sound that is different from each other. In this

activity, teacher can give 3 words and ask the student to spell or saying out loud the words. Then,

teacher need to ask words that has different sound compares to the other words. For example

words, cat, car and dog. The different sound would be dog because it starts with letter [d] and its

sound as /d/ or verbally as “dehh”.

4) Phonemic Blending

Student will be listening to a sequence of separately spoken phonemes and combining the

phonemes to form a word. For this step, the student have recognizes the alphabet and their

sounds. Teacher shows a word and ask student to pronounce the words. For example, word

“milk”. The student should pronounce each sound from the letter before the say out the words.

E.g /m/, /i/,/l/,/k/.

5) Phonemic Segmentation

Student will be teach to break a word into its separate sounds and saying each sound as it is

tapped out, counted, or signaled. In short, children break a word into separate sounds and count

how many sounds they hear. For example, teacher could ask student “How many sounds are in

“park?”. The answer that should be expected from the student is /p/ /ar/ /k/ which has three

sounds.

6) Phonemic Deletion

Learners will learn to recognize the word that remains when a phoneme is removed from another

word. Teacher could ask “What is bunk without the /k/? . Students will answer: “Bunk” without

the /k/ is “bun.” They should pronounce the sound of the letter [k] as “keh”

7) Phonemic Addition

Children make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word. For example adding

sound //f/ to the end of words “bee” will come out as “beef”. The addition of this sound can be

put at the first, middle or end of words as long it has meaning.

8) Phonemic Substitution

Children substitute one phoneme for another to make a new word. For example, substituting the

sound of /f/ in ‘fan’ with /p/ to become word ‘pan’.

Apart from this 8 crucial step to teach young learners to learn through phonemes, it also

important for teachers to motivate them to study. Snow, Burns, Griffin, 1997 in ‘Simple Things

You Can Do to Help All Children Read Well and Independently by the End of Third Grade’ state

that research has also demonstrated that it is crucial for us to not only teach these skills, but to do

so in such a way that we increase children’s desire to read. For example, engage the children in

activities that emphasize the fact that sounds match letters and that letters have names.

De Bruin, Parecki, Perkinson, & Ferderer , 2000 in ‘Helping Your Child Become a

Reader With Activities for Children from Infancy Through Age Six’ state that, children should be

supplied with writing materials, crayons, markers, papers, and clay so that they can experiment

with print at the same time they are learning how to recognize traditional script. This is such a

good activities because it helps to boost their gross motor skill. Thus, apart from helping these

children learn to read faster, it will also enable them to write better.

Besides that, there are various ways to attract these children to learn English through

phonemes, e.g.:

a) incorporates nursery rhymes

b) ties instruction to children names

c) teaches children to use the position of their mouths to recognize sounds and letter names

d) encourages students to generate word segments

e) instructs children to isolate, delete, combine, and manipulate sounds in the eight ways

necessary to master phonemic awareness

f) asks students to pick out words in sentences that begin with a specific letter being taught

g) helps children develop letter sounds and letter names simultaneously

h) helps children make connections between sounds in a sentence

i) teaches rhyming sounds using picture cards and songs

j) Infuses instruction with charts, posters, small books, CDs, games and numerous writing

experiences.

5.0 TEACHING PHONEMES ACTIVITIY

Tittle : How many sounds?

Activities : Phonemes Segmenting

Motives :

a) to increase skill in phonemes segmenting for students who have not yet mastered this

skill

b) learn to differentiate each sound from the phonemes mention in the words

c) improving spelling skill

Materials : Flash cards with list of words for mastering this skill

How Many Sounds? is yet a simple and very fun activity. By writing the correct number of

sounds in the box on every picture will encourage student to experimenting with the sound and

words.

I. In front of the whiteboard, teacher will stick flash card with their words

II. Based on the picture, student will pronounce the words and counting the number of sound

that they hear.

III. They need to tick the tile for each sound while saying the sounds.

IV. Students need to write the number of sound they count for that word in the circle.

ex:

pea

2

Flash card

Boy

Zoo

Cone

Sheep

bride

Frog

WORKSHEET

A. Tick the tiles for each sound pronounce by the word and write the number of sounds in

the box below.

1. knee

3. sun

2. two

4. bed

5.bike

7. crab

6. class

8.swim

9. cup

11. boat

10. sleep

12. key

REFERENCES

Cathy Collins Block, (2002) Literacy Difficulties: Diagnosis and Instruction for Reading

Specialists and Classroom Teachers, Allyn & Bacon

De Bruin-Parecki, A., Perkinson, K. & Ferderer, L., (2000). Helping Your Child Become a

Reader With Activities for Children from Infancy Through Age Six. Washington D.C.;

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Education and Research Improvement.

Smith S. B., Simmons, D. C., & Kame'enui, E. J. (1998). Phonological awareness: Instructional

and curricular basics and implications. In D. C. Simmons & E. J. Kame'enui (eds.), What

reading research tells us about children with diverse learning needs: Bases and basics.

Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Smith S. B., Simmons, D. C., & Kame'enui, E. J. (1998). Phonological awareness: Research

bases. In D. C. Simmons & E. J. Kame'enui (eds.), What reading research tells us about

children with diverse learning needs: Bases and basics. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

Associates.

Snow, C., Burns, M.S., Griffin, P., (Eds.) (1998). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young

Children.Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children,

Commission on Behavioral and Social Science in Education. Washington: National

Research Council & National Academic Press.