Learning to read and spell systematically with Synthetic Phonics

Learners of English have quite a challenge ahead of them in learning to read and write: this is due to the complex relationship between the sounds (phonemes) and the letters (graphemes). An alphabetic code can be used to decode the majority of the English language. However, many children are unable to simply work out the rules of the alphabetic code for themselves and therefore it is important to teach phonics systematically and explicitly. Using the code, learners are able to decode letters in order to read, and encode sounds in order to spell.

There are several ways of teaching phonics systematically, but two methods stand out: analytic phonics and synthetic phonics:

Analytic phonics uses a whole-to-part approach

• noting that each word begins with the same sound eg ‘p’ in : put, pig, pet, play

Analytic phonics encourages educated ‘guesswork’ in top-down strategies to learning• read the initial letter and guess the word

• look at illustrations

• memorize the whole word

• blend the onset and rime, e.g. ‘c’ ‘ap’ = ‘cap’

Synthetic phonics use a part-to-whole approach• to pronounce each letter and then blend e.g. /s/-/t/-/o/-/p/ ‘stop’

Synthetic phonics discourages guesswork and uses bottom-up strategies to learning • equal importance is placed on all letter sounds • apply knowledge of the alphabetic code

Developing reading (and spelling) skills

The bottom-up mechanical approach of synthetic phonics is the process of learning to read. The teacher can assess and address accurately what a learner does not know. The initial group of consonants and vowels, enable children to read and spell many simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. eg, the sequence begins by teaching a, p, s, t, i, n which make up more three-letter words than any other six letters of the alphabet.

Learn more: www.pearsonelt.com/ourdiscoveryisland

Rachel Wilson has been based in Asia since 1994 with a career centred on EFL teaching, training and publishing. She worked for Pearson for ten years and was a publisher for the Asia region.

Since 2009, Rachel has established her own business writing and editing publishing projects for educational publishers. She is a teacher trainer, a qualified examiner for PTE Young Learners, and an oral assessor for PTE General. Throughout her career, an area of special interest has been the use of phonics in children’s EFL literacy programs.

Rachel lives in Hong Kong with her husband and three-year-old son.

A Synthetic Phonics Lesson adapted for EFL Students

1st - Learning letter-sounds for reading (spelling in extension activity)2nd - Blending letter sounds for reading words3rd - Reading words/sentences in supported reading (visual support) 4th - Reading words in semi-independent reading (less visual support)5th - Spelling words through letter recall (with letter-sounds review)6th - Applying reading skills in independent reading (no visual support)

Our Discovery Island phonics sequence draws on the UK Department for Education and Skills Letters and Sounds sequence (3) and the Loring sequence (4) The Letters and Sounds program teaches grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) in terms of frequency and usefulness to beginner learners of English and provides visual support to aid the understanding of new and/or unknown words.

Rachel Wilson