Part 1.
Phonics is a method of teaching children to read using sound. Children develop phonics skills by linking sounds with the letters that represent them. This article will explore how phonics works, how effective it is, and how you can use phonics to improve children’s reading comprehension.
Phonics is used by most primary school teachers in the UK and is how we teach children to read and write at LS Tuition.
Whether you’re teaching phonics to children or a bamboozled parent, our guide will help you sort your phonemes from your graphemes!
What does phonics mean?
Phonetics is a method of teaching reading by linking spoken language with written language. Phonemes and graphemes are key phonics terminology:
Phonemes (sounds in words): a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. Children ‘decode words’ by recognising which letters represent these sounds. For example, the word ‘cat’ has 3 phonemes — ‘c’, ‘a’, and ‘t’.
Graphemes (the letters used to represent sounds). A grapheme can be a single letter or letter groups like ‘sh’, ‘igh’ or ‘gh’.
When we say the sound ‘t’ it’s a phoneme but when we write ‘t’ it’s a grapheme. Still with us?
It helps to think of language as a code and phonics instruction as the method that helps children decode words. Phonics helps children learn alphabet languages like English as it develops their awareness of same sound words and language patterns.
Phonics instruction also helps children to know which letters to use when writing.
How does teaching phonics help children read?
Children begin their phonics journey by learning the alphabet. They learn how to say each sound (phoneme) out loud in relation to its corresponding letter (grapheme). Children begin with the individual sounds of each letter and then progress to short words like ‘cat, ‘nap’, and ‘hat’.
Learning how to group sounds and letters together into short word families is called blending.
It’s important to get the basics right at the beginning of a child’s phonics journey. Early mistakes carried forward will make it harder for a child to read and write fluently, but a strong grasp of how to form letters correctly sets a child up for success.
Phonics in P1
Phonics benefits most children in P1.
A synthetic phonics method in particular has been found effective in helping children progress with reading, compared to a whole language approach. In an alphabetic language like English, this means linking spoken sounds with individual letters or groups of letters.
For example, the sound k can be spelled as c, k, or ck.
What are the 4 types of phonics teaching for children?
There are 4 methods of teaching children phonics.
Synthetic phonics: words are broken into the smallest sounds (phonemes). This method enables children to identify all phonemes in a word, which letter they correspond to, and how to spell the word.
Analytical phonics: children analyse letter sound relationships rather than pronouncing words in isolation.
Analogy phonics: in analogy phonics, children expand on existing skills to decode new words using sound groups they’re already familiar with.
Embedded phonics: children are taught letter sound relationships in context. For example, learning to decode ‘tiger’ by reading a short story with their teacher about tigers and rainforest animals.
What are examples of phonic sounds?
After individual letters come consonant clusters (or consonant blends) and consonant digraphs.
Consonant clusters are made of two individual sounds e.g. ‘s’ and ‘t’ in ‘stay’.
Consonant clusters can appear at the start of a word:
st in stay fr in friend cr in croak
Or at the end of a word:
sk in task st in fast nt in went nd in sound
It takes patience and practice for children to sound out consonant clusters. Words like ‘jump’ where ‘j’ and ‘p’ are sounded individually in the same word are much trickier to say than simple one sound words like ‘jam’.
Consonant digraphs are different from consonant clusters. Digraphs are two or more consonants that together represent on sound.
For example, the letters ‘p’ and ‘h’ are consonants but together they form the grapheme ‘ph’ that creates the ‘f’ sound in ‘phone’ or ‘nephew’. Or ‘phonics’!
Examples of common consonant digraphs:
sh – as in she or wish.
kn – as in know or knock.
ch – as in chair or chat.
ph – as in phone or phonics.
wr – as in wrench or wreck.
ck – as in tick or pluck.
ss – as in chess or class.
tch – as in watch or witch.
What are the 44 phonic sounds?
Spoken English is made up of 44 phonemes. These phonemes blend together to form words and help us read and write.
Phonemes are further divided into:
19 consonants
7 digraphs
5 sounds influenced by the letter ‘r’
5 long vowels
5 short vowels
2 ‘oo’ sounds
2 diphthongs
Teachers systematically work through the 44 phonemes when teaching children to read. progressing from easy, individual sounds to more complex words. Children learn about how short vowels, long vowels, an open syllable, or a closed syllable can contribute to different sounds.
Why is learning phonics so important?
Phonics skills are an important part of language development. Phonetic reading helps children decode new words and translate the letters they see on the page into sounds, which is the key to mastering reading.
Studies show that phonics works. The Education Endowment Foundation found that phonics can give children a significant head start at reading English accurately.
Instead of relying on rote memorisation, phonics teaches children word patterns that they can apply to unfamiliar or new words. This skill helps them decode words faster.
Say a teacher wanted a child to learn the words ‘cat’, ‘sat’ and ‘mat’. They might put the three words into the sentence ‘the cat sat on the mat’. However, this approach doesn’t encourage children to look at wider word patterns that unlock further pronunciations.
Phonics would encourage children to notice the ending ‘-at’. By noticing the sound pattern, they can decode words like ‘hat’, ‘bat’, and ‘rat’.
The National Literacy Trust has downloadable phonics resources.