Teaching young children to read using phonetics is a fairly new method of teaching children to speak English. Many teachers and parents have now become hooked on the phonetic system to learn to read. Of course, as with any new teaching method, the phonetic system for learning to read is not without its critics.
Those people who are an authority on the English language know that the English language can have only 26 alphabets, but the pronunciation of a letter can vary depending on the context in which it is used. Therefore, instead of confusing a child and causing him to mispronounce words, phonetics teaches him the correct pronunciation.
There are different approaches that have been taken in the phonetic system to teach children to learn English. The two main approaches used are; synthetic phonetics and analytic phonetics. Synthetic phonetics involves teaching the child to spell each word and then combining its sounds to form the word. In analytic phonetics, children are not taught how to combine the sounds of each alphabet, but are taught to combine a group of alphabets into one word to form the sound.
Analytic phonetics is further divided into two streams that are; Analog phonetics and built-in phonetics. Both methods are used by parents and teachers to teach children to read and pronounce English words.
In phonetic language teaching methods, children are taught to pronounce an alphabet and then the alphabet is used in simple words. From here, children are taken to an advanced level and taught to pronounce the alphabets in more complex words; and in the variety of how the sound of an alphabet changes in the sound of different words.
There are several methods of teaching phonetic languages available on the Internet. You have to make a selective choice as each tries to expose how good their system is. But before you get hooked and invest in any phonics teaching method, it would be best to evaluate them on your own. You can, with the help of audio and video presentations, evaluate each program. Don’t get caught up in the website’s advertising jargon, as this can be misleading.
The use of phonetics as a method of teaching English dates back to the 1980s in the United States. The debate reached such a point that the US Congress had to intervene and carry out an investigation on the use of phonetics as a teaching method. It was only after positive results from the research team that the government decided to allow its use as an approved method of teaching the English language.
Those who stick to the conventional method of teaching English using cognitive reading skills are fighting a losing battle against phonics teaching methods. The correct pronunciation of English words is quite difficult to understand and understand. But the phonics teaching method helps children understand and learn to use the different sounds that an alphabet can acquire in different words. Audiovisual aids are of great help, like the Internet, to teach children to read using the phonetic method.