Phonics at HKedCity

Phonics usually refers to a way of teaching reading.

It includes the teaching of the basic letter-sound relationships and the application of such knowledge to facilitate reading and spelling.

** Why is phonics taught?

** When is phonics taught?

** How is phonics taught?

Why is phonics taught?
Phonics can help learners
**	recognize the relationships between letters / combinations of letters and their sounds;
**	develop some enabling skills in reading aloud;
**	work out the sounds of unfamiliar words;
**	develop their confidence and proficiency in reading; and
**	improve their spelling.
	TOP

When is phonics taught?
Learners can be taught phonics
**	at an early age;
**	when they can recognize some words through listening or sight reading;
**	when they need some enabling skills to carry out reading aloud activities; and
**	when they need to achieve accuracy in spelling.
	At an early stage of learning a new language, too much stress on accuracy in spelling can be intimidating to the learners. In writing activities which target at fluency and confidence building, remember that the expression of ideas is more important than accurate spelling. Therefore approximation in spelling should be tolerated while other activities focus more on accuracy.
	TOP

How is phonics taught?
Planning Stage
Teachers may
**	select, as far as possible, single-syllable words from texts with which children will become familiar e.g. course books and story books used in shared reading etc. to work out an inventory of letter sounds cover in each term / school year;
**	decide on the sequence of letter sounds they wish to teach so as to ensure a good coverage of the different letter-to-sound correspondences;
**	plan to teach one to two letter sounds per week if the learners are young;
**	introduce the consonant letter first and then the vowels since consonants usually have only one sound for each letter;
**	focus on one way of reading and writing each vowel sound at a time since the vowel letters are more complicated and there are several ways in which they can be written; and
**	include short phonic learning activities e.g. games and action rhymes frequently as part of the English lessons.

Teaching Stage
Teachers may
**	use single-syllable words selected from texts with which children are familiar to introduce a particular letter;
**	develop learners' phonological awareness from whole to part;
**	provide opportunities for learners to hear and identify the focused sound and to relate it to the letter(s) e.g. by using picture of familiar objects or by framing the relevant letter(s) in the words in a big book;
**	help learners make a collection of words with the focused letter-to-sound correspondence, including words from other sources;
**	help learners read aloud some of the words focusing on the particular letter sound;
**	train learners to say the first letter sound loudly before moving on to the other sounds of the same word;
**	model the skills of blending which involve running the letter sound together to make a word;
**	get learners to read aloud words with the same phonological unit (e.g. at in fat, cat) and through games, rhymes and other interesting activities; and
**	help learners develop the strategy of analogy i.e. applying their knowledge and skills to work out how to read and spell an unfamiliar word by comparing it to the words they have learnt.
	There is not a fixed number of letter sounds to be taught every week. Teachers should consider the maturity and learning experience of the learners in making judgement. More mature learners should be able to handle more letter sounds each week.
	TOP

Contributed by:	Curriculum Development Institute, Education Bureau
Edited by:	HKedCity Content Team