{"id":7014,"date":"2017-02-05T16:13:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-05T21:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communityreading.org\/wp\/?p=7014"},"modified":"2017-11-07T20:09:25","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T01:09:25","slug":"sound-of-the-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communityreading.org\/wp\/sound-of-the-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Sound of the Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Community Reading FB group asked “What is the proper way to teach the sounds of the consonants?” \u00a0For example, what is the proper way to pronounce the sound of the letter \u2018b\u2019?<\/p>\n

The quick answer is ‘b’ as in ‘bat’ or ‘bet’ or ‘but’. \u00a0But there’s a second part: make sure your child pronounces ‘bat’ as a single syllable, not ‘bah-et’.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"dyslexiaNI\"<\/a>Our Facebook friends in Northern Ireland<\/a> are fuming. \u00a0Their schools are using Jolly Phonics, but are teaching the the wrong sounds. \u00a0They claim that students in school are being taught letters with a leading vowel, for example \u2018m\u2019 as \u2018em\u2019, or \u2018n\u2019 as \u2018en\u2019.\u00a0 That causes kids to try to sound out \u2018mat\u2019 as two or three syllables: \u2018em-ah-et’, and often leads to reading failure.<\/p>\n

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And they are absolutely correct. \u00a0 Jolly Phonics is teaching the wrong sounds.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jolly Phonics uses keywords such as \u2018t\u2019 as in \u2018tennis\u2019 (with an associated swing of the arm) or \u2018s\u2019 as in snake (with an snake-like weave of the fingers).\u00a0 But some of their keys are dreadfully chosen and will cause exactly the problem DyslexiaNI is finding.\u00a0 The \u2018m\u2019 is \u2018tasty food\u2019 (rub tummy) and makes the \u2018emmm\u2019 sound, the \u2018n\u2019 is an airplane (arms out) and makes the \u2018ennn\u2019 sound, the \u2018r\u2019 is a puppy shaking a rag and making the \u2018arrr\u2019 sound. \u00a0DO NOT LET YOUR CHILD DO THIS.<\/p>\n

\"jolly\"<\/a>

The Jolly Phonics synthetic alphabet. Each sound is associated with a sound and an ‘action’, for example \/s\/ with ‘sss’ and and a snake-like weaving hand.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The correct way to pronounce a consonant is to put a neutral vowel AFTER the consonant as if pronouncing a real word: \u2018b\u2019 as in \u2018bet\u2019, \u2018c\u2019 as in \u2018ket\u2019, \u2018d\u2019 as in \u2018debt\u2019.\u00a0 (Joyce Shaw, the admin for DyslexiaNI, describes those sounds as \u2018bu\u2019, \u2018ku\u2019, \u2018du\u2019, but I think that is due to an accent difference).<\/p>\n

Jolly Phonics could correct their program by changing the dangerous keywords, for example changing the \/m\/ sound to use ‘mouse’.\u00a0 No one would pronounce it em-mouse.\u00a0 In the meantime, stay away from this damaging program.<\/p>\n

\"fatcatsat\"<\/a>I\u2019m not sure why we teach sounds in isolation at all.\u00a0 The excellent Toe by Toe has a single page for sounds of the consonants (including \u2018th\u2019, \u2018sh\u2019, and \u2018ch\u2019), just a pre-check that the student has the right idea. \u00a0The two excellent phonics programs that I modeled BLENDING on, ‘Teaching Johnny to Read’ and ‘Phono-Graphix’, \u00a0don’t teach sounds either and just dive in with real words.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s also how the BLENDING<\/a> program works.\u00a0 We don\u2019t teach any consonant sounds, but rather start the student reading whole words as they would speak them.\u00a0 The very first lesson has the student reading \u2018bat\u2019, \u2018cat\u2019, \u2018hat\u2019.<\/p>\n

Only, be very careful that your child pronounces a SINGLE SYLLABLE, it is not \u2018bah-te\u2019, \u2018cah-te\u2019, \u2018hah-te\u2019. \u00a0 Your child must pronounce the word as he would normally say it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It’s worth testing this immediately with your child. \u00a0Here are some nonsense words, very simple ones all using the first short vowel \/ah\/. \u00a0Have your child read them, and look for any evidence of breaking words into two or more syllables. \u00a0ANY hint of ‘sah-en’ instead of ‘san’, and you should start remedial training immediately.<\/p>\n

\"non-word\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finally, don’t get fussed over the exact sound of a consonant.\u00a0 There is no such thing. \u00a0Here’s a bit of linguistics: \u00a0We can only rely on the generalized idea that ‘b’ makes a ‘beh’ sound that is DIFFERENT than the ‘teh’ sound that ‘t’ makes. \u00a0The ‘b’ sounds are different in each of ‘bat’, ‘bet’, ‘bit’, ‘bot’, ‘but’, \u2018bait\u2019, \u2019beet\u2019, \u2019\u2019bite\u2019, ‘boat’, ‘beauty\u2019, \u00a0‘bought’, ‘boot’, \u2018bear\u2019, \u2018Bert\u2019, and \u2018Bart\u2019. And so are the ‘t’s.<\/p>\n

If you want to confirm this, alternate saying a pair of words \u2013 perhaps \u2018bat\u2019 and \u2018bit\u2019 – and focus on how your mouth is forming them.\u00a0 Can you feel how your lips form the \u2018b\u2019 slightly differently?\u00a0 You will be able to feel a difference even if you try an almost-identical pair such as \u2018bat\u2019 and \u2018bag\u2019.\u00a0 (And for fun, compare that to the subtle difference between \u2018bat\u2019 and \u2018pat\u2019?)<\/p>\n

English consonants have neat linguistic properties, but a definitive ‘sound’ is not one of them. The \u2018r\u2019 in \u2018rest\u2019 is different from the \u2018r\u2019 in \u2018earn\u2019.\u00a0 The \u2018y\u2019 in \u2018yes\u2019 and \u2018w\u2019 in \u2018west\u2019 behave more like vowels than consonants. \u00a0And none of this is important for reading, your child can learn linguistics in university like everyone else – if you teach him to read properly now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Community Reading FB group asked “What is the proper way to teach the sounds of the consonants?” \u00a0For example, what is the proper way to pronounce the sound of the letter \u2018b\u2019? The quick answer is ‘b’…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

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