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Hi, my name is Jema Perry and welcome to Mooncake, ESL teaching made easy. For the
past eight years I've been working and living in China as a teacher, manager, and
recruiter. So if you're teaching ESL abroad make sure you subscribe below and
hit that notification bell for weekly ESL teaching tips. If you've been thrown
into the classroom and told to teach students how to read and write
then fear not. This video is part two in my phonics tips series where I tell you
everything that you need to know about teaching phonics. Today we're going to be
talking about teaching the letter sounds. Now, if you're not sure why we're
teaching the letter sounds and not the letter names then you might want to
check out part 1 of my phonics tips series where I go through some phonics
basics. By the end of this video you're going to know some key points that every
teacher should know about when teaching the letter sounds. And stay tuned because
at the end of this video I'll be giving you some fun drilling games that you can
use in your classroom. So without further ado, let's get straight into it with tip
number 1, pronunciation. Pronunciation of the letter sounds is incredibly
important. If students learn the sounds incorrectly now, then it's going to be
harder for them to blend those sounds together to create words later on. We will
talk about blending later in part 4 of my phonics tip series. So how do we make
sure that we are teaching the sounds correctly? Well it can't be that hard,
after all, I'm a native speaker. I know the sounds
of English language. Well actually a lot of teachers, most especially native
speakers get this bit wrong. I'm sorry? Now it's very common for some teachers to
add a vowel sound onto the end of a letter sound, thus changing the sound
altogether. For example...
hear the difference? It may seem subtle but it makes a big
difference. It's really important that we're focusing on the smallest unit of
sound. Tip number two, speed. the at which you say the sounds is also important.
Sounds should be pronounced in a short crisp way and not held for too long.
For example... ah app. Tip 3, teaching only the letter sounds. At the very beginning
when students start to learn phonics it can be very confusing if we're giving
them too much information at once. Think about it you're showing students a
letter and you're telling them this is A, except it's also aaa, except that it can
also be a a Apple. At this point we don't need students to know the letter names.
The letter names help us when we spell words and at this point students can't
write yet. Word associations such as a a Apple can also be confusing at this
point. We simply want students to know that this symbol that we call a letter,
represents the sound, Ah. Word associations however, do help students with that
initial sound recognition which is part of the skill called segmenting, which we
talk about in part 5 of my phonics tip series. Tip number 4 TPR. Now I've talked
about TPR in the past and just how beneficial it can be if incorporated
into your ESL class and teaching the letter sounds is no different. Giving an
action to each letter sound helps students to remember those sounds faster
and helps make things more fun. Let's help each other out by choosing one
letter, making an action and sharing in the comments below. If you're not sure
how you should be using TPR in your classroom then make sure you check out
my video on TPR are linked below. Tip number five, repetition. Students forget...
like really quickly. So it's really important that we are constantly
reviewing the sounds that we've already learned. When first introducing a letter
and it's sound to students, we want to repeat that
sound with its action as much as possible. We can do this by having
students repeat the sounds in different fun ways such as a loud voice or a quiet voice or a
deep voice. Think about your students and what they like. Now I know what you're
thinking, these are great tips and all but how do I actually teach this in the
classroom? Well drilling games are a fun way to review sounds that you've
previously taught. I previously made a video called 'Silly Banana' which works
really well for a letter sound review. Make sure you check it out, linked below.
Another game I like to play in my classroom is 'Match' now this is a great
game because it helps students to match those uppercase letters with the
lowercase. Start by placing class in a semi-circle with you the teacher in
middle. Split the class into two teams and give them fun team names. Introduce
the letters one by one both the uppercase and the lowercase and review
their sounds. After reviewing their sounds, place them face down on the floor.
Repeat that process until you've gone through all the letters that you would
like to review and then mix up the cards in the middle. Next pick a student from
Team A to come to the front and pick two cards. Show the cards to the class and
the class as a whole then say those sounds out loud. If those two sounds
match then team A gets one point. If they don't, the cards go face down on the
floor and someone from Team B comes to the front. We then go again.
Keep going till all the sounds have been matched and you can see which team has
the most points. So that's it the top 5 tips that you need to know when teaching
the letter sounds and a couple of fun games that you can use in your classroom.
If you like this video let me know by giving it a thumbs up and by sharing
with your fellow teachers. If you found it helpful let me know by commenting
'helpful' in the comments below. That's it for this video, thanks so much for
watching. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and notification Bell
for more weekly ESL teaching tips from Mooncake.