How to teach the sounds and letters of English to older English learners
I don’t remember much of phonemic awareness or phonics instruction when I first started learning English. It may be that it was a while ago (ahem) and my memory no longer stretches that far. But it may also be that when you are learning English as a foreign language, the sounds of it are not taught the same way they are to native speakers, and most of the emphasis ends up being placed on reading and writing.
Sounds, however, are the first thing that we begin to identify when we start to learn a new language.
A baby first listens to the surrounding world and then begins to imitate. Similarly, when someone is learning a new language, in this case, English, at first they need to begin discerning words and how they blend into sentences, i.e. where is the beginning, middle, and end of it all.
When we teach younger children, the playing field is quite level. All kindergarteners and first graders – native speakers and English learners – learn their alphabet, sounds and letters and how the two make words.
But what happens when a student with no English starts an English speaking school, say, in fourth, fifth, or higher grades? They are pretty much on their own when it comes to discerning the sounds of this new language they are supposed to do academic work in. Moreover, they are too late for the mainstream phonics instruction!
Teaching ESL students almost always means that there is not enough time in the day to help them with what they need. However, it is important to know that there are a few simple things that we can do to help them at least get started with phonemic awareness and spelling.
In this blog post, I am going to give five tips of what you can do with your ESL students every day to help them be better listeners and spellers.
What’s that sound? Remember, listening comes first
Listening is a survival skill. Our forefathers had to be extra aware of their surroundings and were sensitive to every sound around them. The same goes for a new English learner when they find themselves in a new school where everyone speaks a language other than his/hers. Polite chit-chat, classroom instructions, announcements via the intercom, classroom jokes – all of these sounds are new and the sensitivity is high.
But in order to produce, they need to absorb and that’s what is happening. Give your students time while steering them in the right direction.
What you can do:
When you point to something (an object or a picture), say it clearly a couple of times, then allow them to repeat; then do it again. The formula is simple: you speak-they listen-you speak-they repeat. It could be done as a group first, then one by one.
“Broken telephone”-type of games work great for ear training! You can also say a short sentence (something like, “I am happy today”) and have the class repeat. This lends itself to practicing pronouns (I, you, he, she, etc.) and adjectives. The point is for the students to understand where a word begins and ends and what is the tone and pitch of a regular English sentence.
Teach/review the alphabet
This may be one of the most overlooked items when a new (older and literate) English learner begins school. If his/her native language uses a Latin-based alphabet, it is even more tempting to skip it because it seems that they already know it. You may spend a little bit of time when a student comes from a language background with a different alphabet (such as Asian languages, Arabic, Russian, etc.). But even then, the alphabet and letter teaching does not always get enough credit.
It is super important to teach the students that in English, there are 26 letters, which make 44 speech sounds. Out of those 44 sounds, there are 24 consonant sounds and 20 (!) vowel sounds. Clearly, even though there are only 5 vowels in the alphabet, vowel is king in the English language!
What you can do:
Print out an alphabet strip, mark the vowels on it with a dot or a star and hang it in a visible location in your classroom (I have mine just above the whiteboard). If you think it is “kiddie”, remember that having an alphabet visible is super helpful even for those who are more proficient. Automatic letter retrieval is key in learning to read and write a language.
Practice vowel sounds
As I mentioned in the previous section, the vowel is king. Every word must have a vowel. In English, it is super important to be able to discern between a short vowel and a long one (mat-mate) and between the different groups that may sound very similar such as bat-bet-bit-bot-but.
English learners whose native language does not require specific spelling rules tend to mix up the short /i/ as in “pit” with a long /i:/ as in “Pete”. The short sound /û/ that is represented by the short vowel [u] as in “bus”, “mug”, and “run” can also present certain difficulties and should be taught explicitly.
What you can do:
Go over the vowel sounds at the beginning of every class. For example, you can write a vowel on the board and the ways to pronounce it and then say a few words as examples. Have the students take turns telling you whether the vowel makes a long or short sound in that word.
Do a dictation of a few sentences that contain the target vowel. You can focus on one vowel for a week and do different activities with it. Besides dictation (which I highly recommend as it will clearly reveal what your students are actually hearing!), you could do a group work where students can create a story/song/skit using the words that contain the target vowel.
Practice other sounds
I had a student last year who had the most difficult time with the consonant sounds /b/ – /p/, and /d/-/t/. These are called minimal pairs and for speakers of some languages (Arabic or even German), they pose a major difficulty, especially at the end of the word.
That’s how we ended up with sentences like “He likes to sleep in his ped (bed)” and “My dat (dad) enjoys fishing”.
What you can do:
Make sure the students know where in the mouth and how the sounds are produced. You can use body language to show that vowels are unobstructed sounds by opening your mouth and as if pulling the sound out with your fingers. Show them that consonants are obstructed sounds by clipping them with “finger scissors” to show where the sound production stops (say /t/ and not /tuh/ because there is no vowel after the sound /t/). This will also be a good time to squeeze in learning about body parts:)
Another good practice with vowels that are troublesome is to do minimal pair dictation. As mentioned earlier, minimal pairs are consonants that are produced in the same part of your mouth but one is voiced and the other is unvoiced. For example, t vs. d, z vs. s, b vs. p. Dictate words that have those consonants in the beginning, middle or the end of the word to determine how well the students can hear them and to decide on further instruction. You can find lists of minimal pairs on google, or you can check out one of them here.
Use body language
In most of my posts (especially ones about teaching beginner English learners) I encourage using body language. After all, it accounts for over 70% of communication!
Therefore, don’t only say it – show it, too. As mentioned above, pull out a vowel with your fingers from your mouth, “cut” a consonant, make a shape or facial expression for a sound or a word – all this will register along with the written expression. Throw a word to a student and ask him or her to sound it out for you.
One final note…
Incorporate any or all of these in your daily work. Dictations can be done as a warm-up before each class. Listening and speaking games serve as good icebreakers, too.
Don’t shy away from giving the students the basic spelling rules to follow. For example, a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern (CVC) will use a short vowel and therefore we have “cat”, “bed” and “hug”. A consonant-vowel-consonant+e makes the vowel long. Therefore, we have a “mate”, “huge” and “Pete”. Then see if they can find the patterns when they are doing their mainstream classwork and apply it to their own writing. Older students want to know the rules and will be thankful for them.
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Do you incorporate phonics instruction with your older students? Let me know in the comments below!