TSLB 3073

Teaching of Reading and

Writing Skills in the
Primary ESL Classroom

BY: CHAN LING FANG, CHRIS LING SING HUI, TING SIEW KIM, KELLY CHIA
Teaching Reading
through Phonics
Phonics
• One method of teaching children how to read (quickly
and skilfully)
• Children are taught how to “sound out” new words by
learning:
• Consonant letters sounds
• Blend sounds
• Short vowel sounds
• Digraph sounds
• Diphthongs
• Phonics is a series of rules that children have to memorize and
apply when they are sounding out new words.
• Children are taught a rule, i.e. blend sounds, and then they
practice reading words with blend sounds. Then children do
skill sheets at their desk highlighting the blend sounds rule.
• Children must learn letter sounds to an automatic level – they
must be able to see the letter and say the sound immediately.
• A children cannot learn to read without proper knowledge in
phonics. It is the foundation for success in reading.
Why is it important ?

• Helping children to learn how to spell words.

• The child be able to recognize sounds in words and will
able to spell them correctly.
• Helping children to recognize and associate sounds of the
letters of the alphabet in word they read.
• Improve in their reading skills and efficiency.
• Increase a child’s fluency in reading.
• The child will find reading easy.
• Improvement of a child’s reading comprehension.
• Comprehend what he / she reads.
• Helping a child in acquiring more vocabulary on daily
basis.
• Use the words that they understand in daily speech.
Tips for Teaching Children to Read Through Phonics
• Teach the sounds of the letters before the names of the letters.
In phonics it is important to know that the sound of the letter B
is /b/. This will help the child to read. Knowing that the name
of the letter is B is irrelevant.
• Teach the child writing and reading at the same time.
Younger children can “write” in a pan full of rice, in sand, or in
finger paints.
• Teach the short vowel sounds first.
This will enable children to read simple words such as cat, hot,
up, or met.
• Train your child’s ear to the sounds of language.
Play games to help your child identify the beginning sound
of his or her name and of common words such as baby,
mama, dog and so on.
• Incorporate all the senses whenever possible.
Cut out felt letters, make clay letters, or paste pictures of
animals or items beginning with a specific letter / sound.
• Eat your words.
There are many edible products that could promote
literacy: Alphabets cereal, alphabet spaghetti, alphabet
cookies or alphabet fries.
It is important that students are taught to:
• Blend phonemes in order all through a word to read the
word
• Segment a word into its constituent phonemes to spell
the word.
Thank You