PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY

TEACHING & LEARNING PRONUNCIATION IN

THE CLASSROOM

SHANTHIMATHI RAMANATHAN
812793

PREPARED FOR:
DR ANNE ALTHEA CHRISTOPHER
 INTRODUCTION
• In Malaysia – English – Second Language. Why
English is important ?
• To gain access information & knowledge written in
English.
• Malaysia curriculum stresses – development critical
literacy.
• Teaching phonics – can build essential reading &
literacy skills in the classroom
• Why phonetics NOT emphasis in school ?
• It is not a component in exams.
 The Effectiveness of teaching phonics
Why Important ?
• To build strong foundation of language skills
• Enrich their understanding of the language
• To help pupils begin to read
• Decipher words on their own – need less help
with reading
• Decode words they have not encountered
before in their reading – allows to learn new
words independently.
• Help to learn parts of words they can
remember when they encounter new words
• Can lead to whole –word recognition
• Develop their spelling skills as they learn
which letters or combinations of letters create
sounds in words they write.
Problems faced by students
•Students learn to read and write in native
language in which the letters correspond to
different sounds than they do in English.

•Schools use the romanized writing system to

teach Malay. All the consonants and vowels
have consistent sounds

•Example: In English “a” has different sounds

in “bar”, “bag” and “ball” whereas in Malay it
is always the same as in “bar”
• Phonetically English shared 18 consonants with either
Mandarin Chinese or Malay, with six consonants
(v, z, θ, ð, ʃ, ʒ) distict to English.
• Voiced stop /b/ in English is similar to unvoice stops
/p/ in Mandarin Chinese and Malay.
• Words that appear the same or similar in two
languages, so that they can cause
misunderstanding or wrong translation, are
sometimes called “False Friends
How would we teach the English word cat ?
What are the three sounds? /k/, /…/, /… /.

How is it different from the BM word that looks like

exactly the same word:
cat which means ……………………….. in English.
 How phonics help the acquisition of English
• EL is made up of approximately 42 principle
sounds.
• Once children learn to hear the sound in
words and represent them with letter
symbols, they are well on their way to
understanding the nature of
the English Language.
• Children learn how to utilize their knowledge
of sounds by blending the sounds together to
create a word.
• Phonics does not involve learning simply the
letter names of alphabet. Instead we must
remember that phonics means learning the
sounds of the English Langauge.
• Ex:The word rain has 4 letters but only 3
sounds r-ai-n
• They are a system of teaching reading that
stresses on the relationship between the
sound of English letters or combination of
letters that produce them.
• The word bat for example can be read from its
three sounds /b/ /a/ /t/.
 Conclusion
• Teachers who follow a phonics approach to reading
and writing believe that it is much quicker and
easier to learn 42 sounds rather than thousands of
words by sight.
• The children do not need to rely on the teacher for
teaching them correct English vocabulary.
• The children will be able to use their sounds to read
words for themselves.
• Phonics itself, is a great tool for learning to read and
write.
MANY

THANKS