FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND LANGUAGES

HBEC2603
TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS

Name: LING LEH KING

Matrix number: 920609136154001
NRIC: 920609136154
Telephone number: 014-365-6088
E-mail address: lehking0609@gmail.com.my
Tutors name:
ANN ANURADAH A/P FRANCIS THANGAM
Learning Centre: SIBU LEARNING CENTRE
May 2015 Semester

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1.0)

Introduction

2.0)

Content-Learning English productively through phonemes for young learners

3

Importance 3-4
Advantages

4-5

Techniques and Approaches

5-6

3.0)

One complete activity and one accompanied worksheet

4.0)

Conclusion

5.0)

References

10

Appendix

7-8

11

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1.0)

Introduction
In the early childhood classroom, silence is not golden. Spoken words are

opportunities for learning that should take place throughout the day - especially during
conversations between children and between teachers and children.
Language is learned. Sounds come to have meaning. The babbling sound "ma ma - ma" of the infant becomes mama, and then mother. In the first years of life children
listen, practice, and learn. The amusing sounds of a young toddler practicing language (in
seemingly meaningless chatter) is really their modeling of the rhythm, tone, volume, and
non-verbal expressions they see in us.
Fortunately, the parts of the brain responsible for language are very malleable.
Given opportunities to hear, talk and have complex conversations, these children can
catch up. The challenge for the early childhood teacher is to make sure that these children
have many developmentally appropriate language activities.
Create conversation buddies. Talk with children and encourage them to have
conversations with each other. Several times during the day, help children "discuss"
various topics with their conversation buddies. Topics might include what they did during
the weekend, what they thought of a story, who they know that reminds them of a
character in a book you just read to them.
Introduce words by theme. Use word games to help the children learn to rhyme,
understand opposites, find as many words to describe an object as possible, and learn the
names of new objects.
Engage children in listening exercises. We often forget that language is both
receptive and expressive. Make sure that children don't just mimic words and learn to say
things. It is essential that children are listening, receiving accurately and processing
effectively what they hear. Introduce exercises where children are asked to repeat back
what they heard you say (you will often be amazed at how varied and inaccurate their
interpretations can be). Have children relate key elements of a story or an activity. And
emphasize to children the importance of listening to their conversation buddies.
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2.0)

Content-Learning English productively through phonemes for young

learners.
a. Importance
Research indicates that to become a successful reader children need to acquire two
insights about language. These two insights are the alphabetic principle and phonemic
awareness (National Reading Council). The alphabetic principle is the awareness that
spoken sounds is represented by written letters whereas phonemic awareness is the
insight that spoken words are made up of a sequence of somewhat separable sounds or
phonemes. However, before children can make any sense of the alphabetic principle,
they must understand that those sounds that are paired with the letters are one and the
same as the sounds of speech.
Tompkins stated that there are two ways in which phonemic awareness develops. The
first way is when children learn playfully as they sing songs, chant rhymes, and listen to
parents and teachers read wordplay books to them. These experiences stimulate children
to experiment with sounds, create nonsense words, and to become enthusiastic about
reading. The second way phonemic awareness develops is when teachers teach lessons to
help students understand that their speech is composed of sounds.
Teachers that initiate children to listening activities introduce students to the art of
listening actively, attentively, and analytically. Hearing non-speech sounds is relatively
easy and natural for children, provided that they are taught to pay attention.
Rhyme play is an excellent entry to phonemic awareness because it directs childrens
attention to similarities and differences in sounds of words. A solid command of rhyming
does not guarantee that a child will develop phonemic awareness but research does affirm
that it is a valuable step in the right direction (Adams, Foorman, Lundberg, and Beeler).
Children should participate in activities that introduce them to the nature and
existence of phonemes. These games can help them discover that words contain
phonemes and help them begin to learn about phonemes separate identities so that they
can recognize them and distinguish one from another. Adams, Foorman, and Beeler
suggest that phonemes are easier to feel in ones mouth than to hear with ones ears so the
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childrens attention should be directed and redirected to the phonemes articulation. They
believe that the children should be repeatedly encouraged to explore, compare, and
contrast the phonemes. Children can be invited to look at each other while saying a given
phoneme, or receive hand mirrors to examine the movement of their own mouths in order
to explore how their voices and the positions of their mouths and tongues change with
each sound.
In conclusion, phonemic awareness is an important part of a balanced literacy
program. Children who are aware of phonemes move easily and productively into
reading and writing. Children who are not aware of phonemes are at serious risk of
failing to learn to read. Teaching phonemic awareness will accelerate the reading and
writing growth of the entire classroom and may reduce the incidences of children with
reading difficulties.
b. Advantages
Phonics is a reading method that helps kids learn the sounds or phonemes that one or
more letters make together when you read them aloud. These sounds can teach a
beginning reader how letters work together to comprise the words you use to
communicate with others. The idea behind learning phonics is that children learn to read
aloud and speak these speech sounds. Learning to read with phonics can be extremely
effective, especially if your child learns to read at an early age. Therefore, it can help to
know some of the main benefits of learning phonics and how they can help your child
read more effectively.
One of the main benefits of learning phonics is that it teaches children to decipher
words on their own, which means they ultimately need less help with reading. When
children learn the sounds that letters and groups of letters make, they can decode words
they have not encountered before in their reading, which allows children to learn new
words independently.
Another advantage of learning phonics is that doing so gives children a foundation for
learning new words, which add to the words they already know. A foundation in phonics
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can also help children learn parts of words they can remember when they encounter new
words they have never seen before, which makes learning to read much easier.
One final benefit of learning phonics is that it ultimately helps children learn to write
by using written lessons and activities to help children master both reading and writing
skills. Children also tend to develop their spelling skills as they learn which letters or
combinations of letters create sounds in words they write.
Learning to read with phonics is an excellent way for children to read both quickly
and effectively, as it allows them to sound out words they may not know initially by using
letters they already know.
c. Techniques & Approaches
To develop a foundation for spelling success and strengthen spelling skills the student
needs to develop phonemic awareness. The child needs to be able to recognize and
distinguish the sounds within spoken words in order to then translate these sounds back to
print. If the child has a phonemic weakness, you need to help that child strengthen their
phonemic awareness with phonemic awareness training.
The student needs to understand written English is based on a phonemic code. In
other words printed black squiggles represent sounds in the word.
The student needs to learn the complete phonemic code. The English phonemic code
is complex and the student needs to learn the complete code in order to handle these
complexities. The student needs to learn the code systematically beginning with the basic
code and then adding the complexities with vowel combinations, r-controlled
combinations and other intricacies. Although there is code overlap (more than one way to
write a sound), irregular and unexpected spellings, English is based on this phonemic
code.
The student needs to base their spelling on converting the sounds in the spoken word
into print. They need to write the phonemic code for the sounds in the word. Spelling
needs to be approached as recoding sound to print. Once again phonemic awareness is a
critical skill. The child must have the phonemic awareness to recognize and distinguish
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the sounds within words. If your child has a phonemic weakness, you need to help the
child strengthen their phonemic awareness.
The student needs to learn and practice the common spelling patterns that are used in
English. There are also guidelines that can help us learn correct spelling. While there are
exceptions and irregularities most words follow common patterns. There are also a
number of helpful guidelines to aid us in accurate spelling. Children are better able to
achieve spelling success when they learn and practice these common patterns and helpful
guidelines.
For accurate spelling the student does need to learn the correct spelling for common
words and begin memorizing the specific spelling pattern used for particular words.
Accurate spelling can be tricky and does require remembering which spelling pattern is
used within certain words.

3.0)

One complete activity & one accompanied worksheet which reflect the

teaching and learning of English phonemes to young children

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Skills:
Initial consonants and blends, word families
Materials:
Chart paper, markers in different colors, self-sticking notes, hole punch.
For each child:
Dock and mouse patterns, page 33, crayons or markers, scissors, lightweight cardboard or
recycled file folder, glue stick, 12-ich pipe cleaner or piece of yam, tape.
Getting ready
1.) Make a copy of the poem on page 30 for each child, and write the poem on chart
paper. Underline the d in dock and the cl in clock using colored marker. Underline
ock in another color.
2.) Photocopy the clock and mouse pattern page for each child.
Reading the Rhyme
1.) Read aloud the nursery rhyme once, then reread it, inviting children to use their
arms and hands to pantomime the mouses actions.
2.) Before reading the poem again, ask children to name the words that rhyme (clock
and dock). Then ask them to identify ways these two words are alike and different
(same ock ending, different beginnings). Cover the beginning and endings of the
words to point out these characteristics.
3.) Point out the underlined letter d. Say the sound /d/ (not duh) and ask children to
repeat it. Then point out the word family ock and repeat the process. Model how
to blend the two sounds together.
4.) Repeat this procedure with the underlined blend d. Model how to blend the two
letters. Ask children to listen carefully to see if they can hear that each sound in
this consonant blend is heard.
5.) Invite children to innovate on the rhyme by naming words that end in ock but
that begin with a different sound (lock, rock, sock, block, flock, and so on). Write
these words on self-sticking notes and place over the words clock and dock in the

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poem. Then reread the poem with children and invite them to act out the new
version.
One accompanied worksheet which reflect the teaching and learning of English
phonemes to young children
1.) Hand out a copy of the pattern page to each child. Invite children to color the
patterns. Then have them glue the page to lightweight cardboard and cut out the
mouse and the clock. Next, have children punch a hole through each of the circles
on the clock and on the mouse.
2.) Show children how to thread the pipe cleaner through the clock and the mouse, as
shown. The pipe cleaner should appear on the front of the clock but behind the
mouse. Have them tape the ends of the pipe cleaner to the back of the clock.
3.) Invite children to recite the rhyme as they make the mouse run up the clock by
sliding it up the pipe cleaner. Then have children make the mouse climb slowly
and read aloud each new word that forms. Ask children to use each word in a
sentence.

4.0)

Conclusion

In order to learn English well, the second language learners should pay attention of
the importance of the English pronunciation learning. The factors mentioned above
influencing Chinese students pronounce English, which is the first language interference
by interference of mother tongue in learning English pronunciation, learners age,
attitude, psychological factor and prior pronunciation instruction and the learners
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insufficient knowledge of phonology and phonetics to a large extent affecting the

acquisition of the English pronunciation. On the other hand, the presentations of
distinctions between Chinese and English phonological systems may raise our awareness
of the differences of the two sound systems to avoid errors in pronunciation. Imitation,
listening and speaking, Reading aloud are good suggestions for pronunciation
improvement of English learners. Certainly, theres a long way for learners of English
pronunciation to go.

5.0)

References

Onlines
1.) http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/how-young-children-learn-language
2.) http://home.sbu.edu/educ505_67/phonemic_awareness.htm
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Books
1.) Learning English: Development and Diversity By Neil Mercer, Joan Swann
2.) Second Language Learning and Language Teaching By Vivian Cook
3.) Language Experience Approach to Literacy for Children Learning English By
Pamela J. T. Winsor
4.) Literacy Development with English Learners: Research-Based Instruction in
Grades K-6, Lori Helman, Guilford Press, 12 Mar 2012

Appendix
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