Fun with Phonics

Lina Londoño

Why being aware of phonetics?

• It helps improve oral performance.• It makes communication easier.• It helps gain self -confidence.• It helps learners interact with others and

with the cultural aspects.

Main phonetics concepts PronunciationFluencyIntonationStress AccuracyVowel soundConsonant sounds

Vowel sounds (Trouble makers)

Diagraph: cat, sad, animalLong [ i:] vs. Short [ I ] sounds: sheep vs. ShipLong [ u:] vs. Short [ U ] sounds: fool vs fullSchwa sound: up, girl, father, the

Consonant sounds not existing in Spanish

Soft continuous: she, shareInterdental sounds: the, they, thanks, think__ge sound: cage, age, rangerNasal sound in: ng, nk: thank, thing

Little problem makers• [ b ] vs. [ v ] sounds: best, vest• No mute or silent [ h ] in most cases: hello, hi,

he• Semi-vowels/consonants: [ ju] university• In words starting with “s” learners tend to add

“e”: student, school

Minimal pairs

• Words with all same sounds but one that makes the difference:

Cat – cut – kit – coat- KateLate- fate- rate- Kate- mateLeave- live- love- live*Case- cane- came- cake

Homophones • Words pronounced with exactly the same

sounds, but different spelling and meanings.One-wonIsle- aisleEight- ateWeather- whetherFour- forTwo-to-too

Homographs • Words written in one single form, but with different

meanings and sometimes different pronunciation.Tear BassContentBat Fine Second

False cognates • Words that are written in a very similar way in

two languages (English and Spanish) but mean two very different things:

Library Actual CollegeTerrific Apply MannersLecture Attend ModalsParents Assist FabricRelatives Carpet Idiom

Colored alphabet

Green letters; [ i: ]

B C D E G P T V Z

Colored alphabet

• Red letters [ E ]

F L M N S X

Colored alphabet

• Blue letters [ ju:]

U Q W

Colored alphabet

• Gray letters [ ei ]

A H J K

Colored alphabet

• White letters [ ai ]

I Y

Colored alphabet

• Orange letters

O R

Phonics materials • http://www.kizphonics.com/materials/• http://supersimplelearning.com/halloween/fla

shcards/

• http://www.mes-english.com/• http://www.esl-galaxy.com/• http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/

Lottery-like flashcards

Simple association flashcards

Cross curricular flashcards

Topic based flashcards

Alphabet association flashcards

Capital letters vs lower case letters