Fun with Phonics

Lina Londoo

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

Pronunciation
Fluency
Intonation
Stress
Accuracy
Vowel sound
Consonant sounds

Vowel sounds (Trouble

makers)

Diagraph: cat, sad, animal

Long [ i:] vs. Short [ I ] sounds:
sheep vs. Ship
Long [ u:] vs. Short [ U ]
sounds: fool vs full
Schwa sound: up, girl, father,
the

Consonant sounds not

existing in Spanish
Soft continuous: she, share
Interdental sounds: the, they,
thanks, think
__ge sound: cage, age, ranger
Nasal 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- Kate
Late- fate- rate- Kate- mate
Leave- live- love- live*
Case- cane- came- cake

Homophones
Words pronounced with exactly the
same sounds, but different spelling
and meanings.
One-won
Isle- aisle
Eight- ate
Weather- whether
Four- for
Two-to-too

Homographs
Words written in one single form, but with
different meanings and sometimes different
pronunciation.
Tear
Bass
Content
Bat
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 College
Terrific
Apply Manners
Lecture
Attend Modals
Parents
Assist Fabric
Relatives Carpet Idiom

Colored alphabet
Green letters; [ i: ]

CDEGPTV

Colored alphabet
Red letters [ E ]

FLMNSX

Colored alphabet
Blue letters [ ju:]

UQW

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/hallo
ween/flashcards
/
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