Phonics Lessons / Resources

Yu, what I actually do sometimes is write up hangul beside characters where there is a 1:1 relationship. So ㅔe, ㅏu, ㅊch, ㄴn, ㅁm. But, the real goal of this is that I draw stars next to the others (yes, that includes i and o which do not have hangul equivalents due to vowel length). As all but one or two end up with a star, I feel that can really push home that the sounds are not the same.

Similarly, I'm happy to have students make notes in their notebooks -- I'd never stop them from doing that -- but only if they are writing them themselves and not copying because that involves the act of very carefully listening and interpreting the phoneme relative to their existing phonetical framework.

Sounds like your opinion pretty much matches mine, so I'd love to hear any tips on how you personally go about teaching that they are not the same (its not an easy concept to explain in simple English and you'd want a clear understanding).

And then of course there's the elephant in the room: Revised Romainsation.
I find students are often confused about the difference between English and the Revised Romanisation that they learn in their home classes and this is an issue that is tricky to address. I mean, let's put criticism of RR consonants aside for a moment and just focus on the vowels. The current RR vowel setup is pretty good (apart from the ever controversial ㅓeo) when you consider that it is a) consistent with other Asian languages and b) somewhat matches stressed vowels in English. But stressed vowels come up in the English syllabus after most students learn RR (presuming phonics are not wholesale cut from the lessons as I often see), so there's a fundamental ordering issue here. We simply cannot explain why RR <> English. How do you guys go about this?

Holly, sorry for the minor derail.

I like your game as it requires them to think about the differences and for those that have been taught a 1:1 relationship incorrectly in the past, hopefully to challenge and rethink their understanding in a positive way. Also, that video beats the pants out of the one I've been using. Full song with not a single incorrect index word, so big thanks for sharing. :D

ㄹ =R?????

ㄸ = TH?????????

바 = Pa????????????

Noooooooooo. Sorry, I hate to criticise someone who went through so much effort, but please DO NOT teach kids to transliterate into hangeul. Please, please, please. This is precisely what I've always tried to get KETs not to do. I teach my kids the complete opposte - ㄹ is neither R nor L. ㅅ is neither S nor SH. There is no TH, V or F sound in Korean. Because there aren't.

If you want a fun phonics game please try Phonics Monsters by bogglesworld. And please cut the Hangeul out all together.

It's not to teach them that they can read "ㄱ" as g or k but that in English we have two sounds to represent the Korean "ㄱ". Or that "ㄹ"  is said as a combination of r and l but in English there is a distinct difference. It's one of the reason I use my name as an example, because in almost any case double "ㄹ" sound will produce an English L sound. "할리" would never be said as as Harry which is then "해리" . Another  good example I use in class is  the phrase "I eat (or like) rice" and I eat lice. I explain to the kids what lice is (pretending little bugs are crawling in my hair and freaking out." and then practice the different pronunciation for (R)ice and (L)ice.

Sorry for any misconceptions about the Korean letter explanations it's only there to help the students better understand the differences in Korean and English pronunciation not to teach them to pronounce the English alphabet like they would Korean. Let me know if it works in your classes!

I think this game is a great idea. I agree that not teaching transliteration is important, however, this seems like a great way to help students understand basic sounds in a way that engages them. I teach at a high school where I STILL have kids that know zero English. Sometimes they need whatever help I can throw at them, even if it means trying to show the Korean characters.

I really don't think you should get your students correlating the English pronounciations of Roman letters with the pronounciation of hangeul. Why? Yepoyo says yepoyo, which sounds very different to 예뻐요. For the same reason English words can't be written properly in hangeul (잉글리쉬 anyone?) you can't do the reverse either. The kids may like it but you're not helping their English. I hate to say it, because you've clearly put a lot of effort into this.

Unfortunately Koreans have a number of basic pronounciation mistakes that they almost all make as a result of thinking of English words in terms of hangeul. For example, there is no hangeul equivalent to the pronounciation of "u" in the word "up." As a result, if Koreans have to write it in hangeul they pick the nearest equivalent, which is "어", making "업." This does not mean that the "u" sound in "up" is the same sound as the Korean "어." Also, when transliterating the other way, the English "o" sound (although I accept it ha various pronounciation values) can be virtually the same as the Korean "어". There is no u as in up sound in Korean, there is no th, no f, no v, no z, no wo (as in won't, or even as in wood), or . In English many more consonants can be pronounced together without a vowel sound in between, again, as in "English," although this can't be replicated in Korean (잉글리쉬). Basically, I don't think it works to teach pronounciation by encouraging young students to think in terms of hangeul. I think with language learning it's always best to get them pronouncing things right from as early as possible.

Again, I'm sorry to do this to you, but I do feel strongly about it as the sounds of English and Korean are so different.

I really don't think you should get your students correlating the English pronounciations of Roman letters with the pronounciation of hangeul. Why? Yepoyo says yepoyo, which sounds very different to 예뻐요. For the same reason English words can't be written properly in hangeul (잉글리쉬 anyone?) you can't do the reverse either. The kids may like it but you're not helping their English. I hate to say it, because you've clearly put a lot of effort into this.

Unfortunately Koreans have a number of basic pronounciation mistakes that they almost all make as a result of thinking of English words in terms of hangeul. For example, there is no hangeul equivalent to the pronounciation of "u" in the word "up." As a result, if Koreans have to write it in hangeul they pick the nearest equivalent, which is "어", making "업." This does not mean that the "u" sound in "up" is the same sound as the Korean "어." Also, when transliterating the other way, the English "o" sound (although I accept it ha various pronounciation values) can be virtually the same as the Korean "어". There is no u as in up sound in Korean, there is no th, no f, no v, no z, no wo (as in won't, or even as in wood), or . In English many more consonants can be pronounced together without a vowel sound in between, again, as in "English," although this can't be replicated in Korean (잉글리쉬). Basically, I don't think it works to teach pronounciation by encouraging young students to think in terms of hangeul. I think with language learning it's always best to get them pronouncing things right from as early as possible.

Again, I'm sorry to do this to you, but I do feel strongly about it as the sounds of English and Korean are so different.

I disagree with a lot of things written here, though I respect your opinion.

I made this game not as a way to improve my students pronunciation but to improve their reading comprehension and to get them associating sounds with the English alphabet. I teach at an elementary school in a very poor area. My students may be able to read mom because they've memorized how it looks but if I were to ask they would be hard pressed to spell it. Try asking your students to spell their names in English, if they're at the stage my students are at again most wouldn't be able to do it.

If nothing else this game seemed to have started to bridge the connection between the students seeing letters and reading words. And if my students can read yepoyo and understand it as 예뻐요 (as almost all of them can and it clearly doesn't sound that different if thats what they see and understand when reading it) thats good enough for me. Since I've started really working on phonics with my students I've seen my students make a marked improvement in their effort to spell words.

I played a guessing game recently (where I gave them clues) and they had to write their group guesses on white boards. I told them as long as they tried to spell the word and I could read it and understand then they would get the point (i.e. Mickey mouse could be Miki maus but I wouldn't accept be moo dobe). When I work on spelling then of course I take away points, but most of the time I work on comprehension. Obviously this isn't the best game in the world but I wouldn't say it can't help with students understanding of a fundamental part of English i.e. comprehension of the English alphabet, but again I've only used this on my students.

Yu, what I actually do sometimes is write up hangul beside characters where there is a 1:1 relationship. So ㅔe, ㅏu, ㅊch, ㄴn, ㅁm. But, the real goal of this is that I draw stars next to the others (yes, that includes i and o which do not have hangul equivalents due to vowel length). As all but one or two end up with a star, I feel that can really push home that the sounds are not the same.

ㅏ = u? Is that a typo or some strange Aussie accent I've never heard?

As for Holly's point - I can see that if it's to stress the differences, not the similarities; however, I'd still be afraid it would just lead to them thinking that one = the other.

Hi Everyone
I find teaching phonics to be hard to make interesting. So I started this thread about how to make it more fun. I will start off by posting some ppts. Please add any worksheets/ websites, etc. that you think might help. The lesson ppts are for the 4th grade Hi. I'm Bora book.

Short vowels (a, e, i, o, u), or if they're advanced, short vowels vs stressed vowels (a_e, i_e, o_e, u_e) is a good one. That's 3 new sounds to them (i, o, u) and five bits of disambiguation. Most students will mistakenly equate a with ㅏ  instead of u with ㅏ and will appreciate the explanation. Use flashcards from MES English and play some games using the letters. In the advanced variant, note the lack of e_e, because as far as I'm aware there are simply no words in English containing that phoneme/grapheme couplet that are not abstract concepts (these, extreme etc).

If you have setup time aplenty in future, I have a dominoes game I once did for short vs stressed vowels on an English kyampeu. Page 2 is the relevant page, or Page 2 and 3 for the advanced variant. You'll have to print them (its not a PPT slideshow, I made it in PPT due to technical issues), paste to thin cardboard and then cut them out. It takes time. Too much time. But you could always try it with just paper and have the kids cut them out.

Please make sure your teacher is teaching them a phonics ABC song not the regular one, else she's just setting you up for failure as the kids will be dead confused as to why they're taught two different things. Two good phonics ABC songs are the Genki English one and the one quite literally called "Phonics Song" uploaded by ABC kids or something. It has Phonics Song in the lyrics on a yellow BG. Too many I've seen on Youtube get the phonemes wrong (x xylophone, a "z" sound, w whale, a "wh" sound etc etc).

You know what I like to do and the kids really enjoy.

Go through the alphabet and match each Roman letter with the Hangul one (as best you can)
So
A ㅏ
B ㅂ
C ㄱ

Canada
가ㄴㅏㄷㅏ
가나다
Hello
힐오
ㅎㅣㄹㅗ

Something like that.  Then the person who guesses the word can try and spell it in English.  Or if they are low level have them decode it.  I prefer the spaced out Hangul because it teaches them think in English style

AI do a few examples and then the kids who guesses the word gets to write his own word (wether I give it to him or he/she is able to pick it themselves.  I use this in most my classes as a warm up, and the kids love it.  Sometimes it ends up taking 20-30 minutes it is so popular and it makes them enjoy and practice spelling.

I'm with you guys on the 'Super Simple ABCs' song (http://www.supersimpleabcs.com/videos/index.htm). My Kindergärtners, 1st, and 2nd graders really started understanding the letter "noises" after showing them this song! I also made these page cards and laminated them to go along with the song. So during class I:
1. Review the cards that match the song (A-Z)
2. Show them to hold up the card when it's the song/letter being sung
3. Hand out 1-2 cards per student

They have so much fun with it and they always get different ones each class when I hand em out so it keeps it interesting. Good luck! ^^

I use these flash cards http://www.mes-english.com/phonics/az.php to teach my kids phonics they are a big help

Here are 2 great chants. Make sure you keep the mp3 file in the same folder as the PPT file.

This is a series of videos I am making for my kids to practice at home, only have 5 done now, but will get them all done in the coming weeks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rYvA53zCrM

Here are some phonics ppts:
Rhyming detectives (easy)
Match the Rhyming words (easy)
Rhyming poems (advanced but could be modified)

I don't know if you have looked into it, but Raven English is AWESOME! Makes teaching phonics and sentence so much easier.

I've been using starfall.com to slowly go through the alphabet. You can do phonics activities which sometimes have good pictures and animations. There are also printouts that go along with each letter that even suggest games.

Eventually I'll get into practicing long and short vowels with that same site....it's pretty sweet.

For those students who are really low level and still can't grasp the concept of phonics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaHnmhhhInE

I've made some more phonics PPTs and do them at the beginning of EVERY lesson with EVERY grade from 1st graders to 6th Graders and have been impressed with how well the students have responded (even my 6th graders!)

Anyway, I was posting them in the lesson threads but think this is a better place for them.

Enjoy! Each should be titled according the the chapter and grade they served and at the end will have the letters/sounds which were covered. (Maybe I lied, these are not all well labeld, but future ones will be ^.^)

These are what I've used w/ 6th Graders

5th Grade Phonics Lessons