120 hr. TEFL Course Module 3- Reading (Pt. 2)

Module 3: Reading

3.1.2 Beginning to read

Phonics: The concept behind phonics is that students can begin to see and understand patterns in how phonemes relate to each other. Once they recognize these patterns, students can more easily sound out words that are foreign to them. This can also help them understand meaning when they begin to see patterns in root words, prefixes, and suffixes. English is notorious for straying away from patterns, however, so while phonics can be a helpful tool, it certainly has its shortcomings.

Learning the alphabet: Some of your students may not need to learn the alphabet because the English alphabet is the same as their native language’s alphabet. However, if your students do need to learn the alphabet because it is very different from how their native language is structured, you cannot skip this step. This makes learning the alphabet difficult if you have a heterogeneous group of students. You can combat this obstacle by differentiating your instruction, which requires more preparation but provides more individualized instruction for your students. We will discuss differentiation in more detail in a later module. 

Letter/sound correlation: We will discuss this in more detail later in the module, but whether or not your students are familiar with the alphabet, learning the correlation between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) is extremely important because sounds are unique to a language. Many of these sounds and combinations of sounds will be difficult for your students to get used to, so make sure you practice a lot.

Concepts of print: Some of the concepts of print we discuss here will be relevant to students who come from different backgrounds, but some of these concepts will only be relevant to students who are learning to read for the first time. It is possible to have a student who knows a native language but has never learned to read. Your task is a little more difficult in these cases because this adds another layer to what you need to accomplish.

• The English language is read from left to right.
• The English language is read from top to bottom.
• Letters and words convey messages.
• When you get to the end of a line (on the right), you need to return to the beginning of the next line (on the left).
• The illustrations in a book correspond to the words written there.