Phonetics

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‘Phonetics is the study of speech processes, including the production, perception and analysis of speech sounds.’ (Australian Collins dictionary, 1991). Phonemic awareness is important for kids to learn at an early stage for word recognition and pronunciation. Teaching phonetics involves learning about the alphabetic principal, blends, onsets and rimes. Teaching the alphabetic principal involves the students learning how to recognize a letter in lower and upper case, being able to name that letter and the sound that it can make. By associating letters with a picture of a recognisable object or animal, will assist the children with recognition of that letter and the sound(s) it makes. Students can learn onsets and rimes once they have a grasp on the alphabetic principal. An onset is a syllable that comes before the rime. The rime is the vowel and consonants that come after the onset. A great way for students to learn onset and rime is to have a lot of tiles with onsets and rimes on them, and have all the tiles turned upside down. The students then take turns flipping tiles over and making words out of the onsets and rimes. Scrabble junior is also a good game but may be a bit advanced for some age groups. Blends are combinations of two or more letters that make a syllable, such as sp, dr, str, squ. Teaching blends can be taught much like, and in conjunction with onsets and rimes. Blends consist of two to three letters, and the sound of that combination of letters, which can be very different to individual letter sounds.

Sounds are made by moving and exerting pressure on different parts of the mouth and throat. This web page demonstrates the different mouth movements for a sound. http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/phonetics03.jpg The web page below lists English phonemes used in a word and a recording of the sound(s) it makes. http://www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm