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My mother taught phonics as a Reading Specialist for many years as it was and remains today, an integral part of English Language Arts (ELA) education in the United States. I was taught phonics curriculum when I was in school and it has served me well throughout my academic career. However, in completing Unit 13 I quickly realized that teaching phonics to non-native speakers could benefit as well as provide potential roadblocks to English Language Learners.
One of the benefits of teaching phonics to ELL students is in learning the alphabet. Many potential students may not use the English alphabet so learning the letter and letter combination sounds through phonics gives them a foundation in their new language and will aid in reading and pronunciation. A second benefit of phonics is spelling as it breaks down words into its component letter sounds so they are able to determine the letters needed to write it. Phonics also aids in reading unfamiliar words. They can sound out the letters and letter groups in new vocabulary and often accurately pronounce them on the first try. Phonics provide an advantage to decoding English words from their word roots by recognizing previously learning spelling patterns. Lastly phonics can increase student self-confidence as they have acquired the rules of sound and spelling in English they need for success.
On the other hand, phonics does pose some drawbacks for ELL students. Sometimes successful phonics students can read and pronounce unfamiliar words but lack comprehension or meaningful understanding of what they read or said. A second drawback for students could be their lack of basic vocabulary knowledge and fluency. Another huge impediment for students is that learning phonics seems to have more exceptions to the rules than actual language rules! Sadly, teaching phonics requires a lot of work on the teacher’s part. The teacher must constantly label and point out the letter patterns and help students recognize and remember them.
