Teaching phonics in the foreign language at KS2 at primary phase has now become an
essential and non-negotiable component of any primary foreign language learning pathway. At Language Angels
pronunciation confidence for non-specialists delivery models is at the heart of
everything we provide, starting from the very beginning with the teaching and
learning of phonics in the foreign language. From the very first lesson.
Phonics is
only one of three pillars. Vocabulary and grammar are the other two but without
phonics weaved through the teaching and learning of vocabulary and grammar, it
is impossible for pupils to make the substantial progress required. Teachers
need support and good tech tools to help them with not only clear, accurate and
authentic modelling of language that can also be accessed by the children
outside of the lesson, but also with clear guidelines on how to teach
individual phonemes in another language. It should be noted that this is very
different to the teaching of phonics in the first language. Listening to a
native speaker is key for teaching phonics and teachers and pupils should never
guess a phoneme or attempt to read while applying English phonics knowledge.
The key things to consider are:
- How many phonemes to teach by the end of primary phase
- How to group the foreign language phonemes and when to teach
each group explicitly
- Ensuring each group of phonemes previously taught is
constantly revisited going forward
- Ensuring pupils hear the phoneme in isolation with plenty of
practice outside of lesson too
- Ensuring pupils hear the phonemes taught immediately in a word and then in a piece of text
- Ensuring pupils have the opportunity to use the phonemes in
activities and reading aloud
French Pronunciation
French pronunciation can be considered more complex as the phoneme-grapheme relationship is not always regular but with a structured, considered approach it can be a wonderful exploration of language with your pupils. Many sounds are not natural or instinctive to our young English speakers but EAL learners thrive as they are already used to a wider range of mouth, lip and tongue movements. Hooks in English can be helpful but always only a guide as some sounds simply do not exist in English.
Spanish Pronunciation
Despite a few exceptions, Spanish is considered to have a very regular ‘accessible’ pronunciation with an easier phoneme-grapheme relationship. Again, hooks in English can be helpful to support both staff and children as these Spanish phonemes may not exist in English and will use different mouth and tongue placements that may not be instinctive to the pupils and staff. Focusing on vowels in Spanish is always a great place to start before looking at letter strings as seen below.
Italian Pronunciation
Italian is considered to be one of the
best languages to teach children and at first glance it looks to have a perfect
phoneme-grapheme relationship but on closer
analysis some of the exceptions are a little more challenging to grasp. The
words ‘lasagne’
and ‘gnocchi’
read out loud by English speakers for example often offend native Italians!
Like in Spanish, we would recommend starting
with the vowels before moving onto the more tricky letter strings!
Explicit
or Non- Explicit Teaching of Phonics?
In
my professional opinion, some explicit teaching of phonics in the foreign
language is always essential. Allowing children time to see a phoneme in
isolation but also hear it and opportunity to practice it – many times. Some
sounds in the foreign language for example are non-existent in English and
children will have to become familiar with the different positions of the
mouth, lips and tongue. This takes time. Added to this they will need to hear
and say the phoneme in isolation but also quickly in a word and ideally a short
phrase. A lesson working on a small quantity of phonemes (four or five) can
work really well where pupils focus only on those sounds but with lots of
listening and speaking activities. Then revisiting these phonemes going forward
in units and topics.
