IntroductionLearningEnglishasoneofthemostspokenlanguagesintheworldisrapidlyincreasingforkidsglobally.Englishclassesamongstkidshavebecomeanorminthecurrenttrend,however,oneofthebiggestcontroversiessurr...

Introduction

LearningEnglishasoneofthemostspokenlanguagesintheworldisrapidlyincreasingforkidsglobally.Englishclassesamongstkidshavebecomeanorminthecurrenttrend,however,oneofthebiggestcontroversiessurroundingEnglishclassesiswhetherornottolearnthephoneticsymbolsalsoknownastheInternationalPhoneticAlphabet(IPA)alsoreferredtoasthephoneticalphabet.ThisarticleseekstodiscusswhylearningthephoneticalphabetisnotnecessarywhenlearningEnglishinelementary.

MethodsofTeachingEnglishthroughLiterature

ThemostcommonmethodologiesemployedwhenteachingEnglishinelementaryschoolisthroughliterature.OneofthemostcrucialconsiderationsistoletchildrendeveloptheirspokenEnglishskillsbylisteningandreadingtospokenEnglish.Thefocusisnotnecessarilyonpronunciation;instead,thefocusismoreonunderstandingthecontextandmeaningofthewords.ThereadingandlisteningofEnglishtextsaccompaniedbyexplanationsofmeaningsassistchildreninenhancingtheirlanguageskillsastheyslowlydeveloptheirreadingskills,whichwilleventuallyleadtowritingskills.

LearningEnglishasaSecondLanguage

AvastmajorityofpupilslearningEnglishasasecondlanguage(ESL)enterclasseswithextremelylimitedcomprehensionofEnglish.ESLpupilsrequireaneasilycomprehensibleexplanationofthelanguage,whichcanbeachievedwithouttheuseofphoneticsymbols.Tryingtoexplainthephoneticsymbolstosuchpupilswillmostlikelypromoteconfusioninsteadofunderstanding.Therefore,introducingphoneticsymbolsattheprimaryeducationlevelforEnglishlearningisnotnecessary.

TeachingChildrenPronunciationwithoutPhonetics

PronunciationofEnglishwordscanquicklybetaughtusingthestudents'nativelanguage,inmostcases,ithelpstobuildtheirconfidenceinthattheyarefamiliarwiththewordsfromtheirownlanguage.Thefocusshouldbemoreonthetone,intonation,andpronunciationofthewords.RegularlisteningandrepetitionofwordswiththecorrectpronunciationareefficientandeffectivetechniquesofteachingkidsEnglish.Phoneticsymbols,whileusefulinhelpingthestudentsunderstandthepronunciationofEnglishwords,arenotnecessaryatthisstageoflearning.

Conclusion

LearningEnglishthroughliteratureandlisteninghasproventobeaneffectivemethodforprimaryeducationpupils.Thefocusshouldbemoreonthecontext,meaning,andspokenEnglishcomprehension,ratherthanlearningphoneticsymbolswhichcanleadtoconfusionatthisage.Teachingkidshowtopronouncewordsusingtheirnativelanguageismoreefficient,andmoreeffectivewithouttheuseofphoneticsymbols.Therefore,skippingthephoneticalphabetwhenlearningEnglishinelementaryismorehelpfulforbothteachersandpupilsalike.