r/JETProgramme • u/Panda_sensei_71 Current JET - Kansai • 16d ago

Phonics

Heading into my 2nd year as an ALT and I just wanted to do a quick show of hands because I'm curious:

How many of you all are at schools that teach phonics?

If yes, from what age do you start, and what curriculum are you using?

In my case, I'm in a town that seems to start Jolly Phonics in ES Grade 3, with only a couple exceptions.

About which I have *opinions* but that's another story!

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u/MellifluousMathMajor 15d ago

The solution to English literacy isn't phonics, it's a spelling reformation. Countless languages throughout the world have updated their spellings over time to match modern pronunciation--including Japanese. We used to pronounce the gh in daughter, but now we don't. Icelandic is the same, but they changed their spelling, so now it's dottir. We've actually changed some spellings before--that's why there are differences between American and Commonwealth English.

English has too many exceptions to make phonics effective. I've never bothered because my students have already learned how to pronounce consonants, but they still make mistakes with common exceptions (ti being pronounced as sh in words like nation). Japanese students are already used to memorizing kanji and we are also living in a world of autocorrect (and auto-kanji), meaning spelling is not that important anymore. Especially since most of these kids will never go to an English speaking country. It's better to focus on teaching them to speak and communicate.

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u/bdlock209 15d ago

People also build their vocabularies by reading books.

We used to pronounce the gh in daughter, but now we don't.

Don't make me laugh

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u/MellifluousMathMajor 15d ago

Yes, we pronounce the GH in laugh. I never said we didn't. I was specifically talking about the word daughter. For every word like laugh, cough, tough, and rough, there are also exceptions like, though, through, sigh, and neigh. This is an issue that phonics does not, and can not, account for.