Fonix Why phonics Helps with pronunciation Helps with

Fonix

Why phonics? Helps with pronunciation Helps with unfamiliar words Helps with spelling

Misconceptions Doesn't need much time Must be frequent Vocabulary is not necessary

Problems for Japanese learners It's hard to hear and pronounce sounds that don't exist in Japanese

Sound inventory Some sounds have no close counterpart R/L th v Others do, but exist between Japanese sounds but/bat on/or shark/Sherk

Combinations of sounds In Japanese, syllables must end with a vowel racket → raketto Some combinations in English don't exist in Japanese too → tsu see → shi

Problems for Japanese learners It's hard to hear and pronounce sounds that don't exist in Japanese Katakana is BAD BAD!

Katakana It's a syllabary, which means that it can only represent the combinations of sounds used in Japanese It cannot represent many English sounds woman → ウーマン very → べり told → トルド adventure → アドベンチャー

I hate katakana Teaching with katakana develops bad, hard-tobreak pronunciation habits If students understand phonics, they don't need katakana for use as a memory aid

Problems for Japanese learners It's hard to hear and pronounce sounds that don't exist in Japanese Katakana is BAD BAD! Form of some loanwords make distinguishing singular/plural difficult

English loanwords To fit the Japanese sound system, some words exist only in the “plural form” shirt(s) → シャツ fruit(s) → フルーツ sport(s) → スポーツ

Problems for Japanese learners It's hard to hear and pronounce sounds that don't exist in Japanese Katakana is BAD BAD! Form of some loanwords make distinguishing singular/plural difficult Understanding romaji can be a first step

romaji Since only certain combinations exist, you can type Japanese with weird “spellings” sushi → susi Kamiichi → kamiiti Tsuji → tuzi

romaji Show the students how these weird spellings are pronounced and how to spell correctly They learn how to spell Japanese words in English They can understand the connection between letter combinations and sounds

Starting Phonics in Elementary School Pros Develop good habits at an early age Keep students interested and on track when interest in English is at its peak Build a better understanding of the parts of English before grammar is introduced Cons Inability to read and write (if applicable) can make teaching phonics challenging

Starting Phonics in Junior High School Pros Students can read and write to some extent This allows for more approaches to phonics Cons Students may have already developed bad habits Learning phonics and grammar simultaneously could be a heavy load Interest in English may have dwindled