We understand more and more the importance of starting English education at an early age. Preschoolers must learn to read the alphabet, read letters and combine letters to begin writing in English.
In this article, we have included the wrongly known myths and accurate information about the process of students learning the English alphabet.
Why do we need the alphabet?
Myth #1. Children need the English alphabet to read and write English.
A person must know the alphabet in order to be able to read and write, this is an indisputable fact.Prepare to be surprised or even shocked because knowing the alphabet is not enough to read and write!
“An alphabet is a set of all letters of a particular writing system, arranged in a certain, generally accepted order.”
How is this possible?
Very simple. The alphabet is just a string of letters; Knowing the letters will unfortunately not help you learn to read! Don't you believe this?
Try it yourself. Take the most striking letter of the English alphabet – “W”.
How many English words that start with W [ dabılyu :] come to your mind with this letter ?
How about "J" [ ceyar ]? Or the most mysterious letter "H" [ eyç ]?
You immediately remember the appearance of the letter, but it is not immediately possible to remember its alphabetic name or the sound that this letter represents.
And that's the whole point! To be able to read English, you need to know the sounds of the alphabet and the letter image that we see while reading or remember when we want to write something.In English, this is called phonetics.
So, why should children be taught the English alphabet? When do we need letters?
For example, in order to communicate your name, surname, address or e-mail address in an amicable manner.You need to group some letters by combining them.
In English, this is called "spelling".To give another example, in order to find words in alphabetical order in a dictionary.It is necessary to know the alphabet.
When should training start?
Myth #2. First, reading in the mother tongue is learned, then reading in English.
Many parents believe that learning the English alphabet should not be started before the 2nd grade because they think that the letters in their mother tongue are still a problem, but we are 100% sure that it is already too late to start learning the alphabet in the 2nd grade ????
If a child wants to learn English letters at the age of 5.You should always let him do it!
However, it is better to teach phonetics piecemeal.Let's go deeper!
As you know, a language can be spoken and written, and the natural way to master the mother tongue is to gradually get to know the written one by mastering the oral form.
Interest in letters, or rather in writing, awakens in children at a very early age.Children love to "copy" and "imitate" letters without thinking about sounds, making them feel much bigger than they really are.The same thing happens in English.It's important to know the words "dog" and "cat", but being able to write those words has a whole other meaning.
And here we are faced with two problems.
Firstly, even those who have never studied English before can listen to an alphabet song over and over and say ABCDEFG.But it takes a little more effort to associate ABCD's sound with its written images.For this reason, the sound image must be supported by a visual image in the student's memory,
For example; We say [si:] – we write “Cc”, we say [bi:] – we write “Bb”.
To do this, you can use cards or pictures with the alphabet on them, pronounce them and repeat these steps.
Second, knowing the alphabet alone is not enough; It is necessary to understand that [bi:] – Bb is [b] and [si:] – Cc is … [k].“Hh” – [h] not to mention.
In conclusion, it is necessary to know that the correctly spelled word “dog” (dog) is [di:] – [d] – Dd, [o:] – [o] – Oo, [ci:] – [g] – Gg.
When sound-letter and letter-sound images are formed and fixed in the student's mind, the child is now ready to read and write.This process requires time and specific exercises to memorize and practice the letters and sounds of the English language.Quickly learned letters are just one of the success factors.
You ask why?
The letters look the same!
Myth #3. Children have an excellent memory. 26 letters are so easy to learn!
The English alphabet does indeed have fewer letters than other languages.There are only 26 letters and children have a great memory.If children listen to a song several times or watch a cartoon about the alphabet.They easily remember both the letter names and their order. Of course, remembering how it's written can take some time.
At this point, you can print the alphabet as coloring pages, color it, pronounce it aloud and repeat these steps.You can start learning the alphabet with English letters similar to those in your native language.
Let's talk a little bit about the advantages of learning the alphabet at preschool age. Children between the ages of 6 and 7 learn sounds and letters gradually and slowly.The learning process will be faster as preschoolers do not yet know the written letters in their mother tongue, but students will be confused at first because there are so many “semi-similar” letters – n, c, B, x, Pp, ɡ… Sound-letter and letter.If sound combinations are not learned well.This confusion will affect both reading and writing.
How is it written? To the right or to the left? Up or down?
Myth #4. English letters are similar in writing; they are easy to remember.
Despite this, the English letters have surprising secrets.
First, there are many "similar" double letters that differ only in their direction.
For example, the letter pairs “t” and “f” and “M” and “W” are the same except that they are “reflections” of each other and it is hard to believe, but children completely confuse these letters.
Pairs such as “d”-”b” and “p”-”q” for example differ only in their direction.So children very often reflect when spelling in these letters.This type of confusion will also have a very negative effect on reading and writing.
Of course, as time passes, the student learns to control himself independently.If these nuances are not taken into account and prevented at the stage of introducing the alphabet and fixing it in the brain.These wrong acquisitions will continue for a long time, become fixed, and this situation is extremely difficult to correct.There are many Online tools for learning English alphabet,
- Alphabet videos
- Alphabet songs etc.
- Using cards
- Pictures
- Free songs
- Cartoons
- Exercises
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