Teaching foreign languages with phonics

Just as with learning to read in English, using phonics to crack the code of a new language will empower children and increase their enjoyment, say Lynn Erler and Julie Prince...

Qipojd-cbtfe bdujwjujft dbo cf mput pg gvo. The opening sentence of this article initially appears nonsensical. However, what if you were told that each letter in the original sentence had been replaced by the letter that follows it in the alphabet, so ‘e’ became ‘f’ and so on? This information acts as a key, allowing you to unlock the meaning. Teaching children about the sound-spelling links of the foreign language they are learning can act in a similar way. It can be a powerful tool, helping them to ‘crack the code’ and unlock meaning.

Let’s start with two contrasting anecdotes that illustrate the impact phonics- based teaching can have.

1

Sarah was a Y11 student studying for her GSCEs. She was a very able student, who was predicted As in most subjects. She was having some difficulties with her Spanish and so her parents arranged a tutor for her. During the tutorials, whenever her tutor told her a word that was new, Sarah would always ask how to spell it. It became apparent that Sarah’s knowledge of sound-spelling rules was almost non-existent. This meant that she had to memorise the spelling of every Spanish word she knew, placing an incredible burden on her memory. This was a particular shame because, as Spanish is a phonetic language (you ‘say what you see’), it was totally unnecessary.

2

4C were a fairly typical, keen Y4 class learning Spanish. Their teacher, however, had spent quite a bit of time with them in Y3, as beginners, emphasising the sound-spelling links in Spanish and they were used to reading and spelling a few simple words. One day in autumn there was torrential rain and so their teacher decided to teach them the phrase ‘llueve a cántaros’ (it’s raining cats and dogs). They had great fun discussing the literal meaning of the phrase – ‘it’s raining jugsful’ – and comparing it to English phrases such as ‘it’s bucketing down’. Finally, their teacher got them to take out their mini whiteboards and have a go at writing down the new word ‘llueve’. Despite the tricky letters ‘ll’ and ‘v’, most of the children got it right because they had learned to match the sounds to their spellings. They were so proud and it made them feel very secure in their language learning. Imagine how they’ll cope in Y11!

In the womb, babies can hear the sounds of their mother language/s. Research on child development has shown that a baby can distinguish between two similar sounds such as /d/ and /t/ within weeks of birth. By four years of age the child’s brain has developed distinct sound categories for the sounds of the mother-tongue language/s. The child hears the sounds in words, identifies the sounds in conjunction with the meaning of the words, imitates them and participates in the world of communication. Introducing a foreign language to children needs to involve helping pupils to develop new sound categories in their brains that lead to producing those sounds, learning the meaning of the words that the sounds represent, and creating communication in their new language.

It is important to learn the sounds and spellings of a new language early on, always in conjunction with word meanings, of course. Learners use sounds – aloud and, very importantly, silently in their heads – to rehearse new words and store them securely in long-term memory. Sounds also help pupils to recognise words and phrases when they hear them, and to read lists, poems and sentences correctly (silently or aloud) when they see them. With these phonics skills a learner can feel competent with the language, from the bottom up, from the beginning onwards.

introducing written words

Some specialists have argued that children should not be shown the written word too soon or else they will ‘say what they see’. This becomes evident in their pronunciation and is especially obvious in French with examples such as ‘lappin’ (pronounced to rhyme with the English word ‘pin’) for ‘lapin’ and ‘sty-low’ for ‘stylo’. However, introducing the written word too late can also have its drawbacks. Often the children imagine the words in their head as they hear them, using their own phonetic system. It is then a real shock when they do eventually see the written words. In French ‘oiseau’ is often a surprise, starting with ‘oi’ instead of the ‘wa’ the children were envisaging. The reason for these errors is that the children have been applying the English phonetic system to French words. If they have never been taught the sound-spelling system of the foreign language, they have no other choice than to use English, all the way to GCSE in some cases.

Falling on deaf ears

KS3 students involved in a research project described their struggles with decoding French words they had heard but couldn’t identify from the spellings. Learners’ reports sounded unhappily like phonological dyslexia in French, being allowed to develop because there was no explicit phonics teaching. After a term of beginner French, over 30 per cent of one class said that they could “not really hear” the sounds of French when their teacher spoke it. How can we then expect our pupils to remember, produce and decode what they not able to hear and distinguish?

In an England-wide investigation of KS3 learners, many students could not identify words that rhymed in French. They also reported that they felt helpless with the language, which remained “foreign” to them, where their decoding or speaking correctly was purely a matter of chance – in other words, out of their control. Needless to say these youngsters were not interested in continuing with French to GCSE, and the number of demotivated French learners increased year by year.

By helping them to ‘crack the code’ through systematic phonics work, we can empower learners and increase their enjoyment of language learning now and into the future.