The idea of phonics is that you teach your students the various English sounds, then the letters they correspond to. The advantage of this over simply teaching the alphabet is that once they have mastered the main sounds, they can then read many English words.
On this page kids will find enough material to cover all the basics. So tell your students about the page so they can practise at home, it’s a great way to show parents how well you are teaching them in class!
The problem with traditional phonics is that if you have a printed book, you can’t hear the sounds, similarly if you have an audio cassette, you cannot see the letters. So that’s why I came up with this page, where you can hear the sounds, see the letters and have full control over which ones to study.
In the table above you have the 5 vowels, the 21 consonants and several "blend" and "combination" sounds where consonants are used together. Move your mouse over the sounds to hear them pronounced, or click on the pictures to hear them.
Most areas of the World pronounce consonants in the same way, however regional accents appear in the vowel sounds. New Yorkers have different vowels from Texans, Londoners are different from Glaswegians. Here I’ve presented two variations. When you teach, choose one, but make sure the kids know there are many variations.
The games on here are great as the time limits really make sure the kids start listening and not just looking at the letters (hence why kids will always beat adults!). The pronunciation has no strange Japanese accents and above all they are fiendishly addictive games!