The+Concept+of+Phonics

**The Concept of Phonics-** Phonics is an important aspect of teaching a child to read. Phonics is an essential part to reading as the main focus is the sound-letter relationships, which is an important understanding to develop, not only for reading but writing as well. Hill (2006, p.208) also identifies that a significant element of phonics relates to the knowledge of the __alphabetic principle__, this refers to the notion that spoken language is made up of sounds and that these sounds can be related to written letters.



Ø  Letter knowledge and the ability to recognise phonemes (sounds) auditorily are the two most important indicators of a child’s first year reading accomplishment (Hill, 2006, p. 209). || To help children accomplish this they are taught listening and sounding skills, by repeating sounds and dividing words into separate sounds (Books for learning, n.d ). ||  ||

Hill (2006) suggests 5 stages that children go through as they develop their understanding of phonics. The first stage refers to letters of the alphabet and understanding that the letters have different names and represent different sounds. The second stage involves understanding words can be divided in onset and rime. This involves understanding that the onset is the letter that precedes that vowel and consonant (rime), eg ‘c’ (onset) and ‘at’ (rime). The third stage Hill (2006) discusses is blends, these blends of two letters generally occur at the end or start of single syllable words. The fourth stage refers to digraphs, this refers to two letters that make a single sound, for example ‘ck’ in the word duck. The fifth and final stage refers to structural analysis, in this stage children begin to understand and recognise compound words, prefixes and suffixes (Hill, 2006, p. 221).