Every child learns to read, write, pronounce and spell words at a different pace. If a child finds learning by reading boring, he may just make up his mind that it is a useless exercise and may even refuse to learn. Once children make up their mind not to learn following a particular method, it becomes very frustrating for the parents to try and convince them that they must learn the English language. For a small child, learning the English language is akin to learning a second language.

 

Many parents who feel that their child may lag in learning English or are not doing so well in it in the school have tried the hooked on phonics system and have been amazed by its results. Hooked on phonics is rightly an award winning educational program as millions of children have benefitted from it.

 

Hooked on phonics is an interesting and entertaining method of teaching children how to read, spell and pronounce English alphabets and words. The program starts at a slow pace and then gradually picks up. The accompanying music makes it entertaining for the child to learn. The hooked on phonics spends a lot of time in ensuring that letters prompt a verbal cue. Flash cards and now prompts on CDs and DVDs are used. Hooked on phonics has also introduced an MP3 version and children can now listen to it on iPods.

 

Remember a lot can go wrong when children are taught English by conventional methods. The teacher may not know how to teach a language or may be using the wrong pronunciation. For this, children cannot be blamed. The English language consists of only 26 alphabets, but the correct pronunciation of them in words can be very complex and difficult for a child to understand. In English, vowels have no accent and children have to commit to memory their different forms. The vowel E has no sound in the word “knife” but is stressed in the word “engine”.

 

The approach that has been adopted by hooked on phonics is to teach children the correct pronunciation of each alphabet. After they have mastered these, the next step is to categorize sound clusters. The child learns when the sound of an alphabet needs to be stressed and where it needs to be kept low. An adult may not think twice about the difference in pronouncing the alphabet “B” in bat and bet. Hence, teaching a child can be quite difficult. This is where hooked on phonics excels at teaching children how to read, spell and pronounce alphabets.

 

Hooked on phonics starts at a very easy pace and children are not stressed out in learning alphabets and then their correct usage in words. Once the foundations have been carefully laid, it becomes easy and interesting for the children to learn.

 

The team at hooked on phonics has gathered a lot of experience since its launch in the late eighties. Today, with multimedia easily available in homes, they have used more creative and interesting methods for children to learn the English language.

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