Phonetic Method - Alli C

The phonetic approach is a method of teaching and learning reading based on the letters of the alphabet and their associated sounds.

This method does not require a learner to wait weeks or months to write sentences and coherent texts. Without going through all the sounds of a given language sentence and story writing is initiated within the limits of the sounds learnt so far.

Every new day, thus, gives a sense of achievement. Making a resort to sounds minimizes the risk of wrong pronunciation and wrong spelling.

It is a fast-track and time-effective method. In six months a solid foundation is laid for long-lasting literacy and language learning. The new method relieves the learners of memorizing mechanically without understanding.

Though having an understanding of the sounds is a prerequisite to teaching literacy but unlike many methods of teaching through phonics the teaching is not mechanical and boring. Teaching is contextualized and rooted in the learners’ experience. Instead of taking up individual sounds one by one a series of activities are initiated.

Each activity is based on the learners’ daily life experiences. They go through the experience and reach the conclusion themselves. The conclusions are not drawn for them. Instead, they are provoked to think.

Moreover, blending sounds together in an unknown word is a strategy often referred to as "sounding out." The phonetic approach to reading has advantages and disadvantages but still plays a key role in early literacy training in most classrooms.

Interesting fact:

The phonetic approach is used in most Montessori schools.

This is a gradual language exploration during which time the child explores many aspects of their language or languages.

Having all this theory in mind, to make it easier to get, an activity could be as simple as the following:

A child from the group is invited to come in front and say something to another but without making a sound. Let's call it "charades".
It becomes an intense and engrossing experience as a couple of children do insist that a conversation can take place without making a sound.

When it comes to words, they are dissected into sounds and the words are always from their daily usage.