Using phonics as a method of teaching reading in basic schools

Abstract

This study examines the use of phonics as a method of teaching reading in basic schools within the framework of generative phonology proposed by Chomsky and Halle (1968) in the Sound Pattern of English (SPE) as discussed in Hawkins (1992).The study aims at describing the patterns of phonic sounds with the application of phonological rules. It describes naturally occurring phenomena (phonemes) without experimental manipulation. The data which is collected from some existing data onphonic teaching and learning and used in this paper are from both verbal and written sources. Participants selected include teachers (T), teacher-trainees (TT) and pupils (P). The study shows the relationship between phonic symbols and letters of thealphabet in English. It attempts to present consonants and vowels occurring in wordinitial, word-medial and word-final positions in English as the major sounds in the English language. Based on the synchronic data available, the paper hypothesizesthat the voiceless dental fricative /0/ and the voiced dental fricative /6/ are the difficult sounds that are not easily pronounced in English words by the LI learner in Ghana. The study, therefore, suggests that both teachers and teacher-trainees shouldhave some knowledge in phonic sounds, and that an introduction to phonetics and phonology should be considered as a course in the Colleges of Education.