Introducing New Sounds and Letters to Your Learner

Use a classic elementary school method to teach reading to your learner: the Wilson Reading System. 

Once you've moved past the LEA stage, which relies on whole word recognition, how do you move on to the phonics-based teaching method that many of us are familiar with from grade school?

Try using sound cards!

Sound cards are used by the Wilson Reading System (WRS) to teach reading and spelling to primary school students, but they are readily adapted to English language learners and the tutor-learner teaching model. To use an ELL-adapted version of the WRS, let's try to understand the concept of sound cards.

For each new sound and letter that you introduce to your learner, present a sound card with the corresponding letters. 

Let's say you want to introduce the sound of and the letters "ph" as in "phone."

1. First, present the sound card to your learner.

2. Teach your learner the names of the letters (p and h), the keyword on the back of the card (phone) and the sound (/f/ "fuh"). 

(The keyword acts as a clue to help your learner remember the sound.)

3. Have your learner repeat the letter names, the keyword, and the sound: i.e. "p" (pee), "h" (ayche), "phone" and "fuh."

(Based on research, WRS claims that the sequence letter name, keyword and sound is the most effective sequence.)

4. With each letter and sound that you teach your learner, have your learner write down the letters and memorize the keyword and sound. 

Eventually, when you present the sound card, your learner will be able to repeat and name the letter, keyword and sound without prompting.

Here's a quiz to test your understanding of sound cards: 

What would a sound card look like for "t"?

Answer:

The letter "t" on the front of the card.

The letter "t," a keyword such as "top" or "tin" and the phonetic spelling "/t/" on the back of the card.

How'd you do? Think you can test it out with your learner?

Our learners don't have the time to learn the alphabet phonetically from A to Z and in that order. Instead, the tutor directly assesses the learner's needs based on what he or she presents in the LEAs. 
For example, a learner says the word "doctor" in an LEA narrative. The tutor immediately teaches the relevant letters and sounds in "doctor." The tutor does not presume that the learner needs to learn "A" then "B" and so on.

So, use these sound cards to teach only the letters and sounds that are immediately relevant to your learner in a particular lesson.

You can buy WRS sound cards, borrow them from the English At Large office or make your own!

Happy Tutoring!

Jiyoung

Jiyoung Song
Programs and Social Media Intern, English At Large
Dartmouth College, Class of 2016  

Note: If you choose to use WRS sound cards, you'll notice numbers next to each sound on the back of each card. These numbers correspond to the structured lesson plan used as part of WRS. Since you are using these sound cards as an adaptive, supplementary resource, you can ignore those numbers.


ENGLISH AT LARGE
Literacy and Learning for Life
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