TESL Using Smile Phonics Book
TESL Using Smile Phonics Book
TESL Using Smile Phonics Book
Teaching and learning a second language have always been of a highly important
matter for linguistics. Fillmore and Snow (2002) and Hamayan (1990) stated that
teachers can play a positive role in improving second language acquisition if they
understood how to improve the learner’s ability. Mother tongue and second language
opportunities for practice, interaction and feedback. Anything that allows people to
practice and get used to its patterns can contribute to successful language learning.
Teachers who apply theories of second language acquisition through well designed
methods that fit their teaching style can significantly enhance student’s success. I
am a primary teacher and I teach English Reading in grade 1, 2 and 3. In the private
school in which I work we use the series of phonics work book by “Smile Education
Systems Ltd” which includes book 1 “Bad Fat Cat”, book 2 “Jim and the Fish”, book
3 “ Smokey the Dragon”, book 4 “Holidays”, book 5 “ My Fun Book” and book 6 “
Off We Go” and at the end of the six books done and mastered by the kids, they
become fluent speakers of English and are able to understand English without
difficulty.
The first stage of second language acquisition is the “Receptive Stage”, it is also
known as the silent stage whereby the learners develop a survival vocabulary. In this
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particular stage, teachers are recommended not to force learners to speak. As a
primary teacher, I teach my students the sound letters, not the traditional “a, b, c, d”
and this may be done through songs whereby I encourage all children to sing, flash
cards are used which makes the learner identity the different alphabets so that when
they will start to write they will know and most importantly, they should know the
vowels and consonants and this may be done through songs. In this stage, it is crucial
to think of long term goal to make them appreciate the new language that they will
learn. Miming fun games are also encouraged so that the students may have fun
while learning and this approach is called the Montessori method where there is
independence in learning. In this stage, I usually use the first book “Bad Fat Cat”
where the students are taught the short vowels “a, e, i, o, u” and the consonants. The
students are taught how to make syllables “ba, be, bi, bo, bu” and there are “sight
words” which are taught because all words cannot be pronounced using the sound
letter like, “this, the, and, a, by” but can be pronounced just by learning by heart.
There is another lesson which comes after and it is the word segmentation that is,
blending of words which are practiced orally known as “cv” (consonant vowel)
words.
Chomsky (1960) argued that the human brain is pre-wired to use language through
the language acquisition device (LAD), it is the special aspect of the human brain
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that allows children to acquire and produce language however, second language
general cognitive development, it requires effort and learners might find some
difficulties in acquiring some structures of the language that’s why it is crucial for
the teacher to adopt the right strategy while teaching a second language. The
preparation need to be customized according to the focus of the class, the age of the
students, the size of the class and the set duration of the class given to teach the
subject.
The second stage of second language acquisition is the early production stage where
the learners must have developed 1000 words. I usually use the second book which
is “Jim and the Fish” whereby the students are taught the consonant digraph which
consists of two consonants joined together to make a new sound for example: sh in
trigraph which consists of three consonants that join together to make a new sound
like tch in catch. They have also learnt to speak some words and have started to form
In this stage, audio and videos are highly encouraged for example, a movie in the
language being taught might be watched with the class then allow them to listen and
read subtitles even if they do not clearly understand everything, then pause every 10
minutes to ask questions and give them prompts to answer the questions being asked
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and give them time to answer correctly in the second language being taught which
is one way of collaborative learning. I also use book 3 which is “Smokey the Dragon’
and book 4 which is “Holidays”, where the students are taught consonant blend
which consists of two or three consonants sounded together and the sound of each
consonant can be heard for example r-blends in brick, crib, drop, grab, pram, trap. A
consonant blend can appear at the beginning, middle or at the end of a word. These
small steps are necessary in second language acquisition so that the students may
properly understand the mechanisms of the words and also might visualise them
Furthermore, role play might also be done for example, teaching the students about
kitchen vocabulary: I usually take a kitchen set then label the different equipments
like the tea pot, the spoon, the fork, the bowl then I ask the students to label them
after me. Following this, I ask the students to label the kitchen set on their own one
by one, they may be shy at first but it all depends all the teacher’s approach with
students that changes the atmosphere of the class and while teaching a second
language, the teacher must make his/her students feel at ease. During role play, the
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The third stage of second language acquisition is the speech emergence stage where
the learner must have acquired up to 3000 words by now and is learning to
communicate by putting the words in short phrases, sentences and questions. The
important stage during which the learners gain greater comprehension and starts to
read and write in their second language. In this stage, the teacher might encourage
the students to do small passages to test their understanding and to know if they are
being able to finds answers on their own. To start with passages, small picture
discussions might be encouraged where the students get the opportunity to talk about
the words they have recently learnt. Picture discussion’s purpose is to enhance and
sharpen the visual perception of learners. One appropriate picture can be a catalyst
giving rise to the production of thousands of words and a multitude of creative and
analytical thoughts. With this being said, the teacher should not succumb to the
picture discussion class is to effectively destroy the value of the picture as future
teaching tool as the student being a learner of a second language which is unfamiliar
to him or her will have great difficulty progressing beyond the teacher’s perception
of the picture.
Teachers need to provide explicit instruction for their students, demonstrating how
sentence are constructed and how the mechanics interact to form strong sentences
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which is the subject verb combination, correct capitalisation and punctuation. For
example, “The dog ran” this sentence can expanded once the students have identified
a simple sentence, the teachers may help the students to understand that details can
be added by turning the sentence into a question like, “Where was the dog?, When
and how it ran?, Why was the dog running?”. Following this step, now the goal of
the teacher might be to help the students develop the skill learnt that is to put in
practice activities done in class and apply it to their own writing so they can develop
into effective writers and fluent speakers of the second language being taught. Paul
and Elder (2000) stated that “Thinking is not driven by answers but by questions.
Had no questions been asked by those who laid foundation for a field...the field
would have never developed in the first place”, Teachers should challenge
will develop more interest in lessons and more critical thinking. As teachers. We
should allow our students reach beyond their current academic level and achieve the
The fourth stage of second language acquisition is the intermediate fluency stage
whereby the learner has acquired a vocabulary of up to 6000 words. It is the stage
where the leaner has the ability to now communicate in writing using more complex
sentences and can speak fluently. It is a crucial stage where the students actually
start to think in their second language which helps them gain more proficiency in
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speaking it. They are now more confident as they have mastered the grammar, the
way sentences are constructed in the second language. We cannot learn a new
language and not practice it. Anything that allows the students to practice, they start
to get used to its patterns which contributes to successful language learning. At this
stage, I usually start to do my class in the language being taught as when we learn,
it’s connected to particular regions of our brains and most importantly its connected
to the students’ state of mind of that moment which connects to images in their head
and when we can refer to moments when we learn something, it stays for a lifetime.
The fifth and last stage of second language acquisition is continued language
this stage then up to ten years to achieve full mastery of the second language in all
its complexities and nuances. The learners have now been exposed to the second
language for quite a long time and now they are able to express themselves
effortlessly and readily in the new language they have learnt. They have reached the
refining stage of the language path where they understand everything virtually. With
students may speak in more complex sentences. Teachers need to continually model
language usage, extend receptive vocabulary and provide frequent opportunities for
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may be given to the students to test their current potential of the second language
learnt.
To conclude, we would say that research ought to determine that there are some best
methods to learn a new language but we should not neglect the potential usefulness
language which is not an easy task must first start with a good classroom
management where both the learners and the teacher is respected and listened to.
Also, the use of technology has also proved to be very effective in learning language
as it engages the students with interactive experiences, there are a myriad number of
applications that allows students the opportunity to practice language within the
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