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PLAY
‘n TALKŪ
MAKES
GAINS IN BILINGUAL EDUCATION!
A
foreign-speaking student who is a perfectionist will
hesitate to speak, rather than make an error. Learning
the sounds of the English letters while talking along
with the carefree children on the CDs, the student
has no fear of making a speech error. Seeing
his own progress, his inhibitions gradually vanish,
and his insecurity and shyness are overcome. In
addition to becoming sound
conscious through phonics, the student develops
an auditory sense of words and syllables. By
‘mimicking’ the teacher on the CDs, he is quick to
perfect his own
diction. Regional inflections as well as speaking
in a slovenly manner, or with an accent, frequently
disappear!
Since
a child mimics the sounds he hears, parents should not
indulge in baby talk but should guide their child into
good speech patterns by providing correct examples, if
they are able. If
English is not their first language, then this might
not be possible. In
this case, both the parents and the students would greatly
benefit from Play ‘n TalkŪ
“Isolation
of sounds with momentary vowelization, followed by the
full word, is vital to mastery of phonics for children
as well as adults with reading problems since they must
be able to hear the sound individually, BEFORE combination
thereof. With
students, whose language is other than English, especially
those who need to hear the sounds before they move into
the reading program, we must teach the sounds in isolation.”
*By
Dr. Carlos Rivera, Consultant for States of Texas and California,
and Director of Bilingual Education, El Paso Public Schools. |
