Phonetics

[corinthum]

Kelly:

> > On a completely unrelated and off-topic note, to all you Brits, do you
> > learn to spell by sound rather than letter?  My sister works in a
> > popular destination for British tourists (well, tourists of all
> > nationality, really, but half of the UK seems to migrate there at
> > certain times of the year).  And she's noticed that when she asks
> > young kids to spell their names, they don't use letters, but sounds. 
> > For example, my name would be k at -e-@l- at l-j@  rather than
> > keI-i:-el-el-waI.  Is this a widespread technique for learning to
> > spell over there?

Carolyn:

> Coincidentally with you raising this question, an immense row has 
> broken out about this topic in the UK this week. I am only loosely 
> following it to be honest, but those of you interested in kids' 
> education might like to peruse this blog item for starters:
> 
> http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/007625.html

Interesting.  Although, to clarify, I wasn't referring to learning
phonics vs. whole-word/whole-language/other-stuff-that-doesn't-work
methods;  I was referring to was simply learning the alphabet with
alternative names for the letters.

I had to learn phonics in elementary school, and although it was one
of my least favorite subjects at the time, I'm very grateful for it
(and now, ironically, I love studying linguistics and languages in my
spare time).  I moved from Pennsylvania to Maryland after 5th grade,
where my fellow students had never learned basic phonics.  It was
blatantly obvious in my Spanish class, where I often had to explain to
classmates how and why different parts of speech behaved themselves in
*English* to help them understand the Spanish counterparts.

-Kelly