Looking for Phonics Tuition in Singapore?
Distinction Tutors’ phonics tuition combines songs, nursery rhymes, and stories with child-friendly phonological awareness tasks. From preschoolers to adults, age-appropriate phonics support is available in multiple languages for all learners.
Speaking, reading, and writing are the pillars of communication. From baby babble in toddlerhood to reciting the ABCs in preschool and learning a new language as an adult, society equips individuals with the communicative tools they need to meaningfully engage with others.
Phonics is one such method that teaches individuals to read and write an alphabetic language. Also known as the alphabetic code or alphabetic principle, phonics demonstrates the relationship between the sounds and letters or characters of a language.
Through phonics, children receive the building blocks for literacy that would see them through their education. Rather than learn words by noting character shapes and sizes, phonics involves recognising the sound of each letter and how manipulating letters can change the meaning of words.
Although the methods of commercial phonics programmes can vary, studies have shown that the phonics approach is the most effective for the reading development of children. Whether you are a parent looking to teach your child or an adult learner picking up a new language, Distinction Tutors’ phonics tuition provides 1-1 phonics support for learners of all ages.
Request for a Phonics Tutor
Cater to all subjects and budgets.
No agency fee.
- Submit your request online or call us!
- +65 8875 1100
- Tutor Request Form
Common problems faced by Students
Poor Sound Awareness
Each word when broken up into its parts comprises different sound units. For example, a word may be broken up into syllables, onsets, rhymes, and phonemes. A child with poor sound awareness would have difficulty identifying the various sound units which make up the word.
Poor Vocabulary
A child may learn to sound out words but not derive meaning from them. This results in a disjointed understanding of word sounds and their meanings. In which case, a greater integrative use of flashcards, songs, nursery rhymes, and stories is needed to (re)introduce words and discuss their meanings.
Poor Grasp of Letter-sound Relationships
Letter-sound relationships are an integral part of English as each letter in the alphabet represents a different sound. According to research, children with a strong phonological awareness find it easier to read. They are more successful at reading than children without a strong phonological awareness. As such, children who have difficulty sounding out words will need phonics to learn their pronunciations.
What can Phonics Tutors offer?
Phonics Foundation
Literacy comprises mastering a language system, distinguishing between phonemes, and linking sounds with their printed symbols (i.e. the alphabet). With phonics, children will learn letters and sounds to provide them with a headstart for reading, speaking, and writing. Using techniques such as sound manipulation, letter blending, and segmentation, a phonics tutor can guide the child in understanding the phonetic sounds and letters of the alphabet and the components which make up words.
Support for Phonetic Languages
Aside from English, the phonics tutor is well-poised to offer support for phonetic languages such as standard Malay, Tamil, and Chinese. From phonics for standard Malay to defined rules of elision and euphony in Tamil and the hanyu pinyin system in Mandarin, children will learn to differentiate between tones and accurately pronounce the sound of words or characters in their respective mother tongue.
Age-appropriate Phonological Awareness
Effective phonics tutors consider children’s ages in assigning phonological awareness tasks. The phonics tutor can vary tasks to make sound-letter associations easier for children to grasp. For instance, a phonics tutor of a three-year-old preschooler may clap twice while enunciating a two-syllable word or use letter-blending techniques for four-to-five-year-olds with the help of visuals, song, and rhyme.
- Submit your request online or call us!
- +65 8875 1100
- Tutor Request Form
Benefits of Phonics Tuition
Through the use of flashcards, props, video clips, songs, nursery rhymes, and stories, phonics tuition seeks to engage children’s five senses (taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing) in learning. This makes for a holistic and more effective encoding of information.
Take an apple for instance. The phonics tutor can phonetically sound the letter ‘A’ and the target word ‘apple’ while allowing the child to touch, taste, see, and smell the apple. Furthermore, the phonics tutor may be able to get the child to describe the apple as round or smooth (touch), sweet (taste), red or green (sight), or fresh and fragrant (smell). In saying the target words out loud, children will also learn to internalise them better.
Phonics tuition trains children to identify patterns in target words. For example, the words ‘fat’, ‘cat’, ‘sat’, and ‘hat’ all have different beginning sounds/onsets (f,c,s,h) but rhyme because of ‘at’. In teaching the pronunciation of new words, phonics tuition helps children blend the onsets with the identified patterns of the rhyming words.
Phonics tuition develops the reading comprehension skills of preschoolers. To establish sound reading comprehension skills, phonics tuition provides adequate practice and vocabulary instruction through multisensory activities. Not only does this allow early or young readers to automatically decode words, but this enhances overall concentration levels and enables children to understand what they read.
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Distinction Tutors can help
Distinction Tutors’ phonics tuition uses songs, rhymes, and stories in phonological awareness tasks. Phonics support is readily available in multiple languages from standard Malay to defined rules in Tamil, and the hanyu pinyin system in Mandarin.