Jolly Phonics - My Teaching Experience

totoma_2006

Dear Bluecat and honeyBB,

I've just pm you. Please check. Thanks!

Totoma

Joyful-Life

totoma_2006,

Would you please PM me the information.
(e.g. schedule, location & the fee)

Thanks a lot !

cannie

[email protected]
Hi Totoma,

My daughter is 18 mths now, do u have any courses which is suitable for her, please pm the info to me (such as location, fee, etc)

thx a lot.

LeBlue

totoma_2006 :

Could you pm me about the course details?
My girl is 5.5 yr now, is there any course suitable for her ?

Thank you !

LeBlue

chuchuma

Hi totoma_2006,

My son is 3 years old and I want him to start learning phonics after he entered in K1 this Sept.

Pls kindly pm me  course location, fee etc.

Will you have class near Kowloon Tong (cos I am living in Shatin).

Many thanks.

totoma_2006

Dear Chuchuma, LeBlue, Cannie and Joyful-Life,

I've pm you. Please check. Thanks!

Totoma

Joyful-Life

totoma_2006,

I get it.
Thanks a lot !

I think your location is an inconvenience.
Do you have any class in Kowloon side ?

clementi

Hi Totoma,

I have a 3 yrs old girl and would like to let her start phonics soon. Could you PM me more info.

Many thanks!

Clementi

totoma_2006

Dear Joyful-Life and Clementi,,

I've just pm you. Please check. Thanks!

Totoma

jenniferpl

Totoma_2006

May I know how do you teach them to learn tricky words. If I am to teach her at home, how many words per day or per week is suitable? She is now 4 years old.

Thanks.

totoma_2006

Dear jenniferpl,

Jolly Phonics has 3 levels. For the first level, it contains 7 stages with a total of 42 single sounds and digraphs (NB. A digraph is a pair of letters used to write one sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters combined).

The 2nd level focuses on alternative spelling as well as some fundamental grammar rules, and the last level covers the rest of the alternative spellings and advanced grammar.

Most of the tricky words are taught during the first level because beginner phonics students are not yet familiar with alternative spellings. For instance, they do not know that “make” should pronounce as /m + a_e + k/ or / m + ai + k/ instead of /m + a + k + e/. To minimize confusion, teachers will tell young students that some words are “tricky” and should be remembered as it is until later.

Totoma

dodo199906

Dear Totoma,

My daughter is 7 yrs old, she leart letterland in K1-3 and she can read over 100 pages book herself, but sometime she can not split and blend the word which is never read before, do you have any class suitable for her, pls PM me.  

ema

Hi totoma_2006,

Can you please also pm me the course information? Thanks.

ema

totoma_2006

I have been tied up with teaching phonics ever since I moved to Yuen Long. And even when I'm off work, I often find myself searching for new teaching aids.
Last Sunday, I was at Toys "R" Us. While I was shopping around for toys, my head was filled with new teaching ideas so that students could learn joyfully through games.

Thanks to this giant toy mall, I was inspired to motivate kids of different ages to concentrate on their lessons by means of playing. I ended up filling up my little car with lots of playthings when I finally headed home.

This shopping experience triggered me to think about educational field trips – would it be great to combine teaching and outing together? My students will get to learn new vocabularies and use English in a lively environment. If we were to shop in a supermarket, I can introduce fruit like avocado, durian, grapefruit, honeydew, nectarine, papaya, quince, starfruit...  etc. At the same time, I will also teach them about the important of vegetable and proper diet. The stimulation of new environments will raise students' interest in learning English.

Yes, I am the kind of person who loves to put right ideas in actions.

fm1128

blacksoya, gigiy,

As you are online, could you please help me as I would like to have Totoma's contact no urgently.  If you have, please pm me, million thanks.

swan_lau

totoma_2006,

hi, after reading what you said....yes, i've heard of this jolly phonics, and interested in it....

will you have any classes on kln side?  and how much?
pls pm details to me
ths

totoma_2006

A mom who has just moved to Yuen Long called me yesterday. She told me that she has been searching for playgroup for her 1.5-year-old kid and asked me if I think her child is suitable for English playgroup.

Language acquisition is an interesting process. According to the brilliant MIT linguist Chomsky, humans are equipped with predetermined grammatical structure. In another word, as long as we are in the right language environment at the right age (critical period), we can acquire any languages to the native level.

For example, if an African baby is adopted by a native Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong, it will acquire Cantonese with ease. The question that most mums concern is, does learning more than one language at the same time cause confusion for young children?

Even some of my CU classmates, who are senior English teachers (and also new mummies), worry that learning English may hinder their children from learning Cantonese. They agonize over which languages should be used and when. This is a controversial subject and there are many sides to the argument. But the result of my research project for my M.A. linguistics study supports early multi-languages learning.

I made a comparison in language performance between monolingual (Cantonese-speaking) and bilingual (Cantonese and English-speaking) children of 1 to 3 years old. The findings show that bilingual children score higher in terms of lexical complexity and MLU (the length of an utterance), which means that learning two languages simultaneously will promote, instead of delay, language development.

As for people who do not have a native English language environment, the second best thing they can do is to create a NEARLY native environment. Before 3 years old, kids automatically pick up language(s) from their surrounding. It is thus very important to provide a proper environment for them. Going to English toddler playgroup in addition to listening to English CDs are good alternatives.

In this acquisition phase, the length of exposure to English is the dominating factor; because once children pass this critical period, they will need to spend much more effort to achieve the same level. I would suggest kids going to toddler playgroup for at least 2 to 3 hours a week, more if possible, since young children in general do not interact in English enough.

ALAL

totoma,

My son is delayed in speaking Cantonese. He speak only at 2.5 years old. I dare not teach him English since I know he has language delay. I try teaching him phonic some time latter, but he speak Cantonese with the 'k' sound at the end of the Chinese word. So I am so frightened that I stop him learning any English.

concon123

totoma,

I'm quite interested in your teaching.  Can you PM the course information and contact means to me ??  Thanks!!   

totoma_2006

Dear ALAL,

I can understand your concern. Speech related problems are more common than people think. Let's not forget, Albert Einstein is the latest talker of all.

Some late talkers will ultimately improve speech naturally by the time they begin school and their speech will become normal.  Some needs early intervention (ie. speech therapy). It is best to seek advice from doctors or speech therapists if you think your child's condition worsens.

In my opinion, a child needs not to be a fluent Cantonese speaker before learning English. As a matter of fact, I'm currently teaching a student who  has difficulty pronouncing Cantonese clearly but he can say almost all of the English phonemes except for /c,k/.

Totoma