Dear parents, teachers and heads of schools, please conduct the test for your jolly phonics students if you are following this system in your school to know the ill-effect of Jolly phonics:
Here is a list of about 250 words. Give them to students learning jolly phonics up to third standard.
Test 1: (writing ) Dictate any twenty words taken from the list (according to their age) and ask them to write. Collect the paper.
Test 2: ( Reading) Ask the students to read any twenty words and award one mark for each right answer. Check the score sheet.
Test 3: ( comprehension) Ask them whether they know meaning of these words., when they read.
Test 4: Do the test No.1 with the help other subject teachers who also handle classes in English. These teachers who may know about jolly phonics will lead to different results and show how jolly phonics students will encounter problems in subjects other than English.
List of Common Words:
Neighbour, license, write, leaves, knows, sea, believe, conscious, discipline, foreign, height, library, receive, rhymes, weather, birth, natural, photograph, sign, while, fruit, truth, group, through, grew, flood, floor, build, rough, defence, leave, even, soup, could, journal, people, heavy, palace, dance, because, laughter, scene, smile, break, ocean, ideal, watch, war, warning, said, certain, aunty, create, real, pearl, earth, early, learn, heart, beard, beauty, weight, leisure, deceive, ceiling, theory, view, paw, blew, island, light, bird, divide, movie, field, friend, worry, author, ego, soup, touch, country, coupon, journey, allow, row, own, dowry, cuckoo, cushion, union, super, lunar, busy, fuse, rule, flu, sugar, purify, rural, plural, sure, useful, annual, failure, guest, juice, fluid, biscuit, suitable, suicide, Hindu, system, typical, pyramid, hyphen, style, cycle, deny, oxygen, comb, climb, city, queue, special, Prince, nice, muscle, headache, anchor, machine, chemistry, casual, cheque, gradual, fine, gel, pager, gentle, rage, judge, suggest, ghost, higher, honest, exhibition, knee, knife, knock, valve, ball, half, anxiety, autumn, tongue, iron, tear, hurt, tension, facial, assignment, answer, fortune, caution, listen, wheel, whole, wrong, twist, half, call, calm, alter, strange, caste, chaste, pieces, excuse, tease, lease, arise, vision, pleasure, session, treasure, ration, patient, picture, tonne, leakage, cupboard, doubt, lighter, soldier, nation, magic, bridge, fridge, lose, flute, wolf, rate, obey, deaf, guess, son, talk, cause, caught, door, lock, bazaar, fight, vow, music, news, dancer, pencil, medicine, office, voice, race, senior, celebrate, cereal, serial, series, ceremony, superior, bracelet, decide, principal, recycle, police, team, guitar, size, since, slice, voice, vice, night, bike, rice, mighty, Christ, knew, accept, access, tall, circle, pace, laugh, break, bread, grief, gym, blood, double, word, sauce, future, recall, awful, move, turning, guide, mutual, headache.
Why jolly phonics is wrong…
The 44 sounds in English are in the following table. Jolly Phonics assumes that each sound can be written with one letter or diagraph. But, for each sound, we use different spellings in different words.
Sound Graphemes Examples
1 /b/ b, bb bug, bubble
2 /d/ d, dd, ed dad, add, milled
3 /f/ f, ff, ph, gh, lf, ft fat, cliff, phone, enough, half, often
4 /g/ g, gg, gh,gu,gue gun, egg, ghost, guest, prologue
5 /h/ h, wh hop, who
6 /j/ j, ge, g, dge, di, gg jam, wage, giraffe, edge, soldier, exaggerate
7 /k/ k, c, ch, cc, lk, qu ,q(u), ck, x kit, cat, chris, accent, folk, bouquet, queen, rack, box
8 /l/ l, ll live, well
9 /m/ m, mm, mb, mn, lm man, summer, comb, column, palm
10 /n/ n, nn,kn, gn, pn net, funny, know, gnat, pneumonic
11 /p/ p, pp pin, dippy
12 /r/ r, rr, wr, rh run, carrot, wrench, rhyme
13 /s/ s, ss, c, sc, ps, st, ce, se sit, less, circle, scene, psycho, listen, pace, course
14 /t/ t, tt, th, ed tip, matter, thomas, ripped
15 /v/ v, f, ph, ve vine, of, stephen, five
16 /w/ w, wh, u, o wit, why, quick, choir
17 /y/ y, i, j yes, onion, hallelujah
18 /z/ z, zz, s, ss, x, ze, se zed, buzz, his, scissors, xylophone, craze
Vowels
Sound# Sound Graphemes Examples
19 /a/ a, ai, au cat, plaid, laugh
20 /ā/ a, ai, eigh, aigh, ay, er, et, ei, au, a_e, ea, ey bay, maid, weigh, straight, pay, foyer, filet, eight, gauge, mate, break, they
21 /e/ e, ea, u, ie, ai, a, eo, ei, ae, ay end, bread, bury, friend, said, many, leopard, heifer, aesthetic, say
22 /ē/ e, ee, ea, y, ey, oe, ie, i, ei, eo, ay be, bee, meat, lady, key, phoenix, grief, ski, deceive, people, quay
23 /i/ i, e, o, u, ui, y, ie it, england, women, busy, guild, gym, sieve
24 /ī/ i, y, igh, ie, uy, ye, ai, is, eigh, i_e spider, sky, night, pie, guy, stye, aisle, island, height, kite
25 /o/ o, a, ho, au, aw, ough octopus, swan, honest, maul, slaw, fought
26 /ō/ o, oa, o_e, oe, ow, ough, eau, oo, ew open, moat, bone, toe, sow, dough, beau, brooch, sew
27 /oo/ o, oo, u,ou wolf, look, bush, would
28 /u/ u, o, oo, ou lug, monkey, blood, double
29 /ū/ o, oo, ew, ue, u_e, oe, ough, ui, oew, ou who, loon, dew, blue, flute, shoe, through, fruit, manoeuvre, group
30 /y//ü/ u, you, ew, iew, yu, ul, eue, eau, ieu, eu unit, you, knew, view, yule, mule, queue, beauty, adieu, feud
31 /oi/ oi, oy, uoy join, boy, buoy
32 /ow/ ow, ou, ough now, shout, bough
33 /ə/ (schwa) a, er, i, ar, our, or, e, ur, re, eur about, ladder, pencil, dollar, honour, doctor, ticket, augur, centre, chauffeur
Controlled Vowels
Sound# Sound Graphemes Examples
34 /ã/ air, are, ear, ere, eir, ayer chair, dare, pear, where, their, prayer
35 /ä/ a, ar, au, er, ear math, jar, laugh, sergeant, heart
36 /û/ ir, er, ur, ear, or, our, yr bird, term, burn, pearl, word, journey, myrtle
37 /ô/ aw, a, or, oor, ore, oar, our, augh, ar, ough, au paw, ball, fork, poor, fore, board, four, taught, war, bought, sauce
38 /ēə/ ear, eer, ere, ier ear, steer, here, tier
39 /üə/ ure, our cure, tourist
Digraphs
Sound# Sound Graphemes Examples
40 /zh/ s, si, z treasure, division, azure
41 /ch/ ch, tch, tu, ti, te chip, watch, future, action, righteous
42 /sh/ sh, ce, s, ci, si, ch, sci, ti sham, ocean, sure, special, pension, machine, conscience, station
43 /th/ th(voiced), th(unvoiced) thongs, leather
44 /ng/ ng, n, ngue ring, pink, tongue
IPA Phonetic Chart (many dictionaries follow only these symbols as guidelines to how to read a word, not 42 letter sounds by jolly phonics):
Vowels (Monophthongs)
IPA Phonetic Symbol Examples
i ː tree, sea, receive, women, believe, we, people
ɪ bit, symbol, recall, business
æ cat, apple, compact
ɑː car, far, garage, heart
ɔː sort, ball, ought, awful, board, floor, audacity, saw
ʊ put, foot, could, butcher, woman
u ː fool, rule, shoes, true, crew, move, through
ʌ up, other, but, couple, blood, love
ɜ ː her, first, turn, search, word
ə until, about, alias
e bed, effort, head, said, friend
ɒ rock, impossible, body, cough, knowledge
Diphthongs
IPA Phonetic Symbol Examples
eɪ tray, eight, make, sail, say, great, ace
aɪ sky, I, bye, buy, by, guide, flight, rye, die, choir ['kwair]
ɔɪ joy, coin, oyster
ɪə (-ramer.) fear, beer, here
eə (-ramer.) hair, care, there, hare
ʊə (-ramer.) tour, poor
aʊ trousers, cow, hour, our
əʊ joke, coat, own, go, though, sew, toe
IPA Phonetic Symbol Examples
p parking, gallop, open
b board, tab, abandon
t trunk, request, receipt
d add, ad, diligent
k kodak, cord, accomplish, school, ache, conqueror, exchange (x = k+s)
g grace, agree auxiliary (x = g+z)
tʃ chance, achieve, catch, mutual
dʒ jungle, judge, logic, procedure
f fool, atmosphere, enough
v vocal, give
θ thanks, ethic
ð there, other
s sunday, citizen, east,scissors, psychology
z zebra, cosmonaut, scissors, resign, xenon
ʃ shine, sure, action, special, issue, conscience, anxious (x = k + ʃ)
ʒ visual, casual, usual, garage,
h head, uphill
m mother, lamb
n note, intrusion,knowledge, pneumatic
ŋ sing, sink
l laughter, illegal
r random, orange; (amer.)order
j yet, yesterday, you, utility; (u = j + u)
w what, windows, quest, one (o = w + ʌ)
To read the above and hear the sound, visit : https://audio-class.ru/english-phonetics.php
Complications in Teaching English sounds through jolly phonics:
1. Jolly Phonics has confused the following vowel sounds: /ɜː/ and /ə/ found in the words such as burn and alive. They are long and short vowels. Only with the diagraph “er” , they try to cover these two vowel sounds.
See the above picture.
For example, the word, “verb" has long vowel sound but “winter", short vowel sound. For these two vowels, why should they use only one diagraph “er” whereas for other two vowels (oo in book, oo in moon) two diagraphs? Can they teach all words that do not have “er” but have these vowels?
I don’t know how they will read or speak words that have these sounds: earn, learn, earth, about, above, again, etc. In the latter's case, there is no “er" spelling at all, though they have the short vowel /ə/. How will the students write these words?
2. Similarly, Jolly Phonics has confused these two vowel sounds: /iː/ and / I /
It says that the words “bee" and “donkey" have same long vowel sound “ee” but actually the latter does not have. Again see how stupid the instructions given by them are! : “Three of these pictures have an /ee/ sound. Cross out the one that does not.” You have given only three pictures and say “ three of these pictures “. (???!)
3. The diphthongs in /ɪə / in hear, /eə/ in fare and /uə/ in poor are left out by jolly phonics. So the students and teachers of jolly phonics have to read wrongly the words that have these sounds.
4. The consonant sound /ʒ / in vision, casual and pleasure is left out. Students are likely to write wrong spellings for words with this sound.
Thus a question arises in our mind – Are they teaching to pronounce English words rightly or wrongly? They do not seem to have the basic understanding of sounds in English.
Here is a list of about 250 words. Give them to students learning jolly phonics up to third standard.
Test 1: (writing ) Dictate any twenty words taken from the list (according to their age) and ask them to write. Collect the paper.
Test 2: ( Reading) Ask the students to read any twenty words and award one mark for each right answer. Check the score sheet.
Test 3: ( comprehension) Ask them whether they know meaning of these words., when they read.
Test 4: Do the test No.1 with the help other subject teachers who also handle classes in English. These teachers who may know about jolly phonics will lead to different results and show how jolly phonics students will encounter problems in subjects other than English.
List of Common Words:
Neighbour, license, write, leaves, knows, sea, believe, conscious, discipline, foreign, height, library, receive, rhymes, weather, birth, natural, photograph, sign, while, fruit, truth, group, through, grew, flood, floor, build, rough, defence, leave, even, soup, could, journal, people, heavy, palace, dance, because, laughter, scene, smile, break, ocean, ideal, watch, war, warning, said, certain, aunty, create, real, pearl, earth, early, learn, heart, beard, beauty, weight, leisure, deceive, ceiling, theory, view, paw, blew, island, light, bird, divide, movie, field, friend, worry, author, ego, soup, touch, country, coupon, journey, allow, row, own, dowry, cuckoo, cushion, union, super, lunar, busy, fuse, rule, flu, sugar, purify, rural, plural, sure, useful, annual, failure, guest, juice, fluid, biscuit, suitable, suicide, Hindu, system, typical, pyramid, hyphen, style, cycle, deny, oxygen, comb, climb, city, queue, special, Prince, nice, muscle, headache, anchor, machine, chemistry, casual, cheque, gradual, fine, gel, pager, gentle, rage, judge, suggest, ghost, higher, honest, exhibition, knee, knife, knock, valve, ball, half, anxiety, autumn, tongue, iron, tear, hurt, tension, facial, assignment, answer, fortune, caution, listen, wheel, whole, wrong, twist, half, call, calm, alter, strange, caste, chaste, pieces, excuse, tease, lease, arise, vision, pleasure, session, treasure, ration, patient, picture, tonne, leakage, cupboard, doubt, lighter, soldier, nation, magic, bridge, fridge, lose, flute, wolf, rate, obey, deaf, guess, son, talk, cause, caught, door, lock, bazaar, fight, vow, music, news, dancer, pencil, medicine, office, voice, race, senior, celebrate, cereal, serial, series, ceremony, superior, bracelet, decide, principal, recycle, police, team, guitar, size, since, slice, voice, vice, night, bike, rice, mighty, Christ, knew, accept, access, tall, circle, pace, laugh, break, bread, grief, gym, blood, double, word, sauce, future, recall, awful, move, turning, guide, mutual, headache.
Why jolly phonics is wrong…
The 44 sounds in English are in the following table. Jolly Phonics assumes that each sound can be written with one letter or diagraph. But, for each sound, we use different spellings in different words.
Sound Graphemes Examples
1 /b/ b, bb bug, bubble
2 /d/ d, dd, ed dad, add, milled
3 /f/ f, ff, ph, gh, lf, ft fat, cliff, phone, enough, half, often
4 /g/ g, gg, gh,gu,gue gun, egg, ghost, guest, prologue
5 /h/ h, wh hop, who
6 /j/ j, ge, g, dge, di, gg jam, wage, giraffe, edge, soldier, exaggerate
7 /k/ k, c, ch, cc, lk, qu ,q(u), ck, x kit, cat, chris, accent, folk, bouquet, queen, rack, box
8 /l/ l, ll live, well
9 /m/ m, mm, mb, mn, lm man, summer, comb, column, palm
10 /n/ n, nn,kn, gn, pn net, funny, know, gnat, pneumonic
11 /p/ p, pp pin, dippy
12 /r/ r, rr, wr, rh run, carrot, wrench, rhyme
13 /s/ s, ss, c, sc, ps, st, ce, se sit, less, circle, scene, psycho, listen, pace, course
14 /t/ t, tt, th, ed tip, matter, thomas, ripped
15 /v/ v, f, ph, ve vine, of, stephen, five
16 /w/ w, wh, u, o wit, why, quick, choir
17 /y/ y, i, j yes, onion, hallelujah
18 /z/ z, zz, s, ss, x, ze, se zed, buzz, his, scissors, xylophone, craze
Vowels
Sound# Sound Graphemes Examples
19 /a/ a, ai, au cat, plaid, laugh
20 /ā/ a, ai, eigh, aigh, ay, er, et, ei, au, a_e, ea, ey bay, maid, weigh, straight, pay, foyer, filet, eight, gauge, mate, break, they
21 /e/ e, ea, u, ie, ai, a, eo, ei, ae, ay end, bread, bury, friend, said, many, leopard, heifer, aesthetic, say
22 /ē/ e, ee, ea, y, ey, oe, ie, i, ei, eo, ay be, bee, meat, lady, key, phoenix, grief, ski, deceive, people, quay
23 /i/ i, e, o, u, ui, y, ie it, england, women, busy, guild, gym, sieve
24 /ī/ i, y, igh, ie, uy, ye, ai, is, eigh, i_e spider, sky, night, pie, guy, stye, aisle, island, height, kite
25 /o/ o, a, ho, au, aw, ough octopus, swan, honest, maul, slaw, fought
26 /ō/ o, oa, o_e, oe, ow, ough, eau, oo, ew open, moat, bone, toe, sow, dough, beau, brooch, sew
27 /oo/ o, oo, u,ou wolf, look, bush, would
28 /u/ u, o, oo, ou lug, monkey, blood, double
29 /ū/ o, oo, ew, ue, u_e, oe, ough, ui, oew, ou who, loon, dew, blue, flute, shoe, through, fruit, manoeuvre, group
30 /y//ü/ u, you, ew, iew, yu, ul, eue, eau, ieu, eu unit, you, knew, view, yule, mule, queue, beauty, adieu, feud
31 /oi/ oi, oy, uoy join, boy, buoy
32 /ow/ ow, ou, ough now, shout, bough
33 /ə/ (schwa) a, er, i, ar, our, or, e, ur, re, eur about, ladder, pencil, dollar, honour, doctor, ticket, augur, centre, chauffeur
Controlled Vowels
Sound# Sound Graphemes Examples
34 /ã/ air, are, ear, ere, eir, ayer chair, dare, pear, where, their, prayer
35 /ä/ a, ar, au, er, ear math, jar, laugh, sergeant, heart
36 /û/ ir, er, ur, ear, or, our, yr bird, term, burn, pearl, word, journey, myrtle
37 /ô/ aw, a, or, oor, ore, oar, our, augh, ar, ough, au paw, ball, fork, poor, fore, board, four, taught, war, bought, sauce
38 /ēə/ ear, eer, ere, ier ear, steer, here, tier
39 /üə/ ure, our cure, tourist
Digraphs
Sound# Sound Graphemes Examples
40 /zh/ s, si, z treasure, division, azure
41 /ch/ ch, tch, tu, ti, te chip, watch, future, action, righteous
42 /sh/ sh, ce, s, ci, si, ch, sci, ti sham, ocean, sure, special, pension, machine, conscience, station
43 /th/ th(voiced), th(unvoiced) thongs, leather
44 /ng/ ng, n, ngue ring, pink, tongue
IPA Phonetic Chart (many dictionaries follow only these symbols as guidelines to how to read a word, not 42 letter sounds by jolly phonics):
Vowels (Monophthongs)
IPA Phonetic Symbol Examples
i ː tree, sea, receive, women, believe, we, people
ɪ bit, symbol, recall, business
æ cat, apple, compact
ɑː car, far, garage, heart
ɔː sort, ball, ought, awful, board, floor, audacity, saw
ʊ put, foot, could, butcher, woman
u ː fool, rule, shoes, true, crew, move, through
ʌ up, other, but, couple, blood, love
ɜ ː her, first, turn, search, word
ə until, about, alias
e bed, effort, head, said, friend
ɒ rock, impossible, body, cough, knowledge
Diphthongs
IPA Phonetic Symbol Examples
eɪ tray, eight, make, sail, say, great, ace
aɪ sky, I, bye, buy, by, guide, flight, rye, die, choir ['kwair]
ɔɪ joy, coin, oyster
ɪə (-ramer.) fear, beer, here
eə (-ramer.) hair, care, there, hare
ʊə (-ramer.) tour, poor
aʊ trousers, cow, hour, our
əʊ joke, coat, own, go, though, sew, toe
IPA Phonetic Symbol Examples
p parking, gallop, open
b board, tab, abandon
t trunk, request, receipt
d add, ad, diligent
k kodak, cord, accomplish, school, ache, conqueror, exchange (x = k+s)
g grace, agree auxiliary (x = g+z)
tʃ chance, achieve, catch, mutual
dʒ jungle, judge, logic, procedure
f fool, atmosphere, enough
v vocal, give
θ thanks, ethic
ð there, other
s sunday, citizen, east,scissors, psychology
z zebra, cosmonaut, scissors, resign, xenon
ʃ shine, sure, action, special, issue, conscience, anxious (x = k + ʃ)
ʒ visual, casual, usual, garage,
h head, uphill
m mother, lamb
n note, intrusion,knowledge, pneumatic
ŋ sing, sink
l laughter, illegal
r random, orange; (amer.)order
j yet, yesterday, you, utility; (u = j + u)
w what, windows, quest, one (o = w + ʌ)
To read the above and hear the sound, visit : https://audio-class.ru/english-phonetics.php
Complications in Teaching English sounds through jolly phonics:
1. Jolly Phonics has confused the following vowel sounds: /ɜː/ and /ə/ found in the words such as burn and alive. They are long and short vowels. Only with the diagraph “er” , they try to cover these two vowel sounds.
For example, the word, “verb" has long vowel sound but “winter", short vowel sound. For these two vowels, why should they use only one diagraph “er” whereas for other two vowels (oo in book, oo in moon) two diagraphs? Can they teach all words that do not have “er” but have these vowels?
I don’t know how they will read or speak words that have these sounds: earn, learn, earth, about, above, again, etc. In the latter's case, there is no “er" spelling at all, though they have the short vowel /ə/. How will the students write these words?
2. Similarly, Jolly Phonics has confused these two vowel sounds: /iː/ and / I /
It says that the words “bee" and “donkey" have same long vowel sound “ee” but actually the latter does not have. Again see how stupid the instructions given by them are! : “Three of these pictures have an /ee/ sound. Cross out the one that does not.” You have given only three pictures and say “ three of these pictures “. (???!)
3. The diphthongs in /ɪə / in hear, /eə/ in fare and /uə/ in poor are left out by jolly phonics. So the students and teachers of jolly phonics have to read wrongly the words that have these sounds.
4. The consonant sound /ʒ / in vision, casual and pleasure is left out. Students are likely to write wrong spellings for words with this sound.
Thus a question arises in our mind – Are they teaching to pronounce English words rightly or wrongly? They do not seem to have the basic understanding of sounds in English.
