The latest issue of the EL Gazette (April 2010) has an article by me, Symbols Clash With Sounds, on the problems of students from Non-Roman Alphabet cultures. The accompanying photo is from the BELTE Conference in Brighton in October 2009. It may look enigmatic, but I’m teaching the sounds a / i / n / t with flashcards where symbols (square, circle, star, triangle) replace the letters. Teachers can try it themselves using the introduction to the Fast Track to Reading Teacher’s Book. There’s a page with the symbols replacing the letters, and if you play the accompanying tracks on the audio, you can see how the program works at a basic level.
The photos below were taken at the Garnet Education stand at the BELTE conference.
The first shows Olly Twist (Garnet) and Gordon Watts from Bellerby’s who organized the conference.
The second shows me with Gordon.
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