ABOUT THE METHOD:
English Phonics Stories© is not phonics or phonetics program, per se. It is designed to illustrate, facilitate, and accelerate the learning of phonetics and phonics, reading, spelling, pronunciation, and vocabulary. The stories are simply an effective mnemonic device which puts large numbers of phonetic patterns and words at the students’ fingertips with little effort.
Students experience a massive increase in vocabulary and automaticity in reading and spelling, regardless of the approach a student has learned for reading (phonics, whole language, word memorization, learning several ways to spell a particular sound, or learning all the sounds each phonogram or digraph makes, etc.). Translation not only honors the students' heritage and teaches parents as well, but allows the mental images that cement vocabulary at an amazing rate.
The word lists and stories read aloud and/or translated can be introduced as soon as the student knows the basic alphabet and the sounds of the basic consonants. Beginning students read some words from the word list; intermediate students read all the words and the story. Workbook pages can be used for pre-test, dictation, independent practice, and assessment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Author Nancy Nelson is a language teacher whose background is in Romance languages. She has a Master's Degree in Teaching, a Bachelor's Degree from University of California in French Literature and California and Oregon Teaching Credentials. She has taught English, ESOL, French and Spanish at the high school level. She was an official translator of four languages for a government agency for ten years. Having memorized many thousands of words, definitions, and translations over the years, she knew there had to be a better way.
Mrs. Nelson was also a home school mom for several years. When her children were young, she taught them to read with the best multi-sensory phonics program available. But then what? To spell, they still had to memorize most of the words of the language, one at a time, since any one of several legitimate spelling patterns could be used to spell the same sounds. This was her impetus to find that better way, the English Phonics Stories method. This proved to be so effective that she was compelled and encouraged to finish the project.