Are the PI materials available in the Canadian dialect?

Any questions/comments/observations relating to the educational content of the programme can be posted here. Any 'technical' problems to the 'Technical Problems' forum please.

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debbie
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Are the PI materials available in the Canadian dialect?

Post by debbie »

I received this question this morning. Interestingly, an increasing number of people in America are using the PI programme and also signing up to our 'Phonics Training Online' course - so this question is very topical.

So, here is the question and see below for my response:

Hi Debbie,

Hope all is well!

A quick question: Are your materials (teaching materials, controlled reading materials etc.) available in the Canadian dialect? There are some major differences between the Canadian and British dialect. Differences between Canadian and American too…
I'll also look for the review of the lecturer mentioned here:
A lecturer in a Canadian university reviewed the full Phonics International programme.

She pointed out some differences in accent but also some words which might have slightly different meanings or would be used differently, but in the main, the vast majority of the material would be fine and teachers could make adaptations.

I make some alternative posters and Sounds Book Activity Sheets to allow for different accents and provide some alternative Alphabetic Code Charts to support the PI programme at the bottom of this page here:

http://alphabeticcodecharts.com/free_charts.html

With the use of ‘easy-to-use’ sounds notation in the slash marks, in place of the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols, this means that teachers can link their own accents to the graphemes (letters and letter groups), so there is some flexibility there too.

Even in England, there are major differences in accent, but it is simple enough for teachers to just talk about this with their pupils, ‘In our county, we tend to pronounce that grapheme like this, as in ….. [word]’ - this is, in fact, a neccesary state of affairs in most regions because of the variety of accent.

Teachers can also modify the paper Alphabetic Code Charts as required.

Accent should not be an impediment to the need for such adaptations – and the same is true of different spellings in Canada or America – just point them out as required.

I would argue that it is part of children’s intellectual development to know and understand about the differences.

All the best,
Debbie Hepplewhite
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debbie
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Post by debbie »

See the 8th message on this thread - from a lady who lectures in Ontario:


http://phonicsinternational.com/forum/v ... ght=canada
Debbie Hepplewhite
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