Overseas teaching app puts accent on clarity
Don’t want your child to be confused by English or Australian accents? There’s an app for that.
A new online tool has been launched to teach Kiwi kids to speak in a New Zealand accent.
Alphabet Sounds NZ was created by Christchurch teacher Yolanda Soryl, who said it could be confusing for children to hear different vowel pronunciations when using American, Australian or British teaching software.
New Zealand’s vowel shift has evolved over the last 120 years, famously resulting in fish and chips being pronounced as fush and chups.
Soryl designed the app to ensure young Kiwis were taught in a familiar accent.
‘‘Most electronic learning media in New Zealand comes from overseas,’’ she said. ‘‘For phonics, it’s really important that you learn your vowels with an educational resource for your accent, otherwise it doesn’t match.’’
Popular phonics apps include Australasian Reading Eggs and Jolly Phonic from the UK.
Confusion with how to pronounce words could affect a child’s spoken and written English, Soryl said.
‘‘When it comes to teaching children sounds it is actually quite important that the sounds they hear on the device actually match their own sounds, and for
Kiwi kids that’s something they don’t get to hear very often.’’
Soryl is an early literacy specialist and reading recovery teacher at Christchurch’s Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery school.
‘‘I work with the younger children who need a bit of a boost with reading. State-trained teachers haven’t been trained on phonics since the 70s. I’ve trained about 20,000 New Zealand teachers and teacher aides in phonics.’’
The app contains 26 fiveminute phonics lessons and also incorporates te reo Mā ori.
It took about eight years to create the app and get it on the market in August, she said.
‘‘Thinking of how to do the app was really fast, but I’m a teacher and I was very new to making apps, so it was very much a learning process.’’
The app had been downloaded nearly 1000 times already and teachers and parents ‘‘love it’’, she said.
‘‘It matches what is actually happening in the classroom. When we teach phonics we use a ‘hear, read and write’ approach and the app follows that.
‘‘What I really hope is that parents and teachers are able to use this to reinforce the good teaching that’s happening in the classroom.’’
The app is available to download from Google Play and the Apple Store. The light version is free and has lessons for three letters.