Page 202 - EW October 2025

Teacher-2-Teacher

Learning all-important

English the right way

CHRISTOPHER JOLLY

T’S QUITE ACCURATELY SAID THAT WINSTON Learning English has become essential
Churchill successfully “put the English language into
battle” in World War II. Both he and the German leader for optimal development in almost any
IAdolf Hitler were good orators. But, because he used profession. The range of jobs available to
English, Churchill had a stronger linguistic palette to work
with. young people without English is likely
English is commonly seen as having become the world to narrow. But children learning with
language because of empire. But is that the full story? phonics learn twice as quickly
Might it also have emerged as the most preferred global
language because it enables more efficient and effective
communication? and so on — mean that the first language is ill-equipped to
For a start, English has more vocabulary than any other teach the basics of English.
language. With 800,000 words in the largest dictionary, it Against this they should also bear in mind that young
has 4x the 200,000 words of French, for instance. English children are very adept at learning languages. In one study
grammar is also more extensive. With 12 tenses, English we found five-year-olds learning English (as a foreign
has twice the number of German, the next highest. Most language) faster than six-year-olds. We have witnessed
languages have just three tenses (and Chinese just one). very young children, often just a year or so old, able to
Another advantage of early teaching of English is that identify letter sounds. All this points to the practicalities
it has more letter sounds than most languages. Especially, and advantages of teaching young children English from
it has more vowels. While many languages have five-six the very start of school. To delay is to restrict a child’s life
vowels, in the Jolly Phonics programme I teach 17 vowels. opportunities.
This allows many more short words in English. Moreover mportantly, it also means that English needs to be taught
consonant blends are used extensively in English, such as Iwith a good phonics programme that teaches the structure
the ‘st’ and ‘mp’ in ‘stamp’. In Malay this word has been of English. Studies show that children taught learning
imported as ‘setem’, removing the consonant blends. with phonics learn twice as quickly as children taught with
So there is a depth in English, which is probably the alphabets-and-memorisation.
cause of its enhanced global usage. Issues can be described Adoption of phonics requires change of teachers’
more accurately, while the readiness of English to adopt mindsets. Most early years classrooms tend to have an
new words allows words and technical terms to be co-opted alphabets wall frieze. They should be pulled down! And
easily. replaced with a phonic wall friezes showing the 42 letter
As a result English has effortlessly emerged the language sounds of English. If children are taught that the first letter
of business, scientific papers, international contact and of the alphabet is ‘ai’ as in ‘aim’, can we forgive them if they
aviation. It has become essential for optimal development read ‘h-a-t’ as hate and ‘m-a-t’ as mate?
in almost any profession, and its role and importance is Choosing a well-developed phonics learning English
likely to increase over time. The range of jobs available to programme offers three important advantages. Children
young people without English is likely to narrow. will learn faster, all children will achieve (with few, if any,
International travel increasingly requires working needing remedial help), and they will enjoy it.
knowledge of English. It’s not just helpful for buying airline But far too many phonics programmes just teach the
tickets and hotel accommodation. Increasingly, necessary letter sounds in a dull way, with blending for reading, and
visas and digital arrival cards need to be completed in segmenting for spelling. While this covers basics, they
English or the local language. With passage of time those aren’t inspiring, nor do they allow teachers flexibility to
who don’t know English will be restricted professionally craft their lessons.
and geographically. Manual jobs in their community will A good phonics programme is multi-sensory, with
continue to be available, but not much more. actions, songs and engaging software. It provides a variety
This has implications for policymakers and education of options to teach each language component. Therefore, if
communities. Firstly, it signals the end of EFL — teaching a child is struggling, there are more resources and ideas to
English as a Foreign Language. It requires teaching of enable her to keep up. Remedial programmes don’t have a
English from the first language, and after that first language good record of achievement. Children left to ‘catch up’ later,
has been taught, requires teaching of English as a second rarely do so. Therefore choosing a well-structured phonics
first language, from the start of school. driven learning programme initially will ensure all children
While there is a strong case for children to learn their can do well.
‘mother tongues’, educators should bear in mind the (Christopher Jolly is Chairman of the UK-based Jolly Learning Ltd and
features of English — more letter sounds, consonant blends, publisher of Jolly Phonics)

202 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2025