Reflection - Phonetics and The Phonetic Alphabet

I have chosen to base my reflection on the phonetic alphabet; this is because it is a concept that before I started the course I was unfamiliar with. I had heard of people spelling ‘phonetically’ but did not fully grasp what this meant. I really like the idea of the phonetic alphabet and understanding how this works as I feel that this will be very useful to me in the future. I hope to teach in a Primary School so feel that having the knowledge of different letter combinations producing different sounds will be a fantastic help when teaching young children to read.

Although the idea of different combinations of letters producing different sounds is not a new one the actual phonetic alphabet is to me. I found spelling words using the phonetic alphabet challenging as my pronunciation of words is not always the same as Received Pronunciation and this affected my symbol choice. I think that the phonetic alphabet is a fantastic idea and a very useful aid when studying phonetics. However, I feel that I personally would struggle if, say tomorrow, it was to replace the traditional alphabet. This is simply because it is not what I am used to and words to me just do not ‘feel right’ when written phonetically. I genuinely feel that the concept of phonetics and the phonetic alphabet has challenged my thoughts on learning how to read. It is such a long time ago that I was taught to read that it just seems natural that certain letters produce certain sounds, this idea has reminded me that it is not an inherent ability and that I was taught it even though I cannot remember learning to read.