PHONEME MACHINE
DEMONSTRATION LESSONS

Phoneme Machine 4 year-olds demonstration lesson

The THRASS Phoneme Machine is a ground-breaking computer programme that uses the International Phonetic Alphabetic and moving human lips to demonstrate the pronunciation of sounds (phonemes) and hundreds of frequently used English words.

The upgrade of Version 3.1, Version 4.1, available at the beginning of 2007, will have new 'autofunctions' dedicated to the teaching of the Weekly Spellings listed in the four-year scheme of work THRASS 15 Minutes a Day x 2. The scheme is primarily for children, from 4-7 years of age (or one or more years later in different countries), who have English as their first language. The scheme can be adapted to suit additional language learners and learners with a disability.

In these two short videostreams we see Alan Davies working with a group of four-year-olds. In the first videostream they are using the Phoneme Machine to learn the pronunciation of the words ‘my’, ‘I’, ‘very’ and ‘me’. In the second, they are using it to learn the pronunciation of the word ‘sea’. Even at this age, they are able to explain the reason for the difference between the number of letters and number of sounds in a word.

Resizing the Grids
The size of the Phoneme Machine grids can also be made smaller and moved by using Full Screen Off - making the phoneme-boxes and words easier to reach.

If you would like to view the videostreams, click on the links below the picture on the left.

The THRASS Phoneme Machine is available free of charge to parents and schools. More information can be found at www.phonememachine.com.
 

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