Oh, great English... Need a piece of advice.

[Alex]

Hi! Have you ever considered that one set of English sounds can be produced by more than 25 variations in letters depending on the origin of the word, adjoining letters, and grammatical context?

A vivid example:
 
[gi:] can be produced by GGY,GEY,GHEE,GGEE,GAE,GEA,GEE,GE,GHI,GIE,GI,GUI,GYI,GGIE,GGI,GY,GHEY,GGE,GHE,GII.

Ah, a child’s brain does great work to acquire language skills.

Well, school days have arrived, and it’s high time to help a kid read. I’d like to ask advice from experts, regarding an untraditional method of learning to read. What do you think, does dividing words into easy-to-pronounce parts (such as consonant+vowel, one vowel, or one consonant) make the learning process easier? For example, the word “ELMO” consists of 3 parts: E-L-MO, DO-NU-T, CA-T, SEA-SI-DE.

To answer the question, I wrapped this approach into a mobile app. It’s like a phonics keyboard which can voice any typed word, and then divide it into the parts.

To understand this better, you can try it here: Appstore PlayMarket

I’m an indie developer and greatly appreciate your experience! I look forward to your advice.
BTW, what method do you prefer?
Thanks!

[Daniel]

English spelling doesn't make sense. Breaking it down into smaller pieces doesn't help (in fact, sometimes it will be much more confusing, like how final "-e" tends to be silent and indicate a long vowel, but only at the end of a word, so your separated "de" in "seaside" will more likely confuse people than help them).

The only approach that works for English spelling is a lot of practice, so that eventually you learn all the exceptions (and really, it's mostly exceptions anyway). If your approach gives kids a lot of practice, it might work. But I don't see how it is different than something better known like phonics.

[waive15]

Hi Alex,

I had exactly the same problem - how to read in english, what's the logic in reading and writing. Out of desperation i even read Samuel Johnson's writings on the theme. Don't worry your children will master english in their opportunistic way. It is much, much simpler than you think. There is rules by which i can't advise you.

Good luck