Regrettable misconceptions about how to learn spelling Educational Technology

Educational technology: "Spell, but don't spell Mr. Dai"

(Baonghean.vn) - The spelling method according to the Vietnamese textbook by Professor Ho Ngoc Dai has been taught in experimental schools for forty years; one small drawback should not deny the other advantages of this method.

Perhaps the Vietnamese spelling method according to the CNGD program would not have caused a public uproar like the past few days if the majority of people understood it clearly and did not have unfortunate misunderstandings about this method.

Misconceptionbetween sound and letter

The first misconception is the confusion between sounds and letters. Currently, many of us still do not distinguish between pronunciation and letter names, and still equate the two concepts of sounds and letters, even though this is elementary knowledge that has been in the current first grade spelling books for decades.

First grade students of Hung Dao Primary School - Hung Nguyen are excited about the technology program. Photo: My Ha

Many people worry because they think that the letters B, C, D will now be read asshore, flag, shoreline, and accordingly, VTV will read it aspretend; vitamin C into vitaminflag; exam blocks B, C form a blockshore, flag; triangle CKQ becomes triangleflag flag flag,...

In fact, according to basic Vietnamese linguistic knowledge, except for the letters that write vowels such as A, Ă, Â, I, E, Ê... whose names and pronunciations are the same, the letters that write consonants such as B, C, D, Đ... all have pronunciations that are clearly different from their names.

For example, the three letters C, K, Q have the same sound when spelled, combined to form the sound "cờ", but their completely different letter names are respectivelycar; and certainly many years from now in our education sector, in our country, this will never change as many parents are confused and worried.

Regarding spelling methods, in the past five or seven decades, the education sector in the North and South of our country has had many different ways of spelling when learning Vietnamese spelling, but in the end, generations of Vietnamese people still read our country's name as "Vietnam", and our country's words as "National Language" without any change.

Thus, applying a new spelling teaching method like the CNGD program cannot affect the "national soul" of Vietnamese as many people panic and worry.

Misconceptionbetween sign and sound

Also originating from a clip recording the scene of a teacher instructing students to read two verses of Bao Dinh Giang's poem "The most beautiful Thap Muoi...", in which each letter is represented by a square according to the CNGD grade 1 spelling book, in recent days, on social networks, countless video clips of music, movies, and football commentary have appeared, with lyrics, speech, and dialogue consisting only of the sounds/words "round, square, triangle", attracting a lot of likes, comments, and shares, becoming a trend that many young people enthusiastically respond to.

From there, a storm of reactions on the internet was created by gullible people, who arbitrarily speculated that "from now on, students will read/write using circles, squares, and triangles instead of the national language" (!?).

A Vietnamese class at Quan Hanh Primary School - Nghi Loc. Photo: My Ha

In fact, this is just a game for children to get in touch with simple symbols that even those who cannot read can visualize. Those squares, circles, and triangles are just models/symbols in the lesson of counting the words in a sentence, to help children separate words into individual words, distinguish the similarities and differences between words, but not yet at the stage of teaching children to learn letters and spelling.

After this stage, children will start learning letters, reading and writing letters, and learning to spell, and at this time, square, round, and triangle symbols are no longer used as before.

The purpose of this method is simply to help children recognize that each sound corresponds to a circle, square or triangle symbol. After this lesson on sounds, students will learn letters like the traditional spelling method. And certainly when finishing the first grade program, children will read and write words and sentences like all students and parents of many generations, without any difference.

In short, the reading/writing part of "square, circle, triangle" is just a lesson in sound recognition for first graders who cannot read yet according to the CNGD spelling method, not a writing lesson as many people mistakenly believe.

Misconceptionabout the author of the work

Another reason why parents strongly oppose it is because there is an opinion that the CNGD spelling policy is a plan of Associate Professor Bui Hien - the person who proposed the improved alphabet, which has not yet been accepted by the Government. This is clearly a serious misconception.

In the 2018-2019 school year, continue to implement Vietnamese language teaching - educational technology in provinces and cities. Photo: Internet

The Vietnamese language learning method of Prof. Ho Ngoc Dai was born about 40 years ago, long before the improved alphabet of Assoc. Prof. Bui Hien appeared (2017). Furthermore, Assoc. Prof. Bui Hien's initiative was to reform the Vietnamese writing system, while the teaching of the Vietnamese alphabet of Prof. Ho Ngoc Dai only used new teaching and learning methods, and did not touch on the field of changing or improving the writing system like the work of Assoc. Prof. Bui Hien.

In short, these are two completely different, unrelated things.

Many people do not research carefully, leading to incorrect statements, even sarcasm, insults, and equating the current work of Professor Ho Ngoc Dai with the improvement proposal of Associate Professor Bui Hien in the past, which is unreasonable, arbitrary, and hasty, without properly understanding the nature of the two works.

It is true that when it comes to social media, everyone has their own opinion and point of view. However, there are currently many people who have not thoroughly researched the matter, have made their own assumptions, assumptions, and criticisms, causing more questions for public opinion, making readers more and more confused, easily drawn into a spiral of useless controversy.

The author of this article does not defend or oppose Professor Ho Ngoc Dai’s Vietnamese teaching method, and believes that: When coming into contact with any new initiative, we need to thoroughly research before making personal judgments. We need to clearly understand the field that the initiative has mentioned, to avoid unfortunate misunderstandings, which only push things further and further away and in the wrong direction.