English is an international language, however, it is important for young people in PNG to learn to read and write English, says Sister Mary Claude Gadd of the Catholic Mission headquarters in Madang. Sister Gadd said this when speaking to volunteer teachers from the Out of Schools Teacher Training Program run by the Catholic Children’s Ministry in Madang who attended a three-day Bilum Books Phonics workshop at the Alexishafen Conference Centre recently. The workshop was sponsored by UNICEF and organised by Sister Gadd with the aim to train the volunteer teachers to use Bilum Books Phonics to teach children in their area.
The sessions were led by Mr Ray O’Farrell and Mrs Irene Sawczak from Bilum Books PNG and six steps to teach a sound using Bilum Books Phonics were demonstrated by the presenters. According to Mr O’Farrell, Papua New Guineans have a natural facility with language and there is no reason why our children cannot learn to read and write good English. “The new syllabus is a good syllabus but if our elementary teachers are trained to teach phonics and we give them the right resources, our children will learn to read and write,” he said. “Mastery of common words improves fluency and enables young children to read and write 60 per cent of the words we use in everyday English.” He said teachers’ enthusiasm in undertaking all activities during the workshop showed that participants were keen to learn all they could about the teaching of phonics and common words and the new Elementary English Syllabus. “On completion of the workshop teachers felt that they were better equipped to teach phonics and common words to their children,” he said. Mr O’Farrel, thanked Sister Mary for her initiative in organising the workshop and the generosity of UNICEF for funding the workshop and the purchasing of books for teachers who attended the workshop. Bilum Books provides teaching training free of charge, for districts and school clusters that buy their books. Sister Gadd said Bilum Books Phonics is “well structured, simple and easy to use because it aligns exactly with the phonics strand in the new Standards Based syllabus. “This makes it easy for out-of-school students when they re-join schools in the national system,” she said. In addition to sponsoring the workshop, UNICEF purchased sets of bilum books phonics, elementary school picture dictionary and spelling books for participating schools.
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