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Phonics Reform England: Not reading reform. Phonics reform. Identifying the parts that are failing too many children.
The IPA and the PPC
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system used to represent speech sounds. Each symbol stands for a specific sound, rather than a letter. It was created so that people could describe and compare how words are actually spoken, regardless of spelling or accent. For example, if I ask for the second sound in house, that will mean something different depending on the speaker. In Received Pronunciation it is /aʊ/, but in a Scottish accent it may be /uː/. If we simply say “the ou sound”, we are assuming a shared pronunciation that may not exist.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system used to represent speech sounds. Each symbol stands for a specific sound, rather than a letter. It was created so that people could describe and compare how words are actually spoken, regardless of spelling or accent.
Knowing about the IPA, even without remembering all the symbols or using it with children, can help those teaching phonics because it makes it clear that grapheme–phoneme correspondences are attempts to represent sounds. It shows that the same grapheme can represent different phonemes, and that the same phoneme can be represented by different graphemes.
Words can be transcribed into phonemes using this universal IPA system, and these sounds can then be mapped to graphemes. When this is done, it becomes clear that there are over 300 grapheme–phoneme correspondences in English.
The British IPA would be used if aligning it to DfE synthetic phonics programmes. However, it is important to remember that this represents one way of pronouncing those words, and may not reflect the pronunciation of every speaker.
With this awareness, teachers may be more likely to recognise that the sounds in a phonics programme are based on a standardised pronunciation, often aligned with Received Pronunciation, which may not match the way the child in their class speaks, or the way the teacher or parents speak. This means that when a child produces a different sound, it is not seen as an error, but as a reflection of their accent that differs from a standardised system.
Teachers are then more likely to talk about this with children and work around these differences, rather than ignore them. Without this awareness, they may feel unsure of what to do. Some teachers may even feel they need to change their accent, as highlighted in research undertaken by Baratta.
With this understanding, teachers can better recognise how children are mapping sounds to print, and print to speech, and notice when the phoneme they expect is not the one the child is using. This supports more accurate modelling and more effective support, as the focus shifts from getting the “right answer” to understanding how the code is being applied by each learner, as they will be reading and writing in their own accent.
Our on-demand IPA training, launching soon, offers a way to understand and use the British IPA to support phonics, enabling more personalised word mapping for children. Join the newsletter to stay informed about launch dates.
Accent can sometimes be treated in a derogatory way, with certain ways of speaking judged as less correct or less appropriate than others. This has been discussed by Baratta, who highlights how accent can influence perceptions of ability and professionalism. As part of our support for teachers, we aim to open up these wider conversations, helping educators recognise how attitudes towards accent may affect both teaching and learning, and ensuring that all children’s ways of speaking are understood and respected within the classroom.
