Last Updated on October 3, 2024 by Editorial Team
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‘Reading the instructions on the exam paper gave me shivers down the spine; I almost forgot everything I knew.’ Have you ever gone through this kind of trauma? If yes, you are facing reading struggles for sure; root cause may be lying in poor knowledge of phonics.
Adult reading literacy is a big concern throughout the world, including USA (lowest levels were 19% in 2019). It is engulfing the job opportunities for deserving candidates even though they are experts in their field. The reason is abandoning formal education; sometimes due to domestic responsibilities, and at others, owing to learning disabilities.
Good news is that you can start anytime and tighten the ends left loose. In this post, we have covered a reliable resource – phonics books for adults, to help you if the idea of learning to read has come across your mind.
How phonics books for adults can boost your learning skills?
The importance of phonics for adults has risen everywhere and lots of reading programs are organized to assist literacy seekers. Books bring in an element of organization and offer sequential progression (alphabetic knowledge to sentence construction) in your learning graph. By reading and practicing with the help of phonics books, adult learners can have an outright solution that matches their learning requirements. Best roles served by the phonics books are:
- Phonics books complement your learning requirements: There is a book for every type of learner. Whether you are struggling with decoding spellings or have difficulty understanding how syllables change their sound with position, you can pick a book relevant to your phonics proficiency level.
- Have loads of practice for added fluency: The idea of phonics is to learn to read. And, you can do so by reading only. So, have as much practice as you want till you bring native-level fluency to your reading skills. Books on phonics offer uncountable things to read like poems, stories, instruction manuals, etc. You can pick whatever suits your palate and get the desired practice.
- Offer perfect self-paced learning support: As an adult, you may have multiple pre-occupations to handle. Learning does take a backseat in such situations. But, it should not go out of sight completely. When not able to go to phonics classes, let the class come to you through books. Read those while following a disciplined study plan, and fill all gaps in learning.
Which books to read to develop phonics skills? Well, the options are numerous, but we have annotated a few that stand out in appeal, instruction style and reading ease. Let’s take a look at the curated list of phonics books that adult learners can employ to enrich their alphabetic principle and knowledge, decoding spelling ability, and other important reading principles.
Resourceful phonics learning books for adults
1. We all can read
We All Can Read is an impressive learning resource that simplifies phonics learning for adults. The best feature of this book is its sequential and cumulative approach to teaching phonics principles to grown-ups. Aspirants struggling through phonics intricacies can find respite in this book. Clear instructions provided at the start and engaging ‘How Tos’ scattered throughout help you have an objective approach for building phonics skills.
Apart from providing support to self-learners, the book is designed to train phonics teachers too. If you need to brush up on your phonics skills and disseminate knowledge about the same to young learners, you can employ this book as teaching guide. Comprising about 720 lessons, this phonics learning resource can be your best bet to become a reading and spelling wizard.
2. ABR: You Can Read
ABR: You Can Read! is the literacy learning and teaching program supplement. The book is designed to give a thorough introduction to basics like Letters Sights and Sounds, Words, and Keywords. The learners can deep dive into phonics learning as the book offers about 900 words and keywords to learn to speak and read.
It is estimated that about 17% of American Adults are reading beginners and need to work sincerely on their speaking, reading, and spelling skills. This book is impressively versatile and has made it to the programs focused on family literacy, workplace literacy, and ESL. Perfect for school and home study, the book traverses you to all basics and advanced principles of phonics, helping you acquire skills needed for that much-coveted job or promotion!
3. Phonics Reading Programme for Adults
This book is a part of systematic phonics teaching curriculum directed at non-English speakers, and pre-literate adult learners. It is a part of Letters and Sounds Program developed for teaching English systematically to primary students in 2007.
The book teaches how to go beyond letter names to letter sounds. Acquaint yourself with consonant digraphs, short vowel sound, and other letter-sound basics. Further, it empowers you with vocabulary-building, which can be seen as a gradual progression from letter-sound learning to building words based on the sounds. It is a must-have for the learners who enjoy phonics learning through worksheets, flashcards, and practice papers, resources that tone down the complexities for seamless absorption of concepts.
4. Phonics Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling
Want to become a spelling buff despite all learning difficulties? Phonics Pathways can be your teaching doyen. This book introduces sounds one at a time, teaches their employment pattern in words, and walks you step-by-step through syllables, phrases, and then complete sentences. Reading skills become more refined and bolstered with an added awareness of sound and word-building knowledge.
The book supports the phonics learning needs of:
- Learners struggling through short attention spans
- Adults with poor vocabulary and spelling skill deficiencies
- Adults with learning difficulties pertaining to word formation
- English as Second Language learners
5. PSS For Phonics
When you need a learning methods-enriched quick solution for phonics learning, this book fits the bill perfectly. It befriends you with the dynamics of syllables and their positions and impending effects of words’ sight and sound. Equipped with cogent explanations, memory tactics, and lots of illustrations, the book can help you learn strategies to use phonics for achieving commendable adult literacy in English reading.
Equally intriguing to adults and children, basic and advanced phonics learners, this book offers a reliable solution to augment reading fluency. It is an admirable teaching resource for budding phonics coaches too.
To sum up,
Learning may have got no age; it definitely needs correct resources and tools to pick up the pace from any point in the skill-building path. The books mentioned above dispense the best solutions to the avid learners who may have cut a sorry face due to poor reading and pronunciation and want to change their situation for the better.
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,