Last Updated on October 11, 2023 by Editorial Team
Gamification of concepts is a proven way of helping people fill learning gaps. Thankfully, the intervention of technology-driven ways has brought us a repertoire of online learning games. These games prove to be effective interventions for gaining knowledge and make language learning a lot more fun even for grown-ups.
The suitability of these games is attributed to the challenges offered, which are suitable for students of level 4 and above. In this post, let’s explore online phonics games that help even older students suitably brush up their English skills.
Why phonics games online are good for older students?
Online phonics games have an exceptional appeal that attracts middle schoolers easily. These online games familiarize grown-ups with doable ways of learning English phonics basics. The effectiveness of these phonics games[1] helps advanced learners in the following ways:
- Offer ubiquitous premise of learning as the games can be played online on any preferred gadget
- No downloading of software is required, you can access these online games just like other websites
- Games available in multiple stages offer ample challenge to the brain, and hence, provide ample mental workout
- Cover all phonics topics in detail
- The challenge of improving scores or moving higher up the proficiency levels moves older students to perform multiple repetitions
- Answer keys or clues provided in online phonics games promote self-learning
- Since games can be played at the time of the choice, the older students need not abandon other primary activities to learn phonics
All these advantages show that phonics can be learned in a fun, engaging, and effective manner. So, why waste time sifting the internet to find the best online phonics games? We curate here for you the top phonics online games that can serve your learning needs the most aptly.
Online phonics games for older students
1. Suffix Factory
One of the basic aims of learning phonics is to learn how to spell various words. Spelling-building skills may overwhelm students because of so many rules involved. The easier trick would be to take one or two rules at a time and understand the way they govern the word formation.
In the Suffix Factory game included here, the learners can practice suffixes en, ing, and ly. Mostly, these suffixes change the action word form and show how the last letter changes once the suffix is added to the principal word.
With constant practice, these spellings will become easy to remember and you can enrich your vocabulary further by applying the same rules to other verbs of common usage too.
2. Phonics Frog
This online phonics game is quite engaging and full of options. You can learn to recognize vowel and consonant digraphs, blending and attain reading fluency by playing this engaging online phonics game. The game requires your deep focus as the frog has to climb onto the log that has the correct word.
It can enhance motor skills, and concentration and build grapheme-sound association skills. More than 15 phonemes are available for practice. You can have as many repetitions as required and a few more as the game is most likely to spellbind you with its sheer practicality and teaching ability.
3. Word Families ‘- at’ Game
Rhyming words led to the concept of word families. Those words utilizing the same sound, such as, ‘at’, ‘an’, ‘it’, and several others are known to form the collection called word family. As a learner of English as a second language, you come across a hurdle in recognizing the meaningful words from a given family.
Also, when you are supposed to decode spoken text and take notes, you may feel the pain of not knowing the word family. This game is designed to give crisp practice of word family ‘at’. You may play other versions once you have mastered the words ending with ‘at’. Starting with three-letter words, challenges may comprise four-letter and bigger words too.
4. Alphabats – Syllable
Syllables are an integral part of phonics. A common trick used for playing this game is to keep the hand below the chin. The number of times the jaw drops while uttering the word equals the number of syllables in the word. The students who require more practice with syllables may find it interesting to match the words that look so different but have the same number of syllables.
This engaging game traverses students through the concept of decoding syllables and helps them understand the meaning of monosyllables and multi-syllables. The Grade 4 and above students can improve their pronunciation and vocabulary skills with the playful intervention offered by this game.
5. Match and fill syllable sound
Syllables are the prime requirement for making correct pronunciations. Hence, constant practice of identifying, matching, and using syllables is required to increase speaking skills. Middle school and higher-level students need to revisit the concept of phonics especially when they could not grasp these at an early stage.
This online phonics game is actually a battery of games where the learners can do myriad activities focused on increasing knowledge of syllables and their use in spoken and written English.
6. Help a hedgehog
What is the ultimate aim of learning phonics? Well, it must be flawless speaking and writing skills. This game offers the premise to assess the words’ sounding out skills. The learners are given the challenge to read words with various kinds of syllables as fast as possible.
They can play multiple rounds with increasing difficulty and find how correct they have been in identifying, reading, and spotting correct spellings of the words. The game is designed to enhance the skills of blending and decoding phonemes.
7. Viking Full Circle
Choosing corresponding graphemes, segmenting, and rearranging are some of the activities minds do subconsciously while reading. This seamlessness in mental sound development and physical voicing outcomes with regular practice.
The older students may find it challenging to form spellings correctly if they have missed learning about blending sounds at early stages. This game can fill that learning gap and be comfortable with all words that may be spelled and spoken differently. With every correct arrangement of graphemes, you step closer to being more confident in spelling and pronunciation than before.
Wrapping up,
Communication abilities are a mirror of anybody’s personality. Especially when the concept in question is related to linguistics, all definitely need alternatives or supplements to books. While the latter may send shivers down the spine and need a mentor always, the games offer friendlier learning support and promote self-learning too.
It is why we suggest you make your repertoire of Phonics online games by choosing from the above options, and meet your ESL learning objectives or brush up on the phonics skills for better language use.
References
- Vandercruysse, Sylke & Vandewaetere, Mieke & Clarebout, Geraldine. (2012). Game-Based Learning: A Review on the Effectiveness of Educational Games. 10.4018/978-1-4666-0149-9.ch032.
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’,