Writing this so that I can document my method and then delete these photos that are taking up prime space on my phone.

Did you know that the letter c makes two sounds: hard c & soft c? In fact, every c in the Pacific Ocean is pronounced differently.

So I like to teach students the soft c vs hard c rule because of the mileage it brings. They will encounter it quite often in the words they read.

There’s a mnemonic to remember when the soft c will occur: Elephants In Yellow.

So, make the soft c sound when it appears before e, i & y. After teaching the soft c rule, I typically move on to the shun sound.

First, I focus on one of its spelling: tion. After students are familiar with the adding of tion to the base word, I level up the challenge by getting them to remove e from a base word before adding ation.

Then, I move on to another spelling: sion. This is applicable for words like discussion, passion and expression.

After working on the -sion/-tion suffix, I will move on to the -ence suffix.

It’s a funny thing. You will think that Singaporean students will be conscious about pronouncing the -ence suffix since we tend to neglect pronouncing the final consonant t. But noooooooo, everyone pronounces difference as different. It bothered me enough that I created a Canva poster based on the -ence suffix.

Sometimes, with the higher-progress students, I get to teach the -ance suffix. But that happens rarely because the school year will end before I get to this stage. Haha.

Thank you for reading this. I know it’s boring, but it’s important that I document my work process down for my benefit. If someone else gains a bit more clarity from this, all the more power.