In recent years, you may have become increasingly aware of the interest in teaching phonics in the younger classroom here in Japan. There are various approaches to teaching phonics, but which is most suitable and how can we teach it? Based on various approaches and what research shows us, I’ve developed an effective strategy for teaching this in the Japanese classroom. I’ll cover the first two points, then share how you might approach teaching it.
What is Phonics?
Phonics is defined as, “A method of teaching people to read by correlating sounds with symbols in an alphabetic writing system” (Oxford University Press, n.d.). There are a number of approaches that one can fit into two main categories: those methods that start with the whole language, or a context, and break it down and those that start with letters (graphemes) and/or phonemes (sounds) in isolation and then build up to words. Four prominent methods are commonly used in the U.K. (National Literacy Trust. n.d.). Of those that begin with the whole language and move towards smaller units, three are particularly well known: embedded phonics, analogy phonics, and analytic phonics.
Embedded phonics teaches phonics as part of a whole language, as it is an approach that always introduces sound-symbol relationships from within the context of literature rather than as separate lessons. Therefore, rather than being a systematic approach, it is often viewed as more opportunistic. In analogy phonics, children are taught to analyse phonic elements, such as rimes or phonograms—one example of this would be teaching “igh” (as in “light,” “night,” and “fight”). Through this method, children can come to identify and learn word families. In analytical phonics children identify, or analyse, a common phoneme in a set of words, for example, “end,” “met,” “empty,” and “best.” By analysing such sets, the /ɛ/ (short e sound) becomes associated with the letter e.
The method that builds up to words is known as synthetic phonics. This approach begins with the letters (or graphemes), teaches the sound that is associated with each letter, and then blends or synthesises these sounds to form words. For example, a teacher might introduce a single-syllable word such as “bed” by first of all teaching the phoneme (sound) of each letter: /b/, /e/, and /d/. The learner practises saying these phonemes and then blends them together to produce the word (in this case “bed”). During this process, the learner associates each phoneme with its corresponding grapheme (in this case the letters “b,” “e,” and “d”).
Having outlined the four main approaches to teaching phonics, it becomes clear that identifying which approach is being referred to is essential when reading about phonics. Clarifying this distinction also helps avoid common misconceptions, such as viewing phonics as a complete reading curriculum, which the National Reading Panel (2020) debunks, or even focusing on “skill-and-drill type of work” (Blevins, 2019, p. 8). Phonics can, instead, be woven into an already existing curriculum through simple, focused activities that need take no more than 10 minutes of class time. These practical applications are expounded upon later in this article. Therefore, should phonics be taught in the younger learners’ classroom in Japan? Research provides valuable insights that can help address this question.
A Look at Some Research
A recently published study by Enomoto and Yuzawa (2025), involving 300 participants, examined whether a multi-sensory phonics programme (meaning one that engages several senses such as sight, hearing, and touch, simultaneously to enhance learning), such as Jolly Phonics (JP), would improve Japanese children’s English phonological awareness, memory span, and pronunciation. The study’s participants were in the fifth or sixth grade of elementary school. Using the Hiroshima University Computer-based Rating of Working Memory (HUCRoW), students were given audio prompts via computer, and task progression was monitored so that if they answered correctly four times in succession, they advanced to the next level. Findings indicated that the multi-sensory programme (MSP) had a positive impact on the Japanese learners’ phonemic awareness. The participants also demonstrated greater pronunciation accuracy and stronger foundational skills for reading or oral language development.
Another important finding of this study lies in the fact that the researchers also implemented Japanese listening span tasks (LST), which are designed to assess children’s working-memory capacity in their first language (L1). For example, the task required children to understand a sentence, remember specific words, and then recall them in order. The results showed no significant difference in Japanese LST performance between the two groups: MSP and non-MSP. This suggests that the MSP affects L2-specific phonological processing more than L1. Consequently, the researchers concluded that the MSP itself was responsible for the improvements in English, rather than general age-related cognitive development or non-specific instructional effects. Therefore, these results provide empirical support for introducing synthetic phonics with multi-sensory techniques in Japanese elementary education.
The findings of Enomoto and Yuzawa’s (2025) study echo those of Allen-Tamai’s (2012, 2013). In her 2012 study on phonological awareness and word knowledge in young Japanese EFL learners, she examined links between phonological awareness and early word recognition among 7- to 11-year-olds across three English-teaching institutions in Tokyo. Outcomes indicated strong correlations between phonological awareness and reading ability.
In Allen-Tamai’s subsequent 2013 study, conducted in one public elementary school that introduced a systematic synthetic-phonics curriculum, participants demonstrated significant improvement in phonemic awareness and phoneme-grapheme correspondence (the ability to match spoken sounds to their written symbols). Moreover, participants reported increased motivation, while teachers observed enhanced spelling and pronunciation skills.
From these studies, it can be established that teaching Japanese L1 learners through synthetic phonics has a positive impact on learners’ motivation, pronunciation, reading, and spoken English skills. Allen-Tamai (2013) also recommended implementing a year-long phonics programme to ensure sustained and measurable improvement. Furthermore, she advised incorporating a variety of phonics instructional methods, rather than relying solely on synthetic phonics. Drawing on these findings, the following section outlines practical activities and illustrates how they can be integrated into a year-long programme.
Ideas for Implementing Phonics Activities Within a Year-long Programme
Quick, simple activities that promote learning are always valuable additions to a teacher’s repertoire. The activities described in this article build progressively, taking learners from individual phonemes to blending complete words. While several of these activities draw on synthetic-phonics principles, this does not imply that other phonics approaches have no value in the younger-learner classroom in Japan.
Drawing on the MSP programme used in both research articles described here, incorporating simple songs or chants that introduce the sounds of target letters can be very effective. JP, cited by Enomoto and Yuzawa (2025), includes a range of such songs, but one caveat is they were written for native English-speaking children. If using these materials in the Japanese classroom, it is advisable to focus primarily on the sound rather than the lyrics of the songs. It is also beneficial to incorporate actions or movement to reinforce memorisation and sound-symbol association, linking each phoneme and grapheme to a vocabulary item accompanied by movement. One advantage of JP is the accompanying actions for each phoneme, although children are creative and encouraging children to create their own actions can foster creativity and engagement!
Based on Sato’s (2017) List of 1,000 Words Kids Need to Know, I have developed a list of easily MEXT-aligned decodable words for teaching phonics (see Table 1). Each word anchors a vocabulary item to its corresponding phoneme and grapheme, supporting consistent and meaningful practice.
Table 1
List of Anchor Words (Easily Decodable Words)
- ant
- hand
- net
- up
- bed
- ink
- on
- vet
- cat
- jam
- pig
- wet
- dog
- kick
- quiz
- fox/box
- egg
- leg
- run
- yen
- frog
- map
- sit
- zebra
- gorilla
- ten
As with any classroom activity, each task should be clearly focused on a specific learning goal. To begin, an input activity can be used to introduce the phoneme alongside its corresponding grapheme. This step is particularly important when teaching Japanese learners, who are often more familiar with the name of the letter rather than its sound. It is also advisable to teach short vowel sounds first, allowing students to gain confidence with these before progressing to long vowel sounds and the various combinations that produce them.
Step 1: Input Activity
Imagine teaching the sound of the letter “s.” Using MEXT-aligned vocabulary, the word to which this letter is anchored is sit (see Table 1). This is simple to teach, as you can demonstrate sitting down while saying sit. As the class produces the sound, encourage them to perform the action simultaneously; this will also serve as preparation for a subsequent activity described below. A simple chant would be as follows:
- Teacher says: I can /s/, /s/, /s/, sit (action: sit down)
- Students echo: I can /s/, /s/, /s/, sit (action: sit down)
- Teacher says: I can /s/, /s/, /s/, stand (action: stand up)
-
Students echo: I can /s/, /s/, /s/, stand (action: stand up)
Teachers says: sit (action: sit down) - Students echo: sit (action: sit down)
- Teachers says: stand (action: stand up)
- Students echo: stand (action: stand up)
- Teacher: /s/, /s/, /s/, /s/, sit (action: sit down)
- Students: /s/, /s/, /s/, /s/, sit (action: sit down)
Variations of this input task can include changing the pace or volume, for example, saying the sound slowly or quickly, quietly or loudly, or starting slowly and gradually increasing speed. This can also serve as a short filler activity, used spontaneously between two main lesson stages, or simply to add variety and maintain energy in the classroom.
Step 2: Processing Activity
The next step is to check whether students can recall the phoneme associated with each grapheme. One effective activity for this is what I call Musical Slam. For this task, each student needs a set of alphabet cards, while the teacher prepares the selected music, or chant, and gesture to accompany it.
Instructions:
- Explain the aim of the activity: students must identify the letter that corresponds to the sound they hear. (This can be done using simple English and gestures, but this can also be done using Japanese.)
- Distribute the cards for the letters being reviewed that day (five to seven is recommended, depending on time, age, and proficiency level).
- Check that all students have the correct cards placed face up and the right way round on their desks.
- Play or say the target sound.
- Ask students to select the card for the sound they hear and hold it high for the teacher to see.
- Allow a few moments for processing as needed.
- Reveal and model the correct answer.
I recommend starting with a brief demonstration before moving into the full activity, following steps 1–7 for each sound or letter.
An alternative to this activity is Which Number? Here, the teacher writes three to five letters on the board (depending on the class level) and assigns each one a number. A letter sound is modelled either by the teacher, an ALT, or a recording of the sound (in this example /p/) while the gesture is also demonstrated. Students then indicate the number of the correct letter by holding up the corresponding number of fingers (see Figure 1). This version works particularly well as a quick whole-class activity or time-filler, as it requires only a gesture cue, chalk or marker, and a board. The key point in both of these activities is to provide the students with sufficient time to recall the grapheme-phoneme pair before revealing the answer.
Step 3: Production
Students are provided with the space to recall and practice producing the grapheme sounds. The teacher can check and when needed, prompt while the students gain confidence through repetition in production. This strengthens recall of the phoneme. One very important point for the teacher is to ensure the learners are given time to recall the sounds and only step in when a different sound to that of the target phoneme is produced. Group work where learners can build agency, and peer-correct is effective at this stage.
Step 4: Blending
Students learn to blend individual sounds to form words. This step links listening and pronunciation with reading fluency, helping to decode the words so that they become automatic and meaningful. Word cards carefully curated to incorporate previously covered graphemes are used and presented in a variety of ways. Worksheets can be used in this stage as they are an effective tool for formative assessment.
Conclusion
The research discussed in this article clearly indicates a multi-sensory synthetic phonics approach can be highly effective. As outlined in the introduction, I have developed a practical, classroom-based strategy for teaching phonics in Japan. The four stages are repeated six times over the course of the year. The outcome is a year-long curriculum—consistent with Allen-Tamai’s (2013) recommendation—that guides learners from recognising grapheme–phoneme correspondences to reading words and, ultimately, sentences, with measurable progress.
For teachers of young learners who have not yet introduced phonics, I strongly encourage trying as even short, well-structured activities can make a significant difference in building confidence, motivation, and early literacy skills.
References
Allen‑Tamai, M. (2012). Phonological awareness and development of word knowledge among young Japanese EFL learners. Journal of Asia TEFL, Special Issue, 1–28.
Allen‑Tamai, M. (2013). The practice of synthetic phonics in a Japanese public elementary school. ARCLE Review, 7, 68–78. https://www.arcle.jp/research/books/data/html/data/pdf/vol7_5-2.pdf
Blevins, W. (2019). Meeting the challenges of early literacy phonics instruction [Literacy leadership brief]. International Literacy Association. https://www.literacyworldwide.org/docs/default-source/where-we-stand/ila...
Enomoto, H., & Yuzawa, M. (2025). Effects of a multisensory phonological awareness program on Japanese-speaking children’s English phonological knowledge and skills: Evaluation using the English version of HUCRoW. JES Journal, March 2025 issue, 20–35.
National Literacy Trust. (n.d.). What is phonics? https://literacytrust.org.uk/information/what-is-literacy/what-phonics/
National Reading Panel. (n.d.). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved November 18, 2025, from https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=phonics
Sato, T. (2017). Shōgakusei no tame no jūyō goi risuto [List of 1,000 words kids need to know]. Hirosaki University. https://hirosakieigo.weblike.jp/satoclass/material/vocab/vocalist2018.pdf
Kate Sato is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Hokkai-Gakuen University, Sapporo, Japan. Her research focuses on phonics instruction, reading development, and teacher education in Japanese EFL contexts. Through action research, she developed the Four Step Cycle, which explores structured, multisensory approaches to teaching phonological awareness and decoding skills in elementary schools. In addition to her work in teacher training and curriculum design, she coordinates intercultural communication programs such as the Global Seminar, promoting experiential English learning through domestic and overseas partnerships. Kate is committed to bridging research and classroom practice to support effective, inclusive English education in Japan.
