According to the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), a patent is a right granted to the owner of an invention to prevent others from making, using, importing or selling the invention without his permission
For a patent to be granted, the invention must be NEW, INVENTIVE and has ACTUAL PRACTICAL USES. The innovation also must not be obvious even to persons with technical skills or knowledge in the particular field. Check out our patent certificate here!
And this is exactly what our programme is all about. At the end of the programme, it is expected that children in the four to six age group are able to will be able to easily spell and pronounce long words like “incomprehensible” and “incompatibility” just by hearing the words. Below is a brief description about our programme.
The Invention
Mrs Sam’s invention falls within the realm of Phonics, particularly related to teaching the spelling and pronunciation of English to non-native speakers of the language.
Phonics is the study of the way in which spellings represent the sounds that make up words. Children are taught the sounds of the letters of the alphabet and how the letters are combined to form words.
Traditionally, synthetic phonics is used to teach phonics to children when learning to read. This method involves looking at every part of the phonic without necessarily taking into account the blends or applicable rules, for example: “s-t-r-e-e-t”. Mrs Sam’s analytic phonics, on the other hand, involves utilising the phonic blends, for example “str-ee-t”, supported by a comprehensive set of proprietary rules.
The Benefits
The spelling system of English has evolved as a result of history and not through phonetics. It bears the influence of many foreign languages. Consequently, pronunciation of many English words cannot be directly represented by conventional phonic rules. Mrs Sam’s invention therefore brings much needed structure to the way in which English words are spelt and pronounced. This is a boon to learners of the English language.
Through the invention, children are able to correctly spell and pronounce words regardless of their length or complexity. This ability brings about a pervasive improvement in the children’s overall academic performance. It also boosts their self-esteem and self-confidence.
The methodology is equally effective on adult learners of the English language. Considering, the global importance of English for business communication, the invention has wide application for improving the standard of spoken and written English of the business community in Singapore and abroad.
This also justifies why our phonics programme is more expensive than other phonics programmes. Another reason is due to the amount of practise that phonics requires. As young children easily forgets what they have learnt, we need to increase the frequency of instruction (7 months, twice weekly) so as to ensure permanent retention of the programme in the children’s mind. Furthermore, we can guarantee that the blending instructions and sounds stay permanently in the child’s mind, and this kind of investment is definitely worthwhile in the long term.
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