English as a second language/English as a foreign language.

“I came to China 8 years ago and discovered that for the amount of time that Chinese children studied English very little was accomplished. I began searching for a solution and ran across the BRI books a little over five years ago. I have found that Synthetic Phonics is the answer for teaching English not only for China but for students of other languages as well."
English Teacher

EFL TFLBRI-ARI is the result of many years of research and development by linguists and educational psychologists. It has been extensively trialed and tested. The text is known as MLT, ‘Maximally Learnable Text’, and is particularly suited to children who do not have English as their home language. The linguistic underpinning of the books ensures that the initial selection of words actively promotes the process of blending. Only gradually are sounds introduced which are less amenable to the acquisition of this vital skill. The result of this linguistic – based foundation is that many teachers observe children who encounter far less difficulty than previously in blending sounds, right from the earliest exposure to the stories:

/I/   /s/ /ee/    /S/ /a/ /m/     ‘I see Sam.’

(The grapheme 'ee' is introduced from the beginning deliberately to demonstrate that more than one letter can correspond to a single sound.)

There will always be children who find the process of blending sounds together (synthesizing) to be painstakingly slow but the repetition of words, linguistic selection of sounds, and careful choice of vocabulary, provide the greatest possible help in developing foundational skills.

MLT begins with only five sounds and three words, gradually introducing additional sounds and words as the child reads through the first set. Each new sound is taught before the child is asked to read the next book and there is frequent repetition of both new and old words in each successive story to ensure that learning has taken place. Because the early stories are so engaging and full of expression children themselves gain the confidence to read with expression and more readily understand what they are reading. 'Story Summaries' and 'Story Questions' in each book provide ample material for further development of language skills.  

Children gradually learn to read new words by mastering the skills of decoding and blending the text. A mis-instructed child will take the easy route and guess from context or picture cues and will stop looking at the letters. To ensure that children 'read through the word', and to eliminate guessing and memorising, many of the words used in the text are chosen because they look similar (e.g. sheet/shut/shell/shall/sell).

SPELL books, (see Ordering), are particularly helpful for augmenting learning for second language children and for those learning English as a foreign language.