The Perfect Flash Cards to Teach English (EFL and ESL)

Most English teachers use flash cards extensively in class when teaching children and even lower level adult students. Unfortunately,  teachers are often stuck with whatever materials their school bought or made. If you could design the perfect set of flash cards to teach English, what would it look like?

After years of using sub-optimal flash cards, I hired artists and had my own custom cards made. Here is what I think good English flash cards are  about.

1. Free Flash Cards are definitely the best price.

Why pay for images or buy expensive sets if you can get free flash cards to teach English here. Sign up to my newsletter and you will have a new set delivered to you about every ten days.

2. Good flash cards are in color.

It costs a little more to print color images but they are much more memorable and interesting for your students.

3. Flash card images should be professionally illustrated.

Using free clipart images to make your own flash cards takes a huge amount of time and you will only end up with many mismatched images of different illustration styles. It looks much more professional to have a single style for all your cards and the quality of illustration should be good. Teachers and students will be looking at those images for countless hours so get something pleasing to the eye.

4. Flash cards should have text on the front.

There are varying opinions on whether text should be on the back or front of cards. I think putting the text on the front with the images is much better for the following reasons.

a. First letter sounds, plurals, spelling etc. can be pointed out easily in the text with the image always visible.
b. There are more game possibilities when the back of the card is left blank.
c. It is cheaper and easier to print when only printing one side of the flash card.

5. Text should have correct capitalization.

“APPLE” or “Apple” are NOT correct so don’t show them to children. We never write in all capitals or with the first letter of a word capitalized unless it is in a sentence, so don’t model incorrect English for your students.

6. Indefinite articles and plurals should always be included so students can get lots of repetition.

We never say, “I like apple.” or ” “It is apple.” so don’t just put “apple” on the card. The text should read “apples” or “an apple” – the only exception could be phonics flash cards.

7. Text should highlight key points in red so that students can clearly see what is emphasized.

If teaching plurals, put the ending ‘s’ in red. (See the image at the top.) If teaching phonics, have the key letter combination in red.

8. Flash cards should have borders.

This one is not so important, but I definitely think flash cards look much better with a border and it focuses children’s attention to the center.

9. Flash cards should be colored coded.

All of my flash cards are color coded so that teachers know exactly which level they are teaching. This helps to show when flash cards might be too difficult for a particular level and can also show which lower level review activities were completed. This is especially important for new teachers because they are not likely to have a full understanding of all the targets in a given level.

10. Flash cards should be B5 size.

A4 is too big for children to handle and anything smaller is difficult to see in larger classes. Also, B5 flash cards are less prone to bending than A4 size. You can make smaller cards for use in games, but B5 cards are the best size for class activities.

11. Flash cards should be laminated.

Inexpensive lamination machines are readily available so print your flash cards on the heaviest stock you can and laminate them. The flash cards will look better and last longer, saving you time and money. Don’t put them in plastic sleeves, that will just cost more in the long run.

12. You shouldn’t have too many.

You don’t need flash cards for every vocabulary set your students will learn. Start off with key words and expressions but as children get older they can learn from reading, worksheets, conversations and the internet. Flash cards are fantastic for many activities but they are not the only way to teach. Always remember that you should be teaching what your children need to learn, not what materials you have available.

13. There should be a category image for noun sets.

For example, if you are teaching fruit, there should be a ‘fruit’ card, this goes for other categories as well. Students need to know the word ‘fruit’ if they are going to ask and understand questions like, “What is your favorite fruit?” or “What fruit do you like?”

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Children Don't Learn Languages Faster

Do children really learn English faster or better than adults? The answer depends. Children who move to a new country do pick up the language faster than their parents, however it is important to examine the real reasons behind their rapid language learning.

English as a Foreign Language (EFL)

First off, to any EFL teacher (teaching English in a non-English speaking country), it is obvious that adults learn English much faster. Look at any textbook series and you will find that adults can cover similar language targets in 3 to 6 months that children cover over six years or more.

Adult EFL students learn faster than EFL children for many reasons.
* Adults are motivated to learn and are probably paying for the lessons with their own money.
* Many are studying for the purpose of improving employment opportunities or to travel.
* Adults can already read so they can progress much faster. While children are learning the alphabet, adults can already read complex dialogues.
* Older students can understand grammar and apply rules to targets they haven’t covered before. Younger children do not formulate rules, they indirectly learn the language through lots of exposure.
* Mature students are interested in a broader range of topics so they are more interested in reading about and discussing current events, hobbies, movies or learning about foreign cultures.

English as a Second Language (ESL)

So why do children who move to a new country pick up the language so much more effectively than adults?

The reasons are exactly those that make a good English class and teacher. ESL children, not EFL children, are naturally forced to live the four secrets to learning a foreign language I talked about in a previous post.

Comprehensible Input

ESL children get exposed to English at a level they understand and are only slightly challenged with more difficult vocabulary. They watch children’s TV shows, play with other children, study basic English in ESL programs at school and even adults simplify communications so that the children can understand.

Adult English learners are not so fortunate. It is difficult to learn English from news programs and adult oriented TV. The language is just too complex for beginners. Everyday communications are difficult because few have the time or patience to speak slowly and simply for the foreigner to understand.

Repetition

Children have limited vocabulary and say the same types of things over and over again. It doesn’t take long for ESL children to pick up on the names of toys, cartoon characters, food, game vocabulary, etc.

Adults are typically exposed to such a varied and massive amount of English that they have difficult beyond simple greetings and basic expressions.

Memorability

Children learn in real contexts such as interacting with other children, playing with fun toys, watching animated TV programs or reading story books. All of these leave a much deeper impression than boring textbook dialogues or the cacophony of everyday communication that adults have to deal with.

Time

Children receive massive amounts of comprehensible English input everyday. They study at school, they play with friends, talk with siblings, they watch children’s television programs, they do school homework, they play video games and use the internet. ESL children can get ten hours or more of English exposure daily.

Their parents are not so lucky. If they have little English skills, they will probably work low skilled jobs that offer little chance of English interaction. When they come home from work it is unlikely they are going to watch children’s TV programs and won’t understand much of regular TV. In order to communicate they commonly read publications or the Internet in their own language, meet country mates or just talk to their spouse or children.

While ESL children quickly get immersed in English, parents and adults only get minimal exposure.

ESL children do learn languages faster than adults, however it is important to note that children learn more because they have more exposure to language at a level they understand. It is not some genetic predisposition or wiring in the brain. (Although, there is an effect for much older adults.)

The difference between adults and children is very clear in EFL classrooms where the exposure to English can be clearly quantified. For every hour of productive English exposure, adults students will outperform children. The difference in ESL environments is that children typically have 20 or even 30 times the quantity English exposure at a level optimal to review and learning. ESL children are learning faster because they are practicing many multiples more than adults in the same environment.

The Problems of Phonics

In a previous post I outlined some reasons why basic phonics instruction is essential for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) children. However, I also believe that too much phonics is an inefficient use of limited class time. Here are some reasons why excessive phonics training is unnecessary.

The English language is not phonetically regular.

Many teachers treat phoneme-grapheme correspondences as an infallible law similar to music or mathematics. The problem is that there are so many exceptions to every phonics rule without much reason. These exceptions are usually brushed over as sight words or ignored altogether.

Take a look at some of these word pairs to see what I mean.

• have – gave
• love – cove
• come – home
• chocolate – late

Basically the above rule is that a final ‘e’ or magic ‘e’ makes the previous vowel long… except when it doesn’t. I have read that only about 65% of the English language if phonetically regular.

Even English speakers can’t agree.

There are substantial pronunciation and spelling differences between UK and US English, not to mention all the other variations around the world. Short ‘a’ in the UK is much closer to the short ‘o’ sound in the US. The short ‘o’ sound in the UK is much closer to the long ‘o’ in the US.  Should it be ‘color’ or ‘colour?’ Some zealots even go so far as to say that the modified English in countries like Singapore or the Philippines is not ‘correct English.’ Also, don’t forget all the new slang and short hand English that is developing because of text messaging (e.g. R U OK?).

So who is right then? The Queen’s English? American English? English is a global language that is evolving. We don’t speak or spell like Shakespeare did, but that doesn’t make old English correct or incorrect. The English language depends on who is speaking it and when in history you are observing.

Many English teachers can’t even produce the correct vowel sounds.

I have found that most novice EFL teachers don’t know the short and long vowel sounds themselves. I had to memorize the sounds as well when I started teaching. Why should we hammer these phonetic sounds into children’s heads if their teachers are having trouble was well?

Phonics is NOT reading.

Phonics training does not include actually giving meaning to words. Being able to say the words on a page doesn’t mean that students actually understand the meaning. Reading is about understanding what words mean not just being able to vocalize the sounds.

Spelling rules are complicated.

Remember all those crazy spelling rules that seem to have countless exceptions; “i’ before ‘e’ except after c.” “When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking.” Those types of rules are great except when students start discovering all the exceptions. (weird, friend, height, etc.)

Students can’t read what they can speak.

Young children want to talk about their favourite video games, TV programs, hobbies, likes and dislikes etc. Constricting their reading and writing to a set phonics teaching system greatly limits the topics you can cover. When will  children learn to read and write phonetically irregular sentences like “I want chocolate?” Stories like ‘big bugs on a bed” don’t even come close to expressing children’s feelings and interests.

Phonics is boring.

Children who are reading Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings in their own language are not going to get excited by reading “a fat cat on a mat” stories. Sure it is possible to make phonics learning more entertaining through games and activities but it is pretty hard to create interesting stories from graded phonics readers.

Reading is NOT only left to right.

For many words in English, the entire word has to be seen in order to determine what sounds the previous letters represent (photograph versus photographer, hat versus hate or vacation versus vaccine). This is important because reading is not just decoding graphemes into phonemes. There are many mental processes involved.

Children are smart and can discover phonics are their own.

Extensive phonics (teaching all the sound letter correspondences) approaches generally assume that students must be explicitly taught all the phonics in a strict order. This ignores the fact that students can and do deduce the sounds on their own by reading themselves. In many cases, not all, it can be more effective for students to learn the sound representations of letters from the words themselves. It doesn’t always have to be a constructivist approach of building up words from individual sounds. Children who are exposed to words and letters soon start to see patterns and make inferences on their own.

For example, in my classes I have never once mentioned or even highlighted the sound that the ending ‘y’ makes in words like ‘twenty’ or ‘happy.’ Yet students never have a problem with writing or reading the final ‘y.’ They all discover it on their own through exposure.

The secret to becoming a better reader is…

Reading! The more children are read to and the more they read, the better readers they become. While that may seem obvious it doesn’t seem that way to many academics.

The often cited ‘Rose Report’ showed that  extensive and explicit phonics instruction boosted literacy levels by small but significant amounts. However, what often gets ignored is that the children in the study were given several extra hours of reading training every week. There were private tutors for students falling behind and even parents were trained and strongly encouraged to give extra reading practice at home. Of course, students are going to improve their reading ability if they are spending so much extra time reading.

Phonics research like this without control groups make it difficult to attribute the reading improvements to any single cause. Are students reading better because of phonics or is it because of the extra 5 to 8 hours a week of reading practice? You can lose weight by running to McDonald’s but that doesn’t mean that a BigMac diet is good for you.

What the research really says.

In almost all reading studies, richer children read better than poorer children and girls read better than boys. What is the cause of those differences. Could it be that richer children read more than poorer children and girls read more than boys?

Whole language proponents like Stephen Krashen often point out that access to interesting reading material at home and at libraries is a far more important indicator of reading ability than extensive phonics training. (Keep in mind that Whole Language methods also incorporate basic phonics instruction. Many phonics extremists misrepresent Whole Language reading instruction as a no phonics approach.)

How much phonics instruction do children need?

The question is NOT ‘phonics or no phonics’. It is how much phonics needs to be taught?  For native English children with massive amounts of English exposure extensive phonics instruction might not be necessary at all if they have active parents that read to them from a young age.

EFL students and even ESL children can definitely benefit from basic phonics instruction even if it continues into their teens. Also, individual children may need extra time and help depending on their own circumstances. Phonics training is important at a certain stage of reading readiness but there are dangers in doing too much. Do we as teachers want to endlessly bore our students with meaningless reading activities and drills thereby taking away precious class time from real communicative activities?

The primary point I am making is that phonics shouldn’t be the focus of EFL classes. It is one important but small component. Every reading and writing activity can be phonics reinforcement. Teachers don’t need to spend 30 or 40 minutes every class for years on phonics drills and activities. In once a week classes with regular writing homework and reading activities, I would say that 5 to 15 minutes per class will suffice. Spend your time on helping your students comfortably speak English and children will gain reading proficiency on their own if they are reading regularly.

Phonics is Essential for EFL students learning English

Have you ever tried to learn a foreign language where you don’t know the writing system? Think of Korean, Arabic or Chinese. Everything looks like a big mess and you have absolutely no idea how to decipher the language.

Then try a Latin based language with characters and sounds similar to English. Maybe try Italian, French or even Hungarian. It is much easier because you have some knowledge of how to decode the letters into sounds. There will be many characters and combinations that you don’t know or are unsure of but you will likely still have a good approximation of what sounds the letters represent, even if you don’t know the meaning.

The reason you can decode Latin languages and not different writing systems is because you have a base knowledge of the phonemic code or letter to sound representations.

If you want to learn to read Japanese, it is important to first learn the two basic alphabets (hiragana and katakana) and the sounds they represent. Then you can move to the more complex characters (kanji). Without the ability to decode the letters into sounds you will NOT be able to read, period. Knowledge of phonics is absolutely essential, however there are many debates on how that phonics should be learned.

Do Phonics Need to be Explicitly Taught?

Native English children have intensive exposure to spoken and written English so that by the time they reach school age, phonics may no longer be necessary. Whole language proponents commonly site studies where children who are exposed to lots of early reading will indeed learn to read effectively without comprehensive phonics instruction.

The key point is that children are learning phonics but it may not be in a classroom setting. Phonics extremists often say that it is impossible to read by memorizing the shapes of words and indeed it is. What many overlook is the fact that children are intelligent and curious and capable of inferring phonics rules on their own.

Spend a few hours watching any child from a middle income family in an English speaking country and you will find dozens of exposures to phonics. There have access to phonics television programs, story books and speaking toys. Parents and siblings point out letters and sounds to inquisitive children. Soon children naturally start to decode letters and words they see into sounds.

Have you every watched a young child navigate the text heavy menus on video game consoles? Children start to understand the meaning of words and how to read them just by trial and error. They see the names of popular characters and soon make connections between the first letter sounds and other words starting with that same letter. That is phonics.

Why do Lower Income Children have Problems Reading?

In virtually all reading studies, income is the directly correlated with reading ability. In fact, it is almost always the primary determinant. Richer kids read better than poorer children at all age groups. The reason for this discrepancy is simple, rich kids have far more exposure to reading material and therefore have better developed reading skills. Included in those skills is phonetic decoding ability. Basically practice makes perfect. Lower income children don’t have the same access to story books, educational TV programs, software, and learning toys. Perhaps most importantly, poorer children don’t have parents with the time or interest to read to them, answer questions and point out words and letters like economically stable parents can.

For children who have missed out on the massive letter and reading exposure of their wealthier peers, intensive and explicit phonics instruction in public schools is necessary to develop reading skills. These children simply don’t have enough opportunities to read so will require direct phonics training to develop basic level skills.

EFL Students are Similar to Low Income Native English Speakers

Students that are trying to learn English in a non-English speaking environment are also at a disadvantage. Children studying English in foreign countries are typically wealthier so the lack of English exposure is not income related but more obvious. They don’t have the same oral knowledge of the English language and they have no where near the quantity of reading exposure to formulate phonics rules on their own.

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students and disadvantaged native English children have the same problem; not enough exposure to written text and reading materials. In most cases, both groups of children will have almost zero English reading exposure. It is no surprise that children who don’t read, can’t read. That is like trying to learn to play the piano without playing the piano.

Phonics is the Solution

For children who haven’t had the massive reading exposure early in their lives, direct phonics instruction is an extremely effective method of providing the base reading skills. With phonics training, the indecipherable scribbles on a page start having meaning and kids can begin to see the power of reading. As a teacher, it is a very powerful experience to see children finally begin to make sense of written text. It is as if a light bulb is turned on inside their heads.

Phonics isn’t the Only Solution

Phonics is clearly important. The argument shouldn’t be ‘phonics or no phonics.’ Teachers and parents should consider how much phonetic decoding skills children have acquired prior to formal classroom training. Putting all children through boring phonics drills can keep more developed children from progressing to real, interesting reading experiences. “An angry ant” stories just don’t compete against visually stimulating television and video games. Phonics training can definitely benefit children with weaker reading skills, but we shouldn’t hold back higher level students from real reading opportunities just because they haven’t had formal phonics training. If we go back to the piano example, that would be like stopping children from playing their favourite songs because they haven’t memorized all the music scales yet.

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Free ESL/EFL Flash Cards for Kids: Have

Download the Free HAVE flash card set HERE. (Right click and choose “Save As”)

There are 26 cards in total. In addition to the question card shown in the image on this page, there are 25 objects that children may or may not possess. All the objects have the indefinite article ‘a’ in red to high light that it is a single object. (Articles are not used in many languages.) “A snake” is included as a joke.

In question games, it is good to have children physically hold the cards so that the ‘have’ target can be practiced in a real context. One idea is to give each child one or two cards facing down and they each have to ask “Do you have a _______?”  to the other students.

Here are a list of the cards:

a pencil, a ring, a bicycle, a watch, a yo-yo, a car, a cat, a computer, a dog, a doll, a goldfish, a guitar, a hamster, a house key, a pet, a stereo,  a turtle, a TV, a video game, a brother, a sister, a snake, a backpack, a wallet, a teddy bear.

You have permission to print and share but please do not edit or sell.  Thank you.

Download the FREE PHONICS Students Card (Front)  HERE. (Right click and choose “Save As”)

Download the FREE PHONICS Students Card (Back)  HERE. (Right click and choose “Save As”)

These cards are meant to be printed on both sides of a heavier card stock and laminated to make them more durable. There is extra space on the left side of the cards so that they can be hole-punched and placed in students binders. (In Japan, I use Kokuyo B5 size binders for all students homework.)

These reference cards are for students to use when they are doing their writing homework. If they forget the sounds of the letters or how to write, students can refer to the card in the front of their homework binders. These cards can also be used for phonics writing activities in class. The teacher can say simple words and students have to write them by linking the phonetic sounds of the letters (phonemes) to the letters (graphemes). This is a great activity that you can do repeatedly until children are comfortable writing on their own. Remember that real writing is not copying. It is writing the words by linking sounds to letters.

Here is a larger wall poster that you can print out and put on your classroom walls. I recommend printing several of them and placing them all around the room so that all students can easily refer to the posters while doing phonics activities.

Phonics Wall Poster for your Classroom

Download the FREE PHONICS Classroom Wall Chart  HERE. (Right click and choose “Save As”)

This game is particularly effective to review words that students have trouble with. It can be used with any vocabulary set but I usually use this game when students are having problems with just a few specific words. For example, some students may regularly forget a month, day of the week or number. After this game they will never forget again.

Even though this is a simple drill, it can be a lot of fun because students always have to be on guard to wait for their cue to speak. I usually only place for a couple of minutes and then go on to other activities in the class. However, once students are immersed in a new game, I will point at random students to cue them to say their word again. Students really enjoy being challenged and surprised like this.

You have permission to print and share but please do not edit or sell.  Thank you.

Free PHONICS Flash Cards to teach basic phonics sounds.

Download the FREE PHONICS flash card set HERE. (Right click and choose “Save As”)

There are 26 flash cards to teach the basic sounds of letters. This is the first stage of teaching phonics to children. The goal is to link the first sound of the words to the letters (phoneme to grapheme). On each card there is the lower-case letter with a large picture. Some teachers prefer to have images only on the cards for this first stage but I have found that they are not needed. Young children will focus on the pictures first anyway. They will then start to learn the letters through games where identification of the letters is important. If you prefer an image only set, please comment or send an email and I will try to make a set.

If you like the flash cards, please let me know in the comments! I love feedback.