Letter Name (Alphabet) and Letter Sound (A Field Study at KinderStation Preschool (TK Cahaya Bangsa Utama) Yogyakarta)
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Teaching reading to early learners is begun with teaching how to identify and pronounce each letter in a word. Therefore, every preschool or primary school has its own technique in teaching pronunciation as the stepping stone to teach reading to its students. KinderStation Preschool (TK Cahaya Bangsa Utama) Yogyakarta is one of preschools in Yogyakarta that teaches the students to recognize letter names visually and to pronounce the letter using letter sounds. The students learn to read based on phonics approach, especially analytic phonics, and the goals of teaching reading here is to develop automatic word recognition (fluency). Meanwhile, this study aims to describe the application of phonics in that school. Thus, field study (observation and interview) and library study are utilized. The employment of analytic phonics covers three points; they are the learning materials, the learning media, and the learning process applied in KinderStation Preschool. First, the learning materials are single-letter sounds of the 26 letters of the English alphabet (/a/ to /z/), some words with short vowel sounds, words which have double-letter consonant sounds, and words with double-letter vowel sounds. Second, the media used are reader, workbook, video, word wall, pictures, and games. The last, the general main activity in the learning process is done through this way: introducing a letter sound – pronouncing it – referring the letter sound to a word or picture and emphasizing on the letter sound - asking the students to repeat it.