Phonics and Beginning Reading offers an overview of phonics within the context of theories of reading. It shows how phonics can be an exceptionally valuable tool in helping children learn to read as part of a balanced reading programme. In addition to providing a mapping between the letters of English and how they are pronounced using standard Internatiional Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols, the book shows how these rules for symbolsound correspondences can be utilised by children as they develop skills in the decoding of texts. Practical suggestions for the classroom are also given. Furthermore, the book discusses issues that arise when phonics is adopted as part of a reading programme for children in Southeast Asia, largely because of idiosyncratic features of pronunciation found in the region.