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PHD - PHONETIC HEBREW DECODING

Our Hebrew Language program is guided by Sara Rosen who created a series of books called The PHD. The PHD is a simple yet extremely effective system with which students of all ages can learn how to both read and write in Hebrew. Sara, a veteran Hebrew teacher of more than 30 years, drew on all her teaching experience to create the PHD. The program is divided into three books in which the letters and vowels are introduced sequentially and in increasing degrees of complexity according to their sound and shape. The first two books introduce the Hebrew letters, how they sound with (and without) one basic sound: ah, and how letters are written.

 

As students read more accurately and their skills are reinforced and become more fluid, the remainder of the vowels are then introduced in book three. This approach enables students to read phonetically almost any text in either classical or modern Hebrew. Book One is divided into three chapters which gradually introduce twelve letters with the ah vowel, beginning with the letter raish, which has a basic shape that helps form many other letters. It also introduces the concept that some letters have a final form when they appear at the end of a word, and some letters have two different sounds. Using a variety of reinforcing activities, each letter is practiced and cemented into the learner’s understanding.

 

Small-group Hebrew reading instruction takes place in person on Sunday mornings for all students.  In addition, each student can participate in a Zoom reading lesson during the week or an in-person lesson on Wednesdays before or after regular JLC hours.

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