Is it uesful to learn a method called Phonics? Nowadays students in the primary school learn English by Phonics. That means we don't learn International Phonetic Alphabet any more. For example, we learn the letter "a" (cat,bag)which pronounces /æ/, a-e(cake, make) pronounces /eɪ/ , i-e (kite,five) pronounces /aɪ/. As a teacher,we are not allowed to teach International Phonetic Alphabet. But I think not every letter or letter group pronounces the same in the words. That confuesd me a lot. What do you think of that? PS:we are not allowed to teach IPA in class. we just can use Phonics to teach. Actually students cannot read the new words alone unless follow teachers.