果冻影院

Government data听听that in 2022-23, 30% of five-year-olds in England were not meeting the expected standard for literacy at the end of their reception year at school. Literacy was the area of learning in which the lowest proportion of children reached the target level.

狈辞飞,听听from think tank Pro Bono Economics has found that this lack of early reading skills could result in a 拢830 million cost to the economy for each year group over their lifetimes.

A 2023 report from the听听found that less than half of children aged eight to 18 say they enjoy reading. Enjoyment is at its lowest level since 2005. Part of learning to read should be learning to love books 鈥� and enjoyment in reading is linked to higher achievement. If children don鈥檛 like reading, how we teach it to them isn鈥檛 working.

Our view, as academic linguists, is that part of the reason why so many children do not experience joy in reading is the excessive focus on synthetic phonics in early education.

Synthetic phonics teaches reading by guiding children to decode words by linking letters (graphemes) to their corresponding sounds (phonemes). For instance, children are taught that the letter 鈥済鈥� corresponds to the initial sound in 鈥済et鈥�.

Synthetic phonics is often referred to in everyday language simply as 鈥減honics鈥�. That is useful shorthand but technically speaking 鈥減honics鈥� is a broader term, which refers to all methods of teaching reading that emphasise relations between letters and sounds. Phonics, in this broader sense, also includes analytic phonics, for example. But in analytic phonics whole words are analysed, with the pronunciation of individual letters and groups of letters deduced from that 鈥� not the other way around.

Synthetic phonics has always played a role in teaching children how to read, alongside other methods. However, following听听by former headteacher and Ofsted Chief Inspector Sir Jim Rose in 2006, it rapidly became the main approach in England, more so than in听.

The government has pointed to England鈥檚 high ranking in the comparative Progress in International Reading Study () as evidence that听. Unfortunately, other research does not support this narrative around synthetic phonics and literacy.

Another international comparison of student achievement, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), looks at 15-year-olds. Here, UK students鈥� performance in reading was at its听, before the heavy emphasis on phonics. Children in the Republic of Ireland and Canada, where synthetic phonics isn鈥檛 as central,听.

And in general, England鈥檚听听鈥� as well as听听鈥� show that achievement in reading has stayed fairly stable since 2001, rather than showing the improvement that might be expected if phonics was indeed so effective.

Processing language

In synthetic phonics, children do not focus on texts or even paragraphs or sentences. Instead, they process language word by word, letter by letter. An extreme but real example of this is when they are asked to read word lists that even include nonsense words, such as听听辞谤听. The goal here isn鈥檛 to expand vocabulary but to practice blending letter sounds, turning each word into a challenging task.

Children are also given 鈥渄ecodable books鈥�, intended to help them practice a few specific sounds. A听听of a story designed to make children practice just eight phonemes, starts as follows: 鈥淭im taps it. Sam sits in. Tim nips in. Sam tips it.鈥� Many of these artificial sentences sound unlike anything children would ever hear or read in a real-life context.

To be fair, the images in this decodable book make it clear that Tim taps the door of a house, that Sam sits inside that house, and so on. But it鈥檚 difficult to imagine that children鈥檚 attention will be captured by these stories 鈥� it certainly wasn鈥檛 in the case of one of us, Willem鈥檚, own children.

This is not a good start if we wish to encourage kids to read for pleasure, as听听rightly suggests we should.

Educational researchers have argued that the government鈥檚 focus on synthetic phonics is not warranted by听. And the relation between sounds and spelling in English is听听compared to many other languages, such as Spanish or Polish. For instance, 鈥済鈥� sounds very different in 鈥済el鈥� than it does in 鈥済et鈥�. This makes exceedingly high reliance on synthetic phonics a poor decision to begin with.

Broader comprehension

There are alternatives to England鈥檚 focus on synthetic phonics. In the听听补苍诲听, for instance, phonics is integrated into an approach that emphasises reading whole texts and includes strategies other than just synthetic phonics. Children are taught to consider the wider context to look for meaning and identify words.

Take the sentence 鈥淪am sits in his house鈥�. A child may not have learnt the sound corresponding to 鈥渙u鈥� and not been taught that an 鈥渆鈥� at the end of a word isn鈥檛 always pronounced. But if they have genuinely understood the preceding sentences in the story, they have a good chance of figuring out that the word is 鈥渉ouse鈥� knowing that Tim has just knocked on a front door and that Sam must sit inside something.

And we know from a study that has examined the findings of many听听that a phonics-led approach is less effective than one that focuses on comprehension more broadly, by getting children to engage with the text and images in different ways.

We believe the government鈥檚 plan for literacy isn鈥檛 working. Focusing on stories that children like to read would be a better place to start.

This article was originally published in听on 10 April 2024.

Links

• Original article in听
• IOE, Faculty of Education and Society听