Alphabetic writing systems: The importance, and limits, of phonics
Written By: Author(s): John Bald
8 min read
John Bald (FCCT) Independent educational consultant. Former tutor in charge, Reading and Language Centres, Essex Education Department.
Introduction
Controversy over methods of teaching reading and spelling began with the spread of state primary education in the nineteenth century, and soon occupied similar ground to that of today (Parker, 2021). Should children be taught to recognise whole words, or should they build them by blending the sounds indicated by letters (phonics, now generally known as synthetic phonics)? These issues dominated professional discussion until the late 1960s, when two American writers, Professor Kenneth Goodman (1968) and the magazine journalist Frank Smith (1973), developed an approach using the new academic discipline of psycholinguistics in which they argued that readers do not pay attention to individual words as they read, but lightly sampled the text, checking that they were making sense, and using clues (or cues) from context in order to identify wo
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References
- Bald J (1997) The Literacy File. Self-published.
- Bald J (2001) Slimmed-down spelling. TES. Available at: https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/slimmed-down-spelling (accessed 5 May 2023).
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- Palmer S (1996) As easy as ABC really. TES. Available at: https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/easy-abc-really (accessed 5 May 2023).
- Parker J (2021) A brief history of reading instruction. Available at: https://www.parkerphonics.com/post/a-brief-history-of-reading-instruction (accessed 5 May 2023).
- Rice JM (1897) The futility of the spelling grind. The Forum: 409–419.
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Interesting article.
An interesting article and I agree that the teaching of phonics has reduced the number of children who are unable to read over time which is significant. However, children learn to read in different ways such as pattern / word recognition. The delivery of phonics is skilful and has to be interactive and engaging for the children.