Options
The merits of reading schemes which focus on phonics
Citation
Teaching and Learning, 14(2),26-29
Author
Sharpe, Pamela
Abstract
There is a controversy in Britain as to the effectiveness of Reading schemes for the systematic teaching of reading to young
school children. The central concern is essentially whether reading schemes or real books, provide the most appropriate early reading experiences for young children.
Historically, learning to read was seen as requiring a special set of skills which encompassed sets of hierarchically ordered rules which had to be learnt through repetition and practice, and reading schemes were devised to provide such experiences. The
behaviourist principles applied to such schemes prescribe phonics, identification of words out of context, coding, and graded reading lists.
More recently, the psycho-linguistic approach has stressed the provision of real books in order to develop children's communicative strategies within a socio-cultural emphasis. A focus on children, not
just as readers, but as writers and authors of stories, anecdotes and messages emphasising and developing children's ideas and based on their needs and interests, rather than the prescribed needs and
interests of adults. The current trend then, is to assist children to relate the new and unknown to the familiar by the provision of
language experiences in different and varied contexts.
Before commenting further on this debate, the merits of the phonetic approach to the teaching of reading warrants some attention, given more recent evidence of its importance in the development of children's reading and writing.
Date Issued
1994