There has been an ongoing battle about teaching reading for many years. Some people are staunch supporters of the phonic method, whilst others believe that children pick up reading easily without a strict regime of phonic training. So what is all the fuss about and is there a solution or is there any research which points to the best method for teaching children to read?

Letter sounds have been taught to children for many decades, but without success in many cases, because the teaching was not systematic. In the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s teacher training neglected to teach a phonic based method for reading. Phonics was neglected and the ‘Look and Say’ method was encouraged. Phonics was rejected for a long time and many teachers did not know their phonics. They did not know the spelling rules and what they claimed as phonics was too little, too late and of poor quality - ‘intrinsic’ phonics, mixed in with story books and taught ‘as the need arose.’ was the accepted norm. The philosophy being that all children are different and one way (the Phonic way) would not suit all.  

Which, therefore, comes first, Phonics, or real books? What are the differences in a phonic based programme of reading compared to the ‘Look and Say’ method and why are some children more successful at learning to read whilst others struggle? Is the difference rooted in teaching methodology, and can we learn from successful models?

What is Phonics? Phonics is the word used to describe the sounds which letters make. For example c – a – t makes cat; these are not the letters of the alphabet, but the sounds that the letters make. By saying them quickly together we are able to form a word. Similarly the word ‘ship’ is made up of three sounds: sh-i-p, where the paired letters ‘sh’ combine to make a single sound. This thinking about breaking words into sounds is the basis of all reading. It is the foundation of word building.

The proper name for sounding out and blending words is called synthesising. However, when we analyse a word we also refer to the process as analysing a whole word by breaking it into its component phonic parts. Today we have the terminology synthetic phonics and analytic phonics.  Looking at it from afar, both synthetic and analytical phonics sound like one and the same thing; however the two approaches are fundamentally opposing. Some reading programmes claim to use the method of synthetic phonics and analytic phonics – we should be careful when using such a programme because you have to consider whether the reference relates to the simpler definition or to the full teaching principles.

Each method has a set of teaching principles. The teaching principle of Synthetic Phonics is that phonics is taught to children before they read books. Children deal with single words before they read a story.

Sound letter correspondence is taught at a quick pace (about one a day) and immediately the child is taught how to blend the sounds for reading. Blending is the first strategy taught. The child starts building words and reading them almost immediately. The child develops a sense of phonic awareness so that sounds can be identified all through the word and written down accurately. Synthetic phonics also teaches the letter combinations for blending and segmenting.  These are called letter digraphs. For example: sh, th, gr, pr, etc. Synthetic phonics teaches irregular keywords which are the words which cannot be sounded out. Words are partially blended, though the irregular and unusual parts are pointed out to the child. Initially, a child learning to read from a text will be given a decodable text with few sight words. Specific sets of reading books focus on phonic sounding-out methodology. The child will be able to build the words as he/she reads. A free choice of books is only given when there is fluency. In conclusion the teaching of synthetic phonics blends the whole word and all-through-the-word as the main strategy for reading unknown words. Word patterns are taught at a later stage for spelling rather than reading.

The teaching principle of Analytical Phonics starts with the whole word, learnt by its shape. This is called the initial sight vocabulary (‘Look and Say’ method). In the last 20 years, this method taught children to try to read a book and to stop when they came across an unknown word. They then had to try to work out the word from contextual clues. Books for this methodology deal with a sight vocabulary of key words, for the child to over-learn. Blending of words is not encouraged initially. The child uses picture cues and initial letter cues and contextual information for guessing the words. The texts/reading books have repetitive, predictable sentences. There will be a picture clue for a new word introduced on the page. Gradually the alphabet is introduced.  First the letter names, then the sounds. The last strategy taught is blending. During reading, the focus is on the initial letter to help with word identification. Teachers are often heard to say “What does the first letter say – and what does the picture show?” Word building is done, away from a reading book – segmentation and blending is done in a spelling lesson. The key word vocabulary is the most important aspect and it is taught visually – through memory. A pack of sight words is given and the number of words is increased as the child learns the pack. Word patterns are covered at a later stage.

Children need to be taught HOW to read otherwise they are lost. Guessing is not the way forward – in fact it is a danger signal and it is a sign that the child cannot read the word from the letters. Children should be discouraged to guess. They need to be encouraged to admit that they cannot read the word, because that is the truth.

From a child’s point of view, synthetic phonics separates reading single words from reading stories. Children learn the letter sounds in a non-threatening manner and feel in control of their learning. Synthetic phonics is the best method for teachers leading to optimum learning for children in reading and spelling. Research findings now show that children who are taught using synthetic phonics make great leaps in progress, compared to children taught by other methods. Children have a much better chance at learning to read at an early age, if taught synthetic phonics.

There is really only one way to reach reading – and that way is THE SAFE WAY. Intensive systematic, synthetic phonics is the key to literacy and the way forward for all. Children do have different needs but at the same time they have a common need – and that is that they need to be able to make sense out of words. When teachers drop the whole-word teaching and start systematic phonics, attainment rises not just for those with learning difficulties but for everyone. It can be said that phonic teaching is far cheaper than other schemes. Efficient teaching can get through a phonic programme in six months whilst other schemes may go on for years.
Teaching phonics enhances the learning of children and saves the millions spent on remedial teaching. Nearly all today’s special needs are in reading. Attainment will increase and the misery attached to being unable to read will shrink. Overall, schools will probably spend less on special programmes for slow readers and other problems, if we start by teaching reading in the traditional way - the Phonic way.