Many schools have forgotten or ignore the phonetic approach to reading. Why is that?
The phonetic approach, breaking down each letter of a word into its phoneme (sounded) parts, used to let every child learn to read. However, many modern teachers have broken with this tried and true system in favor of a “whole word” guessing type of reading. From Kindergarten-Grade 3 is when a student is taught to read. Many children are left behind with the “whole word” method of reading and are still struggling with decoding words in grade 4 and above when they should be reading to learn.
So why should we teach phonics?
- Most children learn to hear and speak all the phonemes (sounds) in the English language. This is natural. Reading is not natural. Reading is an acquired act. It is an invention of man that must be learned at a conscious level. (Overcoming Dyslexia, pp.49,50)
- English has 26 letters in the alphabet. It has ½ as many letters as sounds which means that half the symbols a child has to learn consist of 2 letters. (Why Johnny Can’t Read)
- There are at least 42 different sound rules that the letters of the alphabet say. Is it too difficult for most teachers to teach all of them?
- English is a trade language. There is a conglomerate of words from French, Spanish, German and other languages that don’t follow the phonetic rules. However, 87% of English words follow the phonetic rules. Only 13% vary from the rules and these are usually foreign words. (“Why Johnny Can’t Read”)
- Once the sounds are mastered, every student can read and read any English word.
So the question is, do we take the time and discipline to teach the best way to learn to read—by phonics?