An Introduction to the Discussion about Phonics and Whole Word Reading

An Introduction to the Discussion about Phonics and Whole Word Reading  The debate about whether to teach phonics or whole word strategies when teaching children to read the English language has been raging for decades.  Teachers trained in one or other of these methods are often quite evangelical about their particular method, sometimes to the exclusion of common sense.  In reality few children can learn to read without utilising both strategies.    Phonics   When learning phonics, children are encouraged to learn the sounds of each letter or phoneme in order to blend and decode words.  This strategy requires a good auditory memory.  When one has a good auditory memory, information that is given orally is heard accurately, processed and stored ready to be recalled when needed.   When a child knows the basic phonic code (letter sounds from a-z) they can begin to blend these sounds together to read and form words.  The advanced phonic code (where a sound is represented by a number of letters, like in “igh”) is introduced once the basic one is automatic.  When this is learnt a child has the ability to read most English words.    Whole Word   Children are encouraged to look at the shapes of the letters in each word in order to remember the word as a whole.  This strategy requires a good visual memory.  When one has a good visual memory, information that is received visually is perceived accurately, processed and stored ready to be recalled when needed.   Visual strategies are particularly important when reading irregular words such as “yacht”.  Phonically decoding this word is useless and a visual strategy is necessary.    As one can see there is, of course, merit in both methods but one method alone is not enough.   Early and struggling readers must use a phonics-based structure that is supported by visual strategy if they are to unlock and decode the complex phonic and visual codes that make up written language.