“Phonics and the Resistance to Reading”

This recent book by Mike Lloyd-Jones makes some startling claims. “Traditional” phonics is a myth. Systematic, synthetic phonics is new. “Phonicsphobia” is alive and well. Phonics can be thoroughly taught by age 7. Accurate spelling takes longer because it needs phonics plus more. Teach the “simple code” first, the “complex code” later.   …

Lloyd-Jones cites evidence to show that, for at least the past hundred years in Britain, reading has been taught by “mixed methods”. Standards have not recently fallen (compared to 50 years ago). There was not a golden age. During the first year of World War 2, “nearly a quarter of the 16 and 17 year olds entering the forces were found to be illiterate.”

He uses the term “phonicsphobia” (originally coined by the reading researcher, Joyce Morris) to describe the sometimes extreme reaction to those advocating phonics to teach reading. This was first experienced by Daniels and Diack around 1953 when they wrote a pamphlet in which they “stressed the importance of replacing the current obsession with whole-words with a focus on the letters in those words. ‘An alphabet,’ they wrote, ‘is a system of symbols for sounds and these symbols are written down in the order in which the sounds are made. A printed word is a time-chart of sound. The act of reading is the act of translating these time-charts into the appropriate sounds, the sounds being associated with things, events or emotions.’ …

“Dr Daniels was actually physically assaulted after one lecture in which he criticised the traditional hotchpotch of mixed methods.”

What is systematic, synthetic phonics? “The alphabet is used as a code to represent the sounds within words and systematic, synthetic phonics sets out to teach children how to unlock the code.”

In some languages, such as Spanish, the code is simple. In English, the code is complex. There are 26 letters to represent about 44 sounds. The same phoneme (a single speech sound) can be represented by more than one grapheme (the letter or letters representing a single sound) and vice versa.

In systematic, synthetic phonics these grapheme-phoneme correspondences are taught in a structured sequence, along with blending and segmentation.

First the “simple code” is taught allowing children to read many hundreds of words by the end of their first year of school. This uses about 50 of these GFCs.

In their second year, children are introduced to the “complex code” in which the same phoneme may be represented by different graphemes and vice versa.

Lloyd-Jones then addresses many specific concerns and arguments including the assertion that “decoding is ultimately unworkable because English is ‘not a phonetic language.’ …

“These critics delight in producing lists of words that they claim can’t be decoded, when in fact they can be decoded once children have been taught the complex code.”

Further chapters include Climate Change: The Rose Review and After; Phonics First, Fast and Only; Reading by Six; “I was never taught phonics, but I still learned to read” …

At less than $5 for the Kindle version, this short book is well worth a read. Lloyd-Jones is an experienced primary teacher (more than 40 years) including two headships. He has spent 12 years as a Regional Director of the National Literacy Strategy, including four years in a senior role concentrating on the implementation of the Rose Review.