Reading instruction: Early reading

Reading instruction: Early reading

1. Whole language vs. phonics

   • Phonics
     • Involves directly teaching letter-sound correspondences
     • Popular methods of instruction even in the 1800's
     • A munber of phonics approaches used today bear close resemblance to those used in the past
     • Early resistance to phonics
       • Potential for boredom
         • Specific texts from phonics programmes
       • Influence of Gestallt psychology/ philosophy - holistic view of visual processing
   • Whole language
     • Focus on contextual knowledge, contextual cues thought to be as useful as orthographic cues, reading development linked to language development, linked to progressive education - active child learners can figure things out for themselves
     • Inappropriate cueing
       • By pictures - purpose is to read and understand but picture may give an answer without understanding the question
       • Blackout technique
         • Cover inappropriate cue to see if understood the question
     • Impact on reading instruction
       • Encourages guessing based on meaning
       • Emphasis on authentic literature - minimising phonics and phonics influenced texts
   • Learning to read isn't a natural development
     • Liberman and Liberman (1991)
       • Learning to read is gained knowledge of teaching and practicing a convention for the written representation of a language
       • Reading is not generally inherent in human development

2. Simple view of reading

   • Gough and Tunmer (1986)
     • Reading = Decoding + comprehension
       • Can be anywhere along the spectrum of both elements
   • Decoding alone is not sufficient, comprehension is also necessary. Comprehension alone is not sufficient, decoding is also necessary

3. 5 components of reading instruction

   • 1. Phonemic awareness
     • Recognising words are made up of different sounds, and being able to manipulate these sounds
   • 2. Phonics
     • Learning how these sounds corresponds to letters
   • 3. Oral reading fluency
     • Fluently reading text with expressiom
   • 4. Vocabulary
     • Understanding words in text through linking with oral vocabulary
   • 5. Comprehension
     • Directly teach strategies to comprehend

4. National reading panel: phonics instruction

   • Phonics-based approaches have been found to be effective in teaching early reading
   • First graders who were taught phonics systematically were better able to decode and spell, and they showed significant improvement in their ability to comprehend text
   • Assumption that younger children not ready for such instruction was not supported by data
     • Effects of early and systematic phonics instruction was substantial

5. The role of pseudowords

   • The purest measure of decoding is the ability to pronounce pseudowords
   • The Government have introduced a non-word reading test to be administrated at the end of year 1, with a view to ensuring that children who need extra help are given it before it's too late
   • 43% of teachers in the trial said the test had helped them identify children struggling who would otherwise have slipped through the net

6. Reaction from the UK literacy association

   • To understand what we read we need to have the linguistic comprehension
   • Without the ability to decode, no amount of linguistic comprehension will make a reader
   • Important skill to be able to derive meaning from context, but should be able to decode the words in isolation

7. Ongoing resistance to phonics

   • Deep/opaque orthography of English
     • However doesn't preclude the use of phonic-based instruction when teaching English
   • Prevailing resistance
     • Still misconceptions of reading processes and people failing to understand the component skills involved in reading
     • Insufficient training to deliver high quality phonics instruction

8. Reading instruction with SEN children

   • Only 50.8% of SEN school teachers had received specific SEN teaching
     • 61% had received some form of teaching in reading instruction
       • Only 42.1% had received training specific to reading instruction for SEN children
   • Over 40% measure termly or twice annually, 10% only measured once annually

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