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Can phonics be a vote winner?

MPs were so impressed by a study showing that pupils did well when taught to read the old-fashioned way that they recommended a large trial. Now the subject is an election issue.

Hilary Wilce
Wednesday 13 April 2005 19:00 EDT
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One in five children still leaves primary school unable to read and write to an adequate standard - and for the Tories this depressing figure is an election gift from heaven.

One in five children still leaves primary school unable to read and write to an adequate standard - and for the Tories this depressing figure is an election gift from heaven.

Last week, they seized on a report on England's poor reading record from the Education and Skills Select Committee as clear evidence of the Government's failure to make headway with even basic education. And they seized on the report's pointers towards a possible solution, too. With alacrity, Tim Collins, shadow Education Secretary, grabbed the idea and ran with it, declaring that under a Conservative government all children would learn to read using the straightforward, old-fashioned system of learning to build up letter sounds into words - as in c-a-t makes cat.

"We are determined to make sure that every child capable of learning does so before leaving primary school and we will not allow failed Sixties theories or 21st-century political correctness to stop us," he said.

This system, technically known as synthetic phonics, has been around for years, but fell out of favour during the 1960s, when enthusiasm for other ways of learning to read, including using so-called "real books", came into vogue .

But now a study in Scotland has shown that children leap ahead when given a good grounding in phonics, and the results so impressed MPs on the select committee that they are now recommending that a trial of the method be set up in England.

However, the Tories see no reason for further research and are pledging that all children will learn this way when they come to power. Nick Gibb, MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton and a member of the committee, has already written to all directors of education in England directing their attention to the Scottish results.

Champions of phonics agree. "Just how much research do you need to be able to say that it is better for children to be able to put sounds together than not?" asks Ruth Miskin, a former primary head who got all the children in her east London primary school reading well, even though many were not English speakers. "You teach letter sounds, build up blends, then give them sentences they can read so they aren't using up all that energy guessing words they don't know." Children soon start to read fluently and with understanding, she says. "The difference in them is just amazing. It changes personalities. You've given them a code they can use."

In Clackmannanshire, 300 children, many from poor backgrounds, were given 16 weeks' of phonics training when they started school. They shot ahead, and even seven years later, with no further training, their ability to recognise words was still three-and-a-half years ahead of their age. Boys, who often struggle to read, did better than girls, and disadvantaged children also benefited.

"The results are remarkable," says Rhona Johnston, a professor of psychology at the University of Hull and one of the authors of the study. "We have found a method that significantly reduces the long tail of underachievement. It's also had a huge impact on spelling. The children are 18 months ahead here, and - again - the boys are ahead of the girls. Our study finished six years ago. The effectiveness of this has been known for some time. I've been surprised there hasn't been a debate about it before. It's as if there's a feeling that what happens in Scotland isn't somehow relevant to England."

But not everyone agrees that phonics are fantastic. "If you are looking for a magic bullet, there just isn't one," warns the literacy consultant Sue Palmer, who points out that, because of different school intake systems, the Scottish children were a crucial six months older than their English counterparts. "Children are different, teachers are different, parents are different, schools are different. I have no problem with children learning phonics, but many children are now coming to school with very poor language and listening skills. They need to get a feeling for language, with stories and singing and rhymes before they do anything else."

Kate Ruttle, a special needs teacher and a writer and editor of children's books, agrees. "Phonics is essential as a strategy for reading and spelling, but some kids don't get it, and if you only do phonics you're in danger of creating a barrier," she says. "I haven't come across many teachers who feel that at the end of reception class all their children have got phonics."

Other critics point out that, although the Clackmannanshire study showed that 11-year-olds had leapt ahead in their ability to read, their understanding of what they were reading was only a few months ahead of English children's. This is critical, they say, because international reading studies actually show that the main problem with English children's reading is not their level of attainment -- which compared to other countries is high -- but their plummeting ability to enjoy what they read. If a phonics approach were to emphasise decoding skills at the expense of encouraging children to relish reading, this could get worse.

Today's children are taught to read in a range of ways. They do an increasing amount of phonics, but also learn to guess words from their context in a story, or from looking at pictures. And the kind of phonics they do varies as well. Some will do so-called analytic phonics, which starts with the whole word and then breaks it down into some of its sounds - "street" is made up of "str - eet", for example - while others study synthetic phonics, which starts with the smallest possible sounds and builds words up from them - "s-t-r-e-e-t" makes "street".

Critics say this is an unhealthy mishmash, dating back to when the national literacy strategy was put together, when every lobby group had its say. But children's results since the strategy was introduced seven years ago have gone up by 16 per cent, with 83 per cent of 11-year-olds reaching the required reading standard last year.

"There's this great moral panic about teaching reading, and the assumption is that we do it badly, but it just isn't true," says Henrietta Dombey, a professor of literature in primary education at the University of Brighton. She points out that the complexities of English spelling mean that in all English-speaking countries there are more children who struggle to read than in, say, Spanish-speaking ones, while poor reading levels at the bottom of the spectrum are directly related to disadvantage and reflect the fact that our society is more socially divided than others.

"Phonics on its own won't do it. In fact, whenever you have a special study like this, you must always look at what else is going on that is not a part of the core programme - more books, more attention, smaller groups and so on. The findings need to be looked at much more fully."

Which is exactly why the MPs have recommended a large-scale trial rather than altering teaching policy wholesale. The committee chairman, Barry Sheerman, emphasises that one shining example does not mean that phonics would be a success everywhere.

And even passionate phonics supporters agree that if the system is taught half-heartedly, it is likely to be no better than any other. "Of course you can do it badly," says Miskin. "You can have sloppy sounds and clunky books, and have children who are bored out of their brains."

For that reason, another section of the select committee's report is crucial. It has harsh words for the poor training that teachers receive in how to teach reading, and calls for urgent improvements both for trainees and teachers already working in schools.

Professor Dombey argues that her university and similar ones "do as good a job as we can in the time available, but we would do an even better job if we had more time to do it in."

But Ruttle says: "There are undoubtedly still some training centres where staff grew up with the 'real books' movement and are ideologically opposed to phonics." So the Tories may well find that it is not as simple as it seems.

While the evidence in favour of synthetic phonics is clearly growing, much will depend on how exactly children are taught it.

The history

1898 The phonics programme devised by Nellie Dale becomes popular in the UK and USA, following the development of phonics in the mid-19th century

1920s one-word flash cards become the rage

1960s Janet-and-John reading books take centre stage

1970s Frank Smith's books saying reading emerges naturally become influential

1989 National English curriculum published, emphasising a variety of approaches

1992 Curriculum rewritten with more phonics

1997 Dr Bonnie Macmillan publishes Why Schoolchildren Can't Read

1998 National Literary Strategy emphasises a structured approach to teaching reading, with some phonics; half of all schools ignore phonics

1999 The DfES publishes phonics materials for teachers

2001 Ofsted finds that teaching of phonics is weak

2004 A six-year study in a Gloucestershire primary school shows phonics substantially boosts boys' achievements

2005 A report on a seven-year synthetic phonics study in Scotland shows success with all children, particularly boys and disadvantaged pupils. The Education Committee in the Commons asks for a widespread trial

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