PHONICS

RESEARCH FINDING:

Children  get a better start in reading if they are taught  phon-
ics.   Learning phonics helps them to understand the relationship 
between letters and sounds and to "break the code" that links the 
words they hear with the words they see in print.


COMMENT:

Until  the 1930's and 1940's,  most American children learned  to 
read  by  the phonics method,  which stresses  the  relationships 
between spoken sounds and printed letters.   Children learned the 
letters  of the alphabet and the sounds those letters  represent.  
For several decades thereafter,  however, the "look-say" approach 
to reading was dominant:   children were taught to identify whole 
words  in the belief that they would make more rapid progress  if 
they  identified  whole words at a glance,  as  adults  seem  to.  
Recent research indicates that,  on the average, children who are 
taught phonics get off to a better start in learning to read than 
children who are not taught phonics.

Identifying  words quickly and accurately is one of  the  corner-
stones  of  skilled  reading.   Phonics improves the  ability  of 
children  both  to  identify words and to  sound  out  new  ones.  
Sounding  out  the letters in a word is like the first  tentative 
steps  of  a toddler:   it helps children gain  a  secure  verbal 
footing  and expand their vocabularies beyond the limits of basic 
readers.

Because  phonics  is a reading tool,  it is best  taught  in  the 
context  of reading instruction,  not as a separate subject to be 
mastered.   Good phonics strategies include teaching children the 
sounds  of letters in isolation and in words (s/i/t),  and how to 
blend the sounds together (s-s-i-i-t).

Phonics  should be taught early but not  over-used.   If  phonics 
instruction extends for too many years,  it can defeat the spirit 
and  excitement  of  learning to read.   Phonics  helps  children 
pronounce words approximately,  a skill they can learn by the end 
of  second grade.   In the meantime,  children can learn  to  put 
their  new  phonics  skills to work by reading good  stories  and 
poems.


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