Across the English speaking world, there is recognition that there are far too many children failing to read as well as they should. The costs to the individual, as well as to society as a whole, are huge. Government reviews in the United Kingdom, Australia and the US have concluded that all children should be taught to read using a systematic, synthetic phonics approach because this minimizes failure and maximizes success.

Synthetic phonics teaches children how letters represent sounds. Groups of letters are taught in a particular order before putting them together to work out words and start to read. It treats language as a code that must be broken down and understood. The term “synthetic” has nothing to do with being artificial, or being made of plastic! It is to do with putting things together. When reading, you synthesize when blending together the component phonemes (sounds) of a word to produce the sound of the word as a whole.

Synthetic phonics teaching differs from traditional, or “analytic” phonics teaching in a number of ways. In synthetic phonics all 44 phonemes are taught, phonemes (sounds) are taught first and then the letter names, eight sounds are taught simultaneously over two weeks and children decode (read) and encode (spell) words that are comprised of these sounds. Thus, the teaching is fast and progress is rapid. On the other hand analytic phonics does not teach all 44 phonemes, letter names are taught first and then the sounds, only one letter is taught per week, the pace is slow and at best only 80 percent of the code is taught.

The results in schools where synthetic phonics is taught are staggering. In Clackmannanshire, Scotland, a study carried out shows that, after teaching children synthetic phonics “first, fast and only” when they enter primary school, the children’s reading progresses above average, and by the time they leave primary school at 11, their reading age is over three years ahead of their chronological age. This places them three years ahead of their peers in the UK. Traditionally girls forge ahead of boys in reading skills, however, in the Clackmannanshire study the boys were slightly ahead of the girls.

In Hong Kong, at Clearwater Bay ESF Primary School, where synthetic phonics was introduced in 2006, the results are exceptional, A 100 percent success rate in teaching year one children to read and write. These results are especially remarkable when compared to similar tests run in the UK, the results of which show that 20 percent or 95,000 children cannot read or write by the time they reach year eight (about 13 years old).

Synthetic phonics was introduced at WISS in September last year and has been successfully implemented with the kindergarten and grade one classes. Instruction has been a daily routine, which has seen the children reading, spelling and playing games to reinforce the basic code. These classes are currently embarking on the more demanding advanced code where the routine will be similar. Code-breaker games to support the lessons and learning are constantly being produced by an enthusiastic team of parent helpers. Other children within the school are receiving synthetic phonics instruction to improve their decoding and encoding skills. Each child’s code knowledge was assessed at the beginning of the school year and the comparison of these with end of year assessments will be both interesting and enlightening.

Synthetic phonics is suitable for every child. All children can learn to read and write through this method and five years old is the optimum age to start. It is particularly effective in teaching children with “dyslexia” and other reading delays to read and spell and is a very effective method of teaching EAL students the English code while simultaneously building up their English vocabulary.

Synthetic phonics is a small but essential component of a balanced literacy program where other components include: guided reading and writing, and a home reading program. When these elements come together then children have every opportunity to be successful readers and writers. The responsibility of teachers is to ensure that success is maximized. Despite all the complications of the English language, teaching children to read and spell is really very simple. The synthetic phonics approach achieves this simplicity and is a highly effective teaching method.

Source: Shanghai Daily, China
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200803/20080326/article_353452.htm