Synthetic Phonics and Learning to Read: A Cross-language Perspective

For research on synthetic phonics read Goswami, U. (2005) 'Synthetic Phonics and Learning to Read: A Cross-language Perspective'.  Educational Psychology in Practice, 21,4 273–282. Available online.

Arguments about how to teach initial reading are once more in the news. Proponents of "synthetic phonics" argue that there is only one effective way to teach a child to read. In this anniversary issue, it is worth taking a step back from the polarisation of the "synthetic" versus "analytic" phonics debate, to consider the evidence base for reading acquisition across languages. Most children will eventually become competent, indeed skilled, readers of their languages, but in some languages this happens much faster than in others. There appear to be two key factors. One is the phonological complexity of the spoken language, and the other is the spelling consistency of the written language. A thorough understanding of cross-language similarities and differences in the key developmental processes for literacy acquisition is required if teaching strategies are to be optimised in different languages.

Rating: 
0
No votes yet
move over the stars to add your own rating Report issue

Already registered with the
Dyslexia/SpLD Trust?

If you are already registered please log in below.