{"id":50079,"date":"2019-11-11T11:59:27","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T19:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=50079"},"modified":"2019-11-11T11:59:27","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T19:59:27","slug":"reading-is-more-than-sounding-out-words-and-decoding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/reading-is-more-than-sounding-out-words-and-decoding\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading is more than sounding out words and decoding."},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nWhen I was younger I decided to learn Greek. I learnt the letter-sound correspondences and could say the words \u2013 the sounds, that is. But although I could and still can decode these words, I can\u2019t actually read Greek because I don\u2019t know what the words mean.<\/p>\n

Being able to make the connection between the letters, their combinations and the sounds that make up the words wasn\u2019t all I needed to be able to read. It was an easy way to learn but it didn\u2019t provide me with the whole picture.<\/p>\n

As we read, and understand what we are reading, we don\u2019t just use our knowledge of the letter-sound correspondences, which you may know as phonics or phonemic awareness, we also use other cues. These include our knowledge of the topic, the meaning of words in the context of the topic, and the flow and sequence of the words in a sentence.<\/p>\n

Good readers use a\u00a0full repertoire of skills<\/a>, each dependent on the other. And a whole language approach to teaching reading is about arming new readers with this repertoire.<\/p>\n

What is the whole language approach?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A whole language approach to teaching reading was introduced into primary schools in\u00a0the late 1970s<\/a>. There have been many developments in this area since, so the approach has been adapted and today looks quite different from 40 years ago.<\/p>\n

To begin with, let\u2019s dispel some myths about a whole language approach to teaching reading. It is not learning to read individual words by sight. Nor is it learning a list of vocabulary only.<\/p>\n

A whole language approach to teaching reading is not opposed to teaching the correspondence of a letter or letters to sounds to help sound out unfamiliar words. Nor is it opposed to learning how to blend sounds together to decode a word by using the first letter\/s of a word, the end of the word and the letter\/s in the middle.<\/p>\n

But just knowing\u00a0sounds is not the same as knowing how to read<\/a>. In 2000, the US National Reading Panel\u2019s analysis of\u00a0scientific literature<\/a>\u00a0on teaching children to read found systematic phonics instruction (teaching sounds and blending them together) should be integrated with other reading instruction to create a balanced reading program.<\/p>\n

The panel determined that phonics instruction should not be a total reading program, nor should it be a dominant component.<\/p>\n

In 2011, the UK introduced a\u00a0mandatory phonics screening check<\/a>, for year 1 students, to address the decline in literacy achievement in the middle years of school. Children were prepared for the test using a government-approved synthetic phonics program. But in 2019 around 25% of\u00a0year 6 students<\/a>\u00a0failed to reach the minimum requirements in reading.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s\u00a0own national inquiry into teaching literacy<\/a>\u00a0noted the same conclusions as the US national reading panel.<\/p>\n

This view aligns with the whole language approach in the 21st century, which advocates\u00a0a balanced<\/a>\u00a0way of teaching reading in the early years. This includes:<\/p>\n