EduCareer StaffBlog"Rinjin Blog" | "EduCareer"Supporting your career in English teaching in the Japanese school system

Does Teaching Phonics Improve Literacy?

2011/07/06

Trends in English education tend to swing back and forth between phonics and reading based approaches. Proponents of the phonics method point to the fact that it allows children to read on their own earlier, whereas those who favor the book-centric method argue that as English isn't a phonetic language starting a child with phonics gives them difficulty in reading more complicated things later.

A recent study has come out in favor of the book centric approach. Six year olds taught to read phonetically read at a slower pace than their peers and at age eight and eleven were less likely to be able to pick out which words were not correct when given choices like "blud", which is phonetically correct but misspelled.

Of course, students here in Japan often don't have access to a range of native literature that would support the book-centric approach. Phonics, especially for younger students, can help then master basic literacy quickly, but depending on the students goals can handicap them later.

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