Research

After years of conflict between whole language and phonics advocates, a consensus about what works is emerging from the research:

Children need explicit, systematic instruction in phonics and exposure to rich literature, both fiction and nonfiction.

Children need instruction in phonics in early reading development, within a context of meaning, comprehension strategies, language development, and writing.

Research demonstrates that skills taught, practiced, and tested in isolation are not used as consistently or effectively as skills taught when children are actually reading and writing.

At all times, developing children's interest and pleasure in reading must be as much a focus as developing their reading skills.

What is needed is a balanced approach to reading instruction - an approach that combines the language and literature-rich activities associated with whole language activities aimed at enhancing meaning, understanding, and the love of language with explicit teaching skills as needed to develop fluency associated with proficient readers. (Honig, 1996).

Research demonstrates that in classrooms where phonics is taught in the context of rereading favorite stories, songs, and poems, children develop and use phonics knowledge better than in classrooms where skills are taught in isolation. Similarly, phonics knowledge is developed by encouraging and helping emergent writers to spell by writing appropriate letters for the sounds they hear in words. (Weaver, 1994b)

From an emergent literacy perspective, reading, writing and oral language develop concurrently and interrelatedly in young children in literate environments (Sulzby & Teal, 1991), such as following along in a big book as an adult reads aloud or telling a story through a drawing (Hiebert & Papierz, 1989). 

Developmental literacy learning occurs during the first years of a child's life  (Mason & Allen, 1986) and is crucial to literacy acquisition (McGee & Lomax, 1990).

Research-based programs for beginning reading instruction in kindergarten, gr. 1, and gr. 2, provide BALANCED opportunities that permit all children to make sense of reading. As children learn to read, they learn how spoken and written language relate to each other, and children need time and opportunity to make connections for themselves.

Research contradicts the prevalent notion that children will begin to learn to read when they are "ready". The concept "developmentally appropriate" should not suggest delaying intervention, but using appropriate instructional strategies at an early age - especially in kindergarten.

The best predictor in K or gr. 1 of a future difficulty in grade 3 is performance on a combination of measures of phonemic awareness: rapid naming of letters, numbers and objects, and print awareness.    Instruction using the following types of phonemic awareness tasks has had a positive effect on reading acquisition and spelling for pre-readers: rhyming, auditorily discriminating sounds that are different, blending spoken sounds into words, word-to-word matching, isolating sounds in words, counting phonemes, segmenting spoken words into sounds, deleting sounds from words. (Ball & Blachman, 1991; Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1990; Cunningham, 1990; Foorman, Francis, Beeler, Winikates, & Fletcher, in press; Lie, 1991; Lundberg, Frost & Petersen, 1988; Vellutino & Scanlon, 1987b; Yopp, 1988)

Seven weeks of explicit instruction in phonemic awareness combined with explicit instruction in sound-spelling correspondence for kindergarten children was more powerful than instruction in sound-spelling correspondences alone and more powerful than language activities in improving reading skills. (Ball & Blackman, 1991)

Stanovich and Stanovich (1995) summarize the findings regarding the role of context in reading acquisition. Of the three cueing systems frequently mentioned in reading (semantic, syntactic, and graphophonemic cues), the semantic and syntactic cueing systems seem to play a minor role.

Some researchers have argued that the ability to deal with the codes of alphabetic language does not automatically arise out of environmental print awareness. They suggested that young children must be helped to notice that words encode sounds as well as meaning (Dickinson & Snow; Mason; Masonheimer, Drum & Ehri, cited in Sulzby & Teale, 1991).

Without fundamental understandings of the functions and uses of literacy (e.g. storybook reading, language play, written language use in everyday practices), children may not profit from phonological awareness instruction. (Sulzby & Teale, 1991).

Morrow, et al. (1990) suggested that a blend of approaches, coupling some elements of more traditional reading readiness programs with a strong storybook reading component, may be a sound choice for development of literacy instruction package.

Various lines of research argue for helping children develop phonics knowledge in the context of reading and enjoying literature and in the context of writing, rather than through isolated skills lessons.

We do not need to teach children phonics rules if we give them plenty of guided opportunities to learn letter/sound patterns (Holdaway, 1979; Cambourne, 1988; Stephens, 1991; Weaver, 1994b; Smith & Elley, 1995). It appears that for most children (about 75 - 80 %), phonics and phonemic awareness are learned and used when taught in the course of learning to read and write. Other children can be given additional tutorial help as needed.

Most young readers are not good at learning analytically, abstractly, or auditorily (Carbo, 1987). Therefore, for most young children, it is harder to learn phonics through part-to-whole teaching (phonics first) than through whole-to-part teaching (reading and writing first, and learning phonics from and along with words in familiar texts.)

The brain is a multi-sensory organ (Lindamood) and in the decoding and encoding aspects of reading and spelling there has to be auditory and visual "match up" or integration. What we say needs to match what we see when we're spelling and vice versa. What we see as we read needs to match what we change that into as we pronounce the words for good comprehension. This auditory and visual integration leads to decoding skills for words. Lindamood starts at the sensory level of the mouth, and lets the person discover how sounds work, whether the lips, the tongue or the air stream is involved, so they can feel as well as hear sounds. The real purpose is to teach comprehension. You have to make a connection between sensory information and language, then you can move to higher order thinking skills.

There needs to be a combination of whole language and phonics in order for the students to truly succeed. Educators should strive for what is best for the students. (Taylor, 1997)

Continue to use a balance of each reading approach in first-grade reading instruction and continue to develop reading strategies that will reach both the global holistic learner and the analytical learner. (Dillon, 1997)

Increasingly, researchers are finding better results from teachers who take a balanced approach, especially with children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Scholars have begun to call for consensus on the balanced approach. It is time for the debate to cool down and for advocates on both sides to recognize the wisdom of teaching "what works." (Matson, 1996)

Phonics instruction is an integral component of a language arts program and offers children important skills and strategies for the developing reading and writing abilities. Use phonics to enrich existing language arts curricula by combining phonics instruction with real-life connections, such as children's names, recipes, mail, signs, read-along songs, shopping, rhyming poems and games. (Spann, 1996)

Compared to the alphabet-based curriculum, the whole-language curriculum showed greater gains in the use of print to represent meaning and similar gains in sound-letter correspondences and letter names (Hoffman & Norris, 1994)

Whole language students receiving a daily supplement of explicit phonics instruction demonstrated greater alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, word recognition in context, and word recognition in isolation than students receiving pure whole language instruction. Findings suggest that the modified language approach has a greater effect on student decoding automaticity than the pure whole language approach with which it was compared. (Joslin, 1994)

Phonemic awareness children outperformed low phonemic awareness children; there was no significant difference between instructional approach in the performance of children on any of the measures. Effect sizes indicated that children who started strong in phonemic awareness were at an advantage in the whole language classroom. (Griffith & Klesius, 1990)

Whole-to-part phonics instruction differs from traditional phonics instruction in that it teaches the parts of the words after a story has been read to, with, and by children rather than before the story is read by the children; and it teaches letter-onset and letter-rime correspondences rather than letter-phoneme correspondences. Yet like traditional phonics instruction, it is implicit, systematic, and extensive. More importantly, it is psycholinguistically appropriate. (Moustafa)

Classroom Implications

Research calls for explicit, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics along with early and continued exposure to rich literature and writing opportunities.

The comprehension instruction and the decoding instruction should be separate from each other while children are learning to decode, but both types of instructional activities should occur.  In other words, comprehension and decoding instruction should be balanced.

Beginning reading programs are made up of many components that are interrelated. Teachers work with several components at one time, and children are helped to see the importance of these relationships.

Effective reading instruction helps children learn to use phonics along with their prior knowledge and context, rather than in isolation.

A proper balance between phonics and meaning in instruction; attention to basic skills within context of rich literature. There is validity to methods derived from many different philosophical bases. 

As these components are translated into classroom experiences, children will have opportunities to talk, read, and write in the many ways they use language both inside and out of the classroom. Because the language arts are so interrelated, children must be given the opportunity to practice the strands of language arts in connected and purposeful ways.

Systematic instruction in reading begins in kindergarten and continues throughout the primary grades. Instruction is based on thoughtful evaluation of data obtained from classroom observations, formal and informal assessments, and samples of student work.

A new instructional strategy in reading education which capitalizes on all previous discoveries about how young children learn to read is the whole-to-part phonics instruction. The discovery that children make analogies between familiar and unfamiliar print words to pronounce unfamiliar words informs us that we should begin phonics instruction by first helping children learn to recognize a lot of print words. The discovery that early readers read better in context informs us that the most effective way to help children learn to recognize a lot of print words is to help them read stories with familiar language. One way to do this is through shared reading with predictable, engaging stories. In shared reading, the teacher reads a story first to and then with early readers while pointing to the print. This both demonstrates the reading process to the children and establishes a basis for the phonics lessons to come, making the phonics lessons more memorable and, hence, more effective. It also helps the children see themselves as readers. Once the children can read the story by themselves and have learned one-to-one matching of spoken and print words, the teacher then shows the children the parts of the whole print words. The discovery that children are more competent at analyzing spoken syllables into onsets and rimes than into phonemes informs us that instruction in letters and letter-strings which represent onsets and rimes will be more comprehensible to children than instruction in letters and letters string that represent phonemes. One way to teach children letter-onset and letter-rime correspondences is for the teacher to ask the children to choose their favorite words in the story. The teacher then writes each word on a separate piece of paper, highlights letters representing an onset (e.g. sm) or a rime (iles) and tells the children, "These letters say /sm/" or, "These letters say /ilz/" and puts the words on a word wall. As more and more words are put on the wall, teachers and children collaboratively group words with similar letters or letter strings. This helps children make phonic generalities based on words they have learned to recognize in context. When multiple pronunciations of given letters or letter strings come up, different colors can be used to highlight the various pronunciations (e.g. the /g/ in girl and go can be highlighted in one color, and the /g/ in giant and George can be highlighted another color.). As more and more stories are read to, with, and by children, they learn more and more parts of words as well as multiple ways to pronounce given letters and letter strings.

After becoming acquainted with what we call developmentally appropriate practice, we give their inconsistencies some thought, and move toward more child-sensitive teaching and the balanced approach to teaching reading that is consistent with it.

Reading, and phonics as part of it, can be taught in ways that make children feel intelligent, competent, good about themselves, and like caringly cooperative contributors to the classroom community.

Phonics and whole language learning: a balanced approach to beginning reading

From the National Association for the Education of Young Children

Copyright 1996 by National Association for the Education of Young Children. Reproduction of this material is freely granted, provided credit is given to the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Children cannot learn to read without an understanding of phonics. All children must know their ABCs and the sounds that letters make in order to communicate verbally. The question in early childhood programs is not whether to teach "phonics" or "whole language learning," but how to teach phonics in context - rather than in isolation - so that children can make connections between letters, sounds, and meaning.

Phonics should not be taught as a separate "subject" with emphasis on drills and rote memorization. The key is a balanced approach and attention to each child's individual needs. Many children's understanding of phonics will arise from their interest, knowledge, and ideas. Others will benefit from more formal instruction. There are many opportunities to teach the sound a letter makes when children have reason to know. For example, the first letter a child learns typically is the first letter of her name.

Some teachers worry that encouraging children to learn through experience and invent their own spellings will not provide them with adequate language skills. But literacy is not so much a skill as a complex activity that involves reading, writing and oral language. Ideally, children should develop literacy through real life settings as they read together with parents or other caring adults. Children should keep in mind that children may learn to read at different paces during kindergarten and first grade. This is true for all children, including those with special needs and those from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. If parents and teachers work together and demonstrate mutual respect, children's learning will be reinforced at home and in the classroom.

Infants

• Talk, read, and sing to infants - they learn from everything they see and hear even in the first stages of life.

• Take your baby to the park, zoo, and the store with you. Bring her attention to objects, signs, and people.

• Always make books a part of your baby's toy selection, even if he enjoys handling books more than being red to. As your child grows, point out pictures of objects and offer their names. Eventually, your child will be able to name the pictures, too.

• Encourage associations between symbols and their meaning - as they get closer to toddlerhood, children may begin to recognize familiar signs for products and logos for cereal or fast food restaurants.

Toddlers

• Help toddlers make the transition from baby talk to adult language by repeating their words and expressions correctly without reprimanding them.

• Let toddlers "read" their favorite picture books by themselves while you remain close by to comment. Or, pause before a familiar word as you read to your toddler, and let her fill in the missing word. This works especially well with rhymes or repeated refrains.

• Provide magnetic and block letters to introduce a toddler to the spelling of his name.

• Before you take your toddler on a new type of outing, read about the events you are about to witness. Talk with your child about the experience, and follow up with further reading to reinforce learning.

Preschoolers

• Add new books to your child's collection, but keep reading old favorites. Your preschooler may know them by heart now - this represents an important step in learning about reading.

• Continue to take children shopping with you, and let them help identify product with coupons. Let preschool children join you as you follow a recipe.

• Take books on long trips with you to encourage reading as entertainment.

School-age children

• Continue to read to your child, even if she has learned to read already. Take turns reading pages of your favorite books.

• Encourage story writing by listening to the stories children tell.

• Play word games like Scrabble or Boggle with children and introduce them to crossword puzzles.

Additional resources

Chapman, M.L. 1996. The development of phonemic awareness in young children: Some insights from a case study of a first-grade writers. Young Children 51 (2). Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Schickedanz, J.A.. 1986. More than the ABCs: The early stages of reading and writing. Washington, DC: NAEYC #204/$6.

Schickedanz, J.A. 1994. Helping children learn about reading. Washington, DC: NAEYC #520.