Phonics

adaunas My son was at an Essex school, which had a dynamic headteacher who was, at the time, a trailblazer for phonics. Having had a child who had learnt with "mixed methods" and being a languages teacher with more than a passing interest in language development and linguistics, I was shocked at how myopic the methodology was.

Having taught many children to read I am always amazed that anybody thinks thatthere is one method which will suit every child. It couldn't happen in any other situation. I have seen children struggle with sounding out words suddenly blossom when they started reading whole words, children who knew all their sounds but simply couldn't blend them and many other varieties and styles of learning. As I said middle class children won't suffer the most from this because others will read with them, the children really being let down are those from the poorest backgrounds who struggle and then simply give up.

I have never in my teaching career met anyone, who thinks the use of phonics is the sole way to teach reading.

There are three methods which should be combined.

Phonics
Whole words (Look and say)
Language Experience.

Having just finished a Zoom language lesson, with my DGD, I can tell you it's not easy! I'm exhausted.

This topic has always fascinated me - I was also a remedial reading teacher for years and agree that each child has their own individual way of learning.
Also speech and language developmen is an essential foundation.
In my days there were still many parents who couldn't read themselves, due to missed school time.
These days, seeing so many people of all ages texting on their phones, young children too, do you think this helps in developing reading skills? (Forget about spelling.)

To answer Fennel's question, although I imagine it encourages poor spelling, I should think that texting encourages children to learn to read. If they can't read, they can't join in.

The reason I think it could encourage poor spelling is that people don't always write words correctly in texts. For example, ur for you are.

Apparently, in some contexts it is considered rude to use conventional spelling and grammar in texts. Texting has it's own set of unfathomable rules.

But at least it keeps people concentrating on de-coding the written word - which is a good start!.

MamaCaz

Maybe it's just me - I still can't hear a difference between 'whale(s)' and 'Wales'!

dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/whales
dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/wales

(Sorry for this deviation from the OP, but as this has been mentioned on here already, it seems the obvious place to post this. ☺)

Sorry - just looked in again on this old thread. I have to say that I can't really hear any difference either on the audio of these links. To which I say: they should have hired people with better pronunciation skills! They probably pronounce "what" as "wot". There's a HUGE difference between "wh" and "w"!
And still no-one is supporting me on the abomination that is "Febuary"....

Google isn't supporting you Bodach!
www.google.com/search?q=february+pronunciation&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB834GB834&oq=february+pro&aqs=chrome.0.0l2j69i57j0l2j0i395l3.8359j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Bodach I’ll support you on February, often accompanied by liberry for library. Also hate Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer when they say ‘And if you ever sore it’ and drawing pronounced droring.

The what or wot must depend on where you live. We say wh words, what, where, when and why, with a breath with the W. It’s less noticeable with whales though.

Mollygo, I pronounce a very long whhhhh, when say I
Wales^, totally different from Wales.

Starting again. ? I sound it as whhhales!

I've lost the plot. Blooming tablet and predictive text!
WWWales, for Wales, but Whhhhales in a strong Glaswegian accent for whales.