Fonix follie, aw hough sowneds ov letrs acyst lerning two reed Inglisch.

Phonics has been used in the teaching of reading for around 500 years. It is a method that has the student relate the sound of letters or particular combinations of letters such that they can “sound out” words and thus learn how to read them.

Scientific studies suggest that phonics is effective and when utilised improves the reading ability of students. However, another school of thought presents the view that phonics is too structural and does not take enough account of meaning and context in reading. Adherents of this, whole language approach, which arose in the context of teaching literacy, argue that a focus on meaning is better and that this is achieved by providing a holistic approach using a wide range of quality reading material, developing a strong reading habit and encouraging students to think and identify cues as to meaning in what is written on the page.

As is common in most aspects of life, there are pros and cons to both approaches and I have provided, above, only a relatively simple explanation of the two methodologies. There are certainly other elements involved in learning to read.

The use of phonics is problematic in learning to read English, not least because our alphabet has only 26 letters with which to represent around 40 sounds. The very richness of the English language also represents a problem because that richness in no small part arises from the vast number of words that have been incorporated from other languages and thus, for the same sounds, have introduced different spelling combinations.

My view is that, reasonably, a combination of these two approaches is likely to be most beneficial. At the same time, I would place the emphasis on the whole language approach for, despite the efficacy of phonics being supported by research, my real life experience both as a teacher and as a person, has overwhelmingly indicated to me that far too many functional readers exhibit extremely poor levels of comprehension.

To me, the ability to think and conceptualise, to recognise nuance and to decipher point of view, perspective, context, logic and more, are essential to reason and reason, I feel, is sadly lacking across our societies and all classes and social strata within them.

So, having said that, I will get down from my soap box and offer, in my admittedly poor rhyming verse, what I intend as a light-hearted look at a problem of phonics.

Fonix yoused two bee th norm.
Then edyougators kaim two sie
that hole ov langwij maid maw sence
sew nu kurikyoulum kaim two bee

Ova tyme th clok terned bak
nd olled fashons wer renude
“litterasea wos wersening, thay sed
sew fonix wos wat mussed bee ewsed

I wunda tho, if its raily wyse
faw I fined I offten get confewsed:

cats mew
bills become due
morning grass is often wet with dew
I say hello when I meet you
and people ask me what I do
sometimes I find I ask that, too
that’s one and one and so makes two
and doves when happy often coo
French people leaving say “adieu:
If you speak French, I guess you knew
every year we celebrate its start as new
to solve a mystery we seek a clue

oh, plese xcues me
faw Ime tyred ov this
or iz it thiz or thice, as in precipice?

Thairs maw eggzampels
I cud giv, Ime gust two tiared
ande ceaing read
inuf, enuf, itz tyme four bead
were maiby I kan ressed mi hed.