in the classroom
A question of balance
Unpacking the importance of phonics for early readers .
Beryl Exley interviewed by Wade Zaglas
The teaching of phonics in the early years of reading has been a contested issue for decades now .
While all teachers believe an understanding of the area provides a critical foundation for beginning readers , the ways in which it is taught by different teachers – the blended approach versus commercial synthetic phonics programs – has led to the oft-quoted “ reading wars ”. However , with states such as NSW and SA implementing mandatory Year 1 phonics screening checks , it ’ s clear that phonics – however it is taught – is being placed front and centre .
Early reading expert Professor Beryl Exley from Griffith University joined Education Review to discuss a number of points : the importance of not teaching phonics in isolation , different types of phonics instructions , the era of ‘ whole language ’, and how excellent reading instruction informs high-quality writing .
ER : How does a developing understanding of phonics help early readers ? Can we avoid explicitly teaching them in the early years ? BE : Phonics is an essential part of the quality teaching of reading in the early years , but it ’ s one of a number of essential elements . The other essential parts are our oral language because that ’ s our foundational understanding of how language works , phonological awareness , vocabulary , fluency and comprehension .
All these parts are important and we shouldn ’ t be prioritising one over the others . We really do need to be developing them in unison and developing them through a young child ’ s reading journey .
How supportive are you of a year one phonics check as a simple diagnostic tool , and do you think it should be rolled out to other jurisdictions ? I ’ m really supportive of a range of assessment tools , including phonics assessments , and that the teacher is best placed to make decisions on which assessments are rolled out and how those assessments are rolled out for which students .
A teacher comes to know their students , the students ’ background language experiences , in those formative years of schooling . It might be that they ’ ve got a different mother tongue than English . The teacher will know the students ’ interests and the students ’ motivation for reading , the content interest that the students hold about their reading , and what has been explicitly taught or incidentally taught . A commercial phonics program does not know these students and the relationship the students have with the teacher . So , the whole idea of a national year one phonics check assumes that teachers aren ’ t teaching and checking on students ’ progress , and this isn ’ t the case . Teachers have a range of assessments that are rolled out on a regular basis .
Now , specifically around the year one phonics check in Australia as it ’ s proposed , it puts too much emphasis on one of the essential skills in learning to read , thereby seemingly diluting the necessity of the other parts . It ’ s estimated it ’ s going to cost about $ 10 million , and I think we can make much better use of those funds – such as improving access to resources and the ongoing need for teacher professional learning .
So you ’ d like to see the other areas such as fluency and comprehension checked at that early year level as well ? Absolutely . Checked in the early years , checked often , and checked continuously over those formative years of becoming a reader . But we don ’ t need to move those other elements into a national assessment because teachers are already doing these assessments , and we ’ ve already seen what happens when national standardised highstakes assessments come into the early years of school .
We ’ ve seen what ’ s happened with NAPLAN , the way that it ’ s hijacked the curriculum , and we ’ ve also seen the stress and anxiety it loads onto children and their families . We haven ’ t actually seen any tangible evidence that it ’ s made any difference to students ’ learning outcomes .
Can you explain the whole language approach ? What does it involve ? There ’ s a few schools of thoughts about how to teach reading . If you think about it along a continuum , whole language sits at the far end of the continuum . Whole language was an era where teachers and educators believed in immersing children in language the way it was meant to be
20 | educationreview . com . au