Dyslexia reading success

Two Sides of One Coin

Phonics and the Scribing Whole Language Learning Method

 We find a dichotomy between phonics and whole language programmes; this dichotomy is an example of the two processing styles. The phonics reading strategy can be viewed as a learning strategy that fits within the category of geometric processing. This is because phonics focuses on the details. Phonics pays close attention to the phonemes in a word - phonemes are small units of sound represented by letters. Phonics is reductive in nature; it uses isolated parts to form a picture. Phonics typically takes the bottom-up approach to literacy, adding small bits together to create a big picture of the written language.

Phonics teaches students the one-to-one letter-sound relationships. Phonics is the best engine to use to get students reading. The only problem with the phonics method is that 60% of written English does not follow the phonetic code. Marsha Bell, Vice-Chair of the English Spelling Society and author of the book “Understanding English Spelling”, analysed 7,000 of the most common English words and found that 60% of the words she analysed had one or more unpredictably used letters. In the phonic method, it is recognised that not all words fit the basic phonics model, so the standard approach is to teach kids 220 of the common or unpredictable spellings, called sight words or high-frequency words using the Dolch list. The Dolch list is a selection of pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and verbs.

Unlike words such as cat, dog, hat, and house, many of these words cannot be learned through the use of pictures, such as “the, was, then and here”. Many of these words cannot be sounded out phonetically either because they do not follow standard spelling rules and, therefore, must be learned as sight words.
Non-standard words and high-frequency words can instead be learned as meaningful sentences using the scribing whole language method. This method promotes deep learning.

Global Processing and Literacy: Whole Language Reading

Let’s look at the other side of the coin, at the analogy between the whole language approach and global processing. The whole language can be categorised as a global learning strategy as the whole language looks at literacy as a complete ecosystem. Whole language typically takes the top-down approach to literacy. A complete whole language strategy uses whole text, teaching sight-reading alongside phonics to help students read and spell words with greater automaticity.

• Phonics: Decoding words phonetically activates brain areas 1 and 2. These are the brain areas responsible for phonic decoding and phonetic spelling.
• Sight-reading (reading words at a glance) activates the brain areas 2 and 3 which are responsible for automaticity, sight-reading, and non-phonetic spelling.

The whole language strategy aims to teach students literacy as part of a whole language experience. The goal of the whole language method is to teach the student to read words automatically, without having to decode words phonetically. A typical example of this method is the point and repeat method in which a student learns the word by association. The teacher/ parent says and points to a word and the student repeats it; the student thus learns the word as a whole symbol or a sight word.

This word association technique can explain why a student can often read a word in one instance and not another. When this happens, the parent/ teacher often prompts the student with clues to help the student recall. Prompting the student is all well and good in the short-term, but for long-term success and word recognition, a better strategy would be for the student to deconstruct the word into its smaller components phonetically; this can be done whether the word is spelt phonetically or not. The student basically learns to extend the basic phonetic principle to include greater combinations of letters or phonetic correspondences, such as the “f” sound (in frog) which can be imitated by the “ph” (in phone). Other words need to be learned through memory and practical repetition/application.

 This kind of associative reading explains why a toddler may be able to recognise a word like “McDonald's” by sight, but they can't spell it; they may only recognise the word in particular situations or when it is seen in its graphic or logo form. This is why phonics training is necessary. It gives students the ability to decode and encode words.

Sight-Reading: A Whole Language Strategy

Sight-reading develops the student’s graphic memory in the occipital lobe reading area 3. This is especially true when sub vocalisation is omitted. This is because sub vocalisation activates reading area 1 which is responsible for phonic decoding. Sight-reading can be seen as a kind of photographic reading technique. In the early stages of development, the reader looks at a word and the meaning is acquired relatively quickly compared to the verbal phonetic decoding strategy where there’s more of a time delay in mental processing.

The Incomplete Whole Language Strategy

The goal of the whole language method is for the student to develop a big picture of literacy through reading the whole text. In some whole language approaches, words are learned in the same way that sight-words are learned. Words or spellings are learned as one graphic picture. At worst, words are learned alphabetically which presents a big memory problem for the student as the English language consists of 171,476 words to learn.
This is the problem with an incomplete whole language method. Whole language methods that exclude phonics do not give students the tools to decode and encode (spell) words. The true definition of whole language learning does what it says on the can: it’s a whole new, completely different literacy method. It’s a literacy strategy that includes conventional phonics training and instruction as the backbone of learning to read.

The whole language and phonics approaches are two sides of one literacy coin. The truth is that literacy is the result of using both strategies. The whole language method is a natural part of reading and writing using complete whole texts such as books to support reading and writing. The benefit is that students learn more than just isolated words from a list. Students can explore and learn new words, spelling structures, technical aspects, stories, meanings, thoughts, theories, feelings, and ideas within the text. Whole language in its true form is meant to be a complete package, containing:

•  Knowledge of phonics: exercising and expanding phonetic knowledge
•  Readin: exposure to the whole text
•  Writing: creating content
•  Review and refinement: correction and self-correction

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