tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/phonics-screening-test-33633/articlesPhonics screening test – The Conversation2022-01-19T13:48:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1726552022-01-19T13:48:09Z2022-01-19T13:48:09ZPhonics teaching in England needs to change – our new research points to a better approach<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441486/original/file-20220119-23-15wfesp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-boy-4-years-old-reading-1674916456">Sokor Space/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Arguments about the best way to teach children to read can be intense – they’ve even been described as “<a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=9488">the reading wars</a>”. In England, as in many other countries, much of the debate has been over the use of phonics, which helps children understand how sounds – “phonemes” – are represented by letters. </p>
<p>The government requires teachers to use a particular type of phonics teaching called “<a href="https://literacytrust.org.uk/information/what-is-literacy/what-phonics/">synthetic phonics</a>”, and the emphasis on this technique has become overwhelming in English primary schools. </p>
<p>Supporters of synthetic phonics teaching have argued that teaching of phonemes and letters should be first and foremost. On the other side have been supporters of whole language instruction, who think that reading whole texts – books for example – should come first and foremost.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3314">new research</a> shows that synthetic phonics alone is not the best way to teach children to read. We found that a more effective method is to combine phonics teaching with whole texts, meaning that children learn to read by using books as well as learning phonics.</p>
<p>Current synthetic phonics lessons typically have an exclusive focus on phonemes, and how these are represented by letters. For example in the word “dog” each letter stands for a different phoneme: /d/ /o/ /g/. In the word “teach” there are three phonemes: /t/ /ee/ /ch/. Phonemes can be represented by one letter or sometimes by more than one letter, like the /ee/ phoneme represented by the two letters “ea” in “teach”.</p>
<p>The teaching of synthetic phonics is done separately from other English teaching. Children read “decodable books”: books with a limited vocabulary of words designed to emphasise use of the letters and sounds taught in phonics lessons. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Teacher and children looking at book." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441074/original/file-20220117-21-1vs92xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441074/original/file-20220117-21-1vs92xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441074/original/file-20220117-21-1vs92xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441074/original/file-20220117-21-1vs92xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441074/original/file-20220117-21-1vs92xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441074/original/file-20220117-21-1vs92xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441074/original/file-20220117-21-1vs92xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Learning to read.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-female-teacher-teaching-mixed-race-744122482">wee dezign/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3314">Our research</a> included a survey of more than 2,000 primary school teachers. When asked a question about their approach to reading, 66% responded: “Synthetic phonics is emphasised first and foremost in my phonics teaching.” </p>
<p>The Department of Education <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/choosing-a-phonics-teaching-programme">enforces the policy of teaching</a> synthetic phonics in various ways. It vets published teaching schemes, creating a list of approved synthetic phonics schemes. Ofsted, the government office responsible for educational standards, has a strong focus on synthetic phonics teaching in their inspections of schools. </p>
<p>Furthermore, children in year one (aged five to six) in England take a national statutory test, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phonics-screening-check-sample-materials-and-training-video">phonics screening check</a>. This is used to emphasise phonics teaching and hold teachers to account. This test includes the requirement for children to learn to read nonsense words, called “pseudo words”. These could include, for example, “meck”, “shig”, “blem” and “sut”.</p>
<p>It is clear from our research that the phonics screening check is narrowing teaching. For example, 237 teachers in our survey said that they were giving extra phonics lessons to help children pass the test. The word “pressure” appeared 97 times in teachers’ comments about the phonics screening check. One teacher felt that they had to “live and breathe phonics”. </p>
<h2>Existing evidence</h2>
<p>Our research also reviewed the best existing evidence on phonics teaching and reading. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-019-09515-y">Previous research</a> – a systematic review, which analyses the findings of a number of research papers – not only questioned an emphasis on synthetic phonics but also on other systematic phonics teaching. It found that there is no evidence that synthetic phonics teaching is better than other methods of teaching phonics and reading. </p>
<p>Other main methods of teaching reading include the “whole language” approach. In this approach, teaching reading with whole texts is the priority. Encouraging children’s motivation for reading is another main aim of whole language teaching. In the whole-language approach phonics is not taught systematically.</p>
<p>Another main method of teaching reading is “balanced instruction”. With this approach the importance of comprehending the meaning of
written language is carefully balanced with the acquisition of a range of skills and knowledge. Balanced instruction combines systematic teaching of whole texts and other linguistic aspects such as sentences and words.</p>
<p>Another <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022219414528540">systematic review</a> found that integrating phonics teaching with comprehension teaching resulted in the best impact on children’s reading.</p>
<p>As part of our research we carried out a new analysis of all 55 research papers that were part of this systematic review. In summary, it was clear that in effective teaching approaches phonics teaching was connected with whole texts in every lesson. </p>
<p>One study, carried out in Canada, was particularly compelling because the tests of children’s reading comprehension showed that the approach had been effective four years after the intervention had ended. The effective approach was driven by helping children to make sense of reading using whole texts. </p>
<h2>A different approach</h2>
<p>We found that England’s emphasis on synthetic phonics is different compared to high performing English language countries in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests. None of these other countries mandate synthetic phonics.</p>
<p>Canada has consistently performed the best of English language dominant nations in the PISA tests. Canada’s approach at national and state level is very different from England’s because it emphasises whole texts, and phonics is not emphasised as much. </p>
<p>The approach to teaching reading in England means that children in England are unlikely to be learning to read as effectively as they should be. Teachers, children, and their parents need a more balanced approach to the teaching of reading.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172655/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Wyse receives funding from The Helen Hamlyn Trust; the Nuffield Foundation; the Leverhulme Trust; and The Monday Charitable Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Bradbury receives funding from the Helen Hamlyn Trust, Economic and Social Research Council, and the Monday Charitable Trust. She is a member of the Labour Party and has worked with the More than a Score campaign. </span></em></p>The government’s focus on synthetic phonics is too narrow.Dominic Wyse, Professor of Education, UCLAlice Bradbury, Professor of Sociology of Education, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/886462017-12-06T04:40:45Z2017-12-06T04:40:45ZInternational study shows many Australian children are still struggling with reading<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197760/original/file-20171205-22982-1s7m2am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5760%2C3837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite improvements in the national average score, the 2016 PIRLS report confirms many Australian children continue to be left behind.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/children-reading-books-library-450542329">wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The results of an international study into the reading skills of Year 4 students offer reason for optimism for Australian children.</p>
<p>The latest <a href="https://www.acer.org/pirls">Progress in International Reading Literacy Study</a> (PIRLS) shows that, on average, reading achievement among the Australian children surveyed improved significantly between 2011 and 2016. This is excellent news. </p>
<p>However, there is still cause for concern about Australia’s literacy standards, with the PIRLS study showing that a substantial minority of Year 4 children continue to struggle with reading. </p>
<h2>The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study</h2>
<p>The study has been running internationally every five years since 2001. In 2016, it encompassed 50 countries. Australia has participated twice – in <a href="https://www.acer.org/timss/australian-results-timss-pirls-2011-dec-2012">2011</a> and <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/pirls/1/">2016</a>. </p>
<p>In 2016, 6,341 Year 4 students from 286 Australian primary schools took part.</p>
<p>The study focuses on two reading abilities – reading for literary experience, and reading to acquire and use information. Students were given texts to read and then asked to answer multiple choice and short answer questions. Example questions include:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How does the author show you what the red hen is like?</p>
<p>According to the article, what is one way people have made the sea more dangerous for turtles?</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Signs of improvement</h2>
<p>The results show Australia’s national average performance improved significantly between 2011 and 2016.</p>
<p>With the exception of the Australian Capital Territory, all the states and territories showed an improvement. The improvement was statistically significant in Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria.</p>
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<p>The increase in the average scores in many states is due to better performance by students at the top end of the scale. This is a wonderful outcome for those students.</p>
<p>While the 2016 PIRLS results run counter to the trends in the most recent <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/ozpisa/22/">PISA</a> and <a href="https://research.acer.edu.au/timss_2015/2/">TIMSS</a> international assessments, the improvement isn’t entirely unexpected. Recent years of <a href="https://www.nap.edu.au/results-and-reports">NAPLAN results</a> have <a href="http://reports.acara.edu.au/NAP">shown an improvement</a> in average reading scores for Year 3 students. </p>
<p>It’s difficult to draw any firm conclusions about the reason for this improvement. But it’s fair to say there has been a <a href="https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/reading">strong focus</a> on early reading since NAPLAN was introduced in 2008, putting a spotlight on progress in this vital area of education.</p>
<p>Indeed, the PIRLS results provide a very useful external validation of the reliability of the NAPLAN results, as they report similar trends in reading over similar periods.</p>
<h2>The sting in the (long) tail</h2>
<p>The improvement in average scores is certainly heartening. But the PIRLS data also show that when it comes to reading, many Australian children are still being left behind.</p>
<p>In 2016, 6% of Australian children did not meet the minimum (low) international benchmark for Year 4 reading. This is only a very small improvement from the 2011 figure of 7%.</p>
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<p>Some 19% of Australian children in Year 4 did not achieve the intermediate benchmark. To reach this benchmark, children needed to be able to: </p>
<ul>
<li>make straightforward inferences about things that weren’t explicitly stated in the text</li>
<li>work out the order of events in the text, and/or </li>
<li>find and repeat explicitly stated actions, events, and feelings in the text.</li>
</ul>
<p>PIRLS describes this benchmark as a “challenging but reasonable expectation”.</p>
<p>In 2011, 24% of Australian children in Year 4 did not achieve this benchmark. So the figure of 19% in 2016 is an improvement. But it’s a poor outcome compared to other countries, including England, Canada, and the United States.</p>
<p>Despite some improvements, Australia still has the second-largest proportion of children below the international intermediate benchmark for reading among English-speaking countries. </p>
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<h2>Early identification of low progress readers</h2>
<p>Research shows that children who struggle with reading in their early school years are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26323201">unlikely to ever catch up</a>. These children need to be identified and supported much earlier.</p>
<p>This year, an <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/national-year-1-literacy-and-numeracy-check">expert advisory panel</a> to the Australian government (which I chaired) reviewed early years reading assessments used around Australia. We found a deficit in the assessment of phonics skills in particular.</p>
<p>Phonics is the ability to translate the letters on a page into their respective sounds. It’s a skill that children (and adults) need so they can <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-phonics-and-why-is-it-important-70522">read and learn unfamiliar words</a>. Without the ability to read and learn unfamiliar words, children have little hope of reading for meaning. </p>
<p>Based on the outcome of the review, the panel recommended (<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australia-should-trial-the-new-phonics-screening-check-69717">as have other experts</a>) a trial and possible subsequent adoption of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phonics-screening-check-2017-materials">Year 1 Phonics Check</a> that has been statutory in English primary schools since 2012.</p>
<p>In this context, it’s worth noting that England’s results in PIRLS 2016 – the first group to take the Year 1 Phonics Check – are the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/04/official-uks-phonics-revolution-has-dramatically-improved-school/">best they have ever been</a>.</p>
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<p>The Phonics Check is a quick (five-minute) and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9817.12029/abstract">effective</a> reading check. It’s <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/new-national-test-for-grade-1-students-to-test-phonics-and-numeracy-skills/news-story/40393c70917290ce1a0af2179a99b2e4">neither stressful for children nor onerous for teachers</a>, and provides immediate information to teachers about this fundamental aspect of literacy development. </p>
<p>The expert panel acknowledged that phonics is one of <a href="https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2016/07/rr11.pdf">five essential components</a>, alongside: </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.fivefromfive.org.au/phonemic-awareness/">phonemic awareness</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.fivefromfive.org.au/fluency/">fluency</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.fivefromfive.org.au/vocabulary/">vocabulary</a>, and </li>
<li><a href="http://www.fivefromfive.org.au/comprehension/">comprehension</a>. </li>
</ul>
<p>But of those five components, there is <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/17549507.2015.1112837">good reason</a> to believe that phonics isn’t being taught effectively or assessed consistently in many schools. For the children most at-risk of reading failure – including those from socioeconomically or language impoverished homes, and children with learning difficulties – the consequences are <a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0ahUKEwjC2_G8tvTXAhVEhbwKHU39BOQQFgg4MAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fresearch.acer.edu.au%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Ffilename%3D2%26article%3D1004%26context%3Dtll_misc%26type%3Dadditional&usg=AOvVaw0tgERYP-guTNXFATjo47ab">devastating</a>. </p>
<h2>Literacy on the agenda</h2>
<p>This Friday, Australia’s federal, state and territory education ministers will come together for the year’s final <a href="http://www.scseec.edu.au/">Education Council</a> meeting. Their agenda will include the need for a national Year 1 literacy and numeracy check. </p>
<p>The PIRLS statistics will be thoroughly dissected and debated. But it’s important to remember these statistics represent real children. </p>
<p>What does it mean to be unable to read? One mother of a Year 6 child poignantly described it as “not being able read the jokes in Christmas crackers around the table at Christmas lunch”.</p>
<p>This should not be the case for a child who has spent seven years at school. A literacy check in Year 1 could prevent many Australian children from falling through the cracks, and facing a lifetime of disadvantage.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Jennifer Buckingham is Senior Research Fellow and Director, FIVE from FIVE reading project, The Centre for Independent Studies
Board Member, Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL)
Council Member, Learning Difficulties Australia (LDA)
Associate Investigator, Centre for Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Macquarie University.
Previously: Chair of Expert Advisory Group to the Australian Government on a National Year 1 Literacy and Numeracy Check
</span></em></p>The results of an international study into reading skills offer reason for optimism for Australian students. But tragically, too many children are still being left behind.Jennifer Buckingham, Senior Research Fellow, The Centre for Independent Studies; Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/720802017-02-02T00:51:29Z2017-02-02T00:51:29ZWhy do we need a phonics test for six-year-olds?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155093/original/image-20170201-12672-16auiog.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children need to learn how to sound out words they haven't seen before.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education Minister Simon Birmingham has announced that all Australian six-year-olds will soon be <a href="http://www.senatorbirmingham.com.au/Media-Centre/Media-Releases/ID/3350/Literacy-and-numeracy-check-for-all-Aussie-schools-under-the-Turnbull-Governments-quality-reforms">required to do a phonics test</a>.</p>
<p>Researchers, parents and others concerned about our system’s failure to identify children who initially struggle to learn to read – and can go on to have a reading disability – have pushed for this test to ensure children are getting the support they need early on.</p>
<p>But the announcement has divided opinions. And at first glance it does look like yet another impost from on high – on already overwhelmed teachers. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-phonics-test-is-pointless-we-shouldnt-waste-precious-money-buying-it-from-england-69355">Some are concerned</a> it is an unnecessary waste of money that should be channelled into intervention, or that the test will prompt teachers to practise test items. </p>
<p>Okay, measuring children’s early phonics skills alone won’t make a difference to how early reading develops. But if you don’t properly measure something, you can’t properly manage it. </p>
<p>And arguments about children practising how to read short, real and made-up words is precisely what will help develop phonic knowledge, and should be encouraged. </p>
<p>But, looking more closely, this test has significant potential to reduce teacher workloads across the school system by identifying students at risk of reading failure early. </p>
<p>This provides targeted support and prevents the need for teachers to cater for an increasingly wide ability range of students as they move through primary and into secondary school. </p>
<p>It also has the potential to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australia-should-trial-the-new-phonics-screening-check-69717">sharpen teachers’ focus</a> on a key area – reading – that students nationwide continue to struggle with. </p>
<p>While national average performance may have shown a statistically significant, but relatively small, <a href="https://theconversation.com/naplan-results-reveal-little-change-in-literacy-and-numeracy-performance-here-are-some-key-takeaway-findings-70208">improvement</a> since national testing (such as NAPLAN) was introduced, this is yet to be seen in high school years. And not all states have improved to the same extent.</p>
<h2>Is it actually a test?</h2>
<p>The word “test” conjures up ideas of an external assessor and associated stresses, but the child’s classroom teacher would administer the literacy screener individually. </p>
<p>It will be not unlike the <a href="http://www.det.wa.edu.au/educationalmeasurement/detcms/navigation/on-entry/">on-entry assessments</a> five-year-olds typically complete when they begin the foundation year of school in some states.</p>
<p>Children would be presented with a list of real and made-up words – and teachers would record their score. </p>
<p>This in itself is highly informative for teachers. And it’s preferable to sending students to a literacy specialist for assessment, which is common practice in many schools. </p>
<p>After listening to each child, teachers will know whether children can blend single sounds, or which letter combinations (for example, /sh/) they need to reteach.</p>
<p>The test should take between five and seven minutes per child. The aim is to identify children who aren’t learning to sound words out well. And to detect this early before they fall too far behind their peers.</p>
<p>Many young children can give the false impression that they are learning to read, when in fact they are mostly guessing words from pictures or context. </p>
<p>This guesswork is often aided by the provision of repetitive, predictable texts. </p>
<p>It is also sometimes encouraged by teachers taught the “three-cueing” model of reading at many universities, and promoted by some government and non-government education authorities who recommend particular methods. </p>
<p>Rather than apply the letter-sound relationships to systematically decode words, children are encouraged to use unreliable strategies such as looking at the illustrations, rereading the sentence, saying the first sound, or guessing what word might “fit”.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.balancedreading.com/3cue-adams.html">Research shows</a> that the three-cueing model lacks a scientific basis. Yet people continue to use it because it is familiar and it is marketed as a strategy to promote reading comprehension.</p>
<p>While the goal of reading is undeniably to extract meaning, children who cannot accurately read the words on the page are invariably very poor comprehenders. </p>
<p>To become a strong reader, a young child must learn how to sound words out accurately and quickly. No exceptions. Decades of <a href="https://seidenbergreading.net">research</a> back this up.</p>
<p>Sounding out words is very difficult for around 20% of children in the general population, and typically a much higher percentage in areas of disadvantage. We know that such children, if left unassisted, usually <a href="http://www.readingrockets.org/article/waiting-rarely-works-late-bloomers-usually-just-wilt">never catch up</a>.</p>
<h2>But don’t teachers already do this?</h2>
<p>Regular monitoring of the critical precursor skills young children need to become fluent and accurate readers, such as identifying the first sound in spoken words, is something effective teachers already do. </p>
<p>For those who don’t, the requirement to listen to every six-year-old read the same list of made-up and real words will at the very least flag those children who are struggling and draw attention to their instructional needs. </p>
<p>Many schools use <a href="https://dibels.uoregon.edu/market/assessment/dibels">free one-minute assessments</a> to <a href="http://www.motif.org.au">test</a> these skills. These are very similar to the literacy test being proposed. The cost of the UK Phonics Check <a href="https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/2016/11/rr22.pdf?">has been estimated</a> at £10-12 (around A$20) per child.</p>
<p>The most useful tests investigate children’s ability to read both real words and short made-up-words like lib, mep, gax; these are examples used in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/532604/2016_Phonics_screening_check_pupils__materials_-_standard__STA167501e_.pdf">2016 Phonics Test in England</a> – the model Australia will be using.</p>
<p>What’s important is that students have not seen these made-up words before. </p>
<p>If they have been taught the precursor skills – letter sound knowledge (phonics) and the strategy of decoding – this assessment will show it.</p>
<p>All of us have to be able to attack words we’ve never seen before. Look at Pokémon cards featuring names such as Pikachu and Nidoran; place names such as Naringal; brands like Bupa; or characters in a book, such as Hagrid. </p>
<p>The earlier children can develop this skill, the better their chance of reading and spelling well.</p>
<h2>Current assessments in schools</h2>
<p>The problem is that the assessments some schools use don’t always include made-up words. </p>
<p>Some children start school being able to recognise words because of their shape or associated picture clue, but cannot independently decode. Made-up words are objective and favour no child.</p>
<p>The assessments of reading used, like the <a href="https://readingrecovery.org/reading-recovery/teaching-children/observation-survey">Observation Survey</a> or <a href="http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/readassess/1.0">Running Record</a> – which tend to be more labour-intensive – focus more on reading comprehension, vocabulary and fluency. </p>
<p>These are important, but if a student is struggling in any of these areas, the main reason is often due to poor sounding-out skills.</p>
<p>Children who struggle to sound out words must be identified and given extra help as early as possible, both at a classroom level and then in small groups. </p>
<p>Many parents quietly pay tutors for expert help outside school hours. Many other parents can’t afford this. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4906364">consequence for taxpayers </a> is a much larger bill for things like unemployment benefits, forgone taxes, adult literacy courses and prisons. The school-to-prison pipeline is real. </p>
<h2>How will the phonics test be implemented?</h2>
<p>We don’t know yet exactly how the phonics test will work here because the minister’s expert panel hasn’t done its work yet. </p>
<p>However, we can be encouraged by <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phonics-screening-check-evaluation-final-report">research into the impact</a> of a similar test in England. </p>
<p>There is some evidence that, in helping sharpen teachers’ focus on phonics, the test led to a greater emphasis on systematically and explicitly teaching children about sounds and their spellings. This was something our national inquiry into the teaching of reading <a href="http://tinyurl.com/d6v2v9y">recommended over a decade ago</a>.</p>
<p>For teachers who are ideologically opposed to <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-phonics-and-why-is-it-important-70522">explicit, systematic phonics instruction</a>, this literacy check is an unwelcome impost. </p>
<p>However, for many schools that include phonological awareness and systematic decoding instruction, it is simply a validation of their effective early reading instruction.</p>
<p>• <em>This piece was co-authored by Alison Clarke, a speech pathologist at the Clifton Hill Child and Adolescent Therapy Group in Melbourne.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorraine Hammond is the President of Learning Difficulties Australia. </span></em></p>Many young children can give the false impression that they are learning to read, when in fact they are mostly guessing words from pictures or context. This test will help to identify these students.Lorraine Hammond, Senior Lecturer in Education, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/705222017-01-16T19:03:42Z2017-01-16T19:03:42ZExplainer: what is phonics and why is it important?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152591/original/image-20170113-8701-mb6ut2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Phonics helps teach children how to merge separate sounds together to make it one word.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The efficacy of phonics as a method of teaching has been debated for several decades, and has recently come back to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-way-we-teach-most-children-to-read-sets-them-up-to-fail-36946">the forefront of public debate</a>.</p>
<p>This time, the focus is on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australia-should-trial-the-new-phonics-screening-check-69717">phonics check</a> – a screening tool designed to identify early readers who may be in need of intervention, and provide some indication of how successful current phonics teaching methods are. The UK has been using the Phonics Screening Check (PSC) since 2012, and now there is a push to implement a trial of <a href="https://www.cis.org.au/publications/research-reports/focus-on-phonics-why-australia-should-adopt-the-year-1-phonics-screening-check">the same check in Australia</a>. This has raised some <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-phonics-test-is-pointless-we-shouldnt-waste-precious-money-buying-it-from-england-69355">concerns</a>.</p>
<p>So what’s the fuss about phonics? </p>
<h2>What is phonics?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/36496/0023582.pdf">Scientific</a> studies have repeatedly found that explicit systematic phonics instruction is the most effective way to teach children how to read. Without it, some children will end up having <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD009115.pub2/pdf">serious reading difficulties</a>. But what is explicit systematic phonics? Let’s break this term down.</p>
<p><strong>Phonics</strong> – teaching children the sounds made by individual letter or letter groups (for example, the letter “c” makes a <em>k</em> sound), and teaching children how to merge separate sounds together to make it one word (for example, blending the sounds <em>k</em>, <em>a</em>, <em>t</em> makes CAT). This type of phonics teaching is often referred to as “synthetic phonics”.</p>
<p><strong>Explicit</strong> – directly teaching children the specific associations between letters and sounds, rather than expecting them to gain this knowledge indirectly.</p>
<p><strong>Systematic</strong> – English has a complicated spelling system. It is important to teach letter sound mappings in a systematic way, beginning with simple letter sound rules and then moving onto more complex associations. </p>
<p>The term “phonics” has been used quite loosely by several reading programs, with some straying from these fundamental principles. </p>
<p>For example, some programs, such as Embedded Phonics, teach phonics by asking children to guess unfamiliar words using cues, such as the meaning of a word gleaned from sentence context.</p>
<p>Other programs ask children to look at words (for example, <em>pig</em>, <em>page</em>, <em>pen</em> all start with the same sound) and learn letter-sound rules by analysing or making comparisons between those words (analogy or analytical phonics). </p>
<p>These programs are <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/00346543071003393">not as effective</a> as those focusing on letter-sound knowledge taught in an explicit and systematic fashion.</p>
<h2>Why is it important?</h2>
<p>Phonics instruction teaches children how to decode letters into their respective sounds, a skill that is essential for them to read unfamiliar words by themselves. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that most words are in fact unfamiliar to early readers in print, even if they have spoken knowledge of the word. Having letter-sound knowledge will allow children to make the link between the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10888438.2016.1231686">unfamiliar print words to their spoken knowledge</a>. </p>
<p>Another aspect that is rarely discussed is that the letter-sound decoding process itself is a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002209659892481X">learning mechanism</a>. For example, make a mental note of how you feel when reading the following words:</p>
<p><em>Wingardium Leviosa</em></p>
<p>When you first read these words, you probably used your letter-sound knowledge, which involved two important processing stages:</p>
<p>1) It helped you produce the correct sound of an unfamiliar print word. If you’re a Harry Potter fan, the pronunciation also probably lit up connections to the meaning of the word. </p>
<p>2) It drew your attention to the details and the combination of the letters of the word.</p>
<p>These two steps then function as a learning mechanism, allowing you to recognise the previously unfamiliar word quicker the next time around (go back to read the words again and see how you feel about them now). </p>
<p>This transition from slowly sounding out a word, to rapidly recognising it, is what we call “learning to read by sight”. Every reader must make this transition to read fluently. </p>
<p>It is true that there are many English words, such as <em>yacht</em> and <em>isle</em> that do not follow typical letter-sound rules. Even then, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10888438.2012.749879">research</a> has shown that children can still learn these words successfully by decoding some parts of the word (<em>y</em> … <em>t</em> for <em>yacht</em>), with help from spoken vocabulary knowledge to facilitate the learning.</p>
<p>Phonics is important not only because this knowledge allows children to read on their own, but it is also a learning mechanism that builds up a good print word dictionary that can be quickly accessed.</p>
<h2>Will it really improve reading?</h2>
<p>Recent National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) <a href="https://theconversation.com/naplan-results-reveal-little-change-in-literacy-and-numeracy-performance-here-are-some-key-takeaway-findings-70208">results</a> have shown no improvement in reading and writing skills despite much government funding. </p>
<p>The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) <a href="https://theconversation.com/pisa-results-dont-look-good-but-before-we-panic-lets-look-at-what-we-can-learn-from-the-latest-test-69470">results</a> demonstrated a steady decline in children’s reading ability in Australia since 2000. </p>
<p>So will more effective phonics instruction really help to improve these results?</p>
<p>Of course, reading effectively (whether to learn or for pleasure) is not just about phonics or having a decent store of single words. </p>
<p>Functional reading requires several other skills such as good vocabulary, the ability to extract inferences, and synthesise and hold information in memory across several sentences. But if your single word reading is not efficient, comprehension is going to be dramatically affected.</p>
<p>If we use building a house as an analogy, understanding text is the complete home; single word reading ability is the structural frame of the house, and phonics is the foundation of that frame. </p>
<p>Effective phonics instruction is important because letter-sound knowledge is the foundation needed to build up reading and writing abilities. </p>
<p>The phonics screening check will indicate whether children have gained the necessary skills. If not, schools need to review current methods of teaching and implement methods that stick with evidence-based principles of explicit, systematic phonics teaching.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70522/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hua-Chen Wang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Phonics instruction gives children letter-sound knowledge, a skill that is essential for them to read unfamiliar words by themselves.Hua-Chen Wang, Postdoctoral research fellow, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/697172016-12-02T01:22:02Z2016-12-02T01:22:02ZWhy Australia should trial the new phonics screening check<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148350/original/image-20161202-25689-1519wmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A phonics check could improve Australian literacy standards.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the face of unacceptably low literacy standards in Australian schools, the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) recently <a href="https://www.cis.org.au/publications/research-reports/focus-on-phonics-why-australia-should-adopt-the-year-1-phonics-screening-check">advocated a trial</a> of the UK Phonics Screening Check (PSC) as one part of the solution. </p>
<p>A national PSC, similar to the program launched in the UK in 2012, is a worthwhile endeavour to boost not just literacy standards for students, but the ability of teachers to implement them effectively.</p>
<p>Phonics is a teaching method that focuses on the sounds within words – creating explicit links between these sounds and the letters that represent them. </p>
<p>It allows children to decode written words independently, without having to guess or be told what they are.</p>
<p>When taught well, phonics confers an essential skill set that helps all readers to decode text. It can be taught using off-the-shelf programs, but these are not necessary if teacher knowledge is strong.</p>
<p><a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2005-06969-026">Research from 2005</a> found:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Explicit teaching of alphabetic decoding skills is helpful for all children, harmful for none, and crucial for some. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This teaching is particularly beneficial for disadvantaged students who often sit in a “<a href="https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/geoff-masters/article/the-long-tail-of-underachievement">long tail of under-achievement</a>”.</p>
<p>Despite these findings, no Australian state or territory has formally adopted the recommendations of the <a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/tll_misc/5/">2005 National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy (NITL)</a>.</p>
<p>These 20 recommendations strongly featured the explicit teaching of phonics as a starting point in reading instruction - not as an incidental component of the so-called <a href="http://www.foundationstutoring.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/The-Three-Cueing-Model-Down-for-the-Count.pdf">‘Three Cueing’ strategy</a> popular in Australian primary schools.</p>
<h2>What is effective phonics teaching?</h2>
<p>Claims that “<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-phonics-test-is-pointless-we-shouldnt-waste-precious-money-buying-it-from-england-69355">phonics is already in the Australian Curriculum</a>” are not good enough, as they offer no assurance about what students will actually experience in classrooms across the country.</p>
<p>Evidence from <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11881-015-0112-0">Australia</a> and <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11881-010-0040-y">overseas</a> indicates teachers have unacceptably low levels of linguistic knowledge. This in turn means they could not reasonably be expected to teach to the NITL recommendations.</p>
<p>More worrying is <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11881-015-0112-0">research that shows</a> that those teachers who know the least about the linguistic concepts that apply to phonics are the most confident in their ability to impart knowledge and teach these areas. </p>
<p>Imagine this disturbing knowledge-confidence mismatch in airline pilots, engineers and doctors.</p>
<p>The failure to demonstrate meaningful progress on reading skills warrants serious consideration of data emerging from other, similar countries that have also faced falling literacy standards in recent decades. </p>
<h2>UK pilot</h2>
<p>The UK is one such country. In 2011, the UK piloted a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/2016-key-stage-1-assessment-and-reporting-arrangements-ara/section-7-phonics-screening-check">National Phonics Screening Check</a> given to students at the end of Year 1. It has since been administered nationally each year since 2012. </p>
<p>In the absence of any other systematic changes, the reading skills – actual reading, not just phonics decoding – of UK children have begun to improve.</p>
<p>Most notably, the attainment gap between low socioeconomic status students and their more advantaged peers has begun to close. </p>
<h2>Not a magic bullet, but an evidence-based option</h2>
<p>No one is claiming “magic bullet” status for the Phonics Screening Check, but its introduction in the UK in 2012 has been a natural experiment and we should not dismiss the results lightly.</p>
<p>Inevitably, as has been borne out in <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/back-to-basics-phonics-test-to-be-rolled-out-in-australian-schools-20161123-gsvoxs.html">media reactions</a> in recent days, some opposition to the check comes from teacher representatives, who claim that it is “anti-teacher”. </p>
<p>But the needs of struggling learners are such that we need to place students, not teachers, at the heart of this important debate. </p>
<p>An approach that improves learner outcomes would surely be pleasing and beneficial to teachers as well as to students.</p>
<p>Importantly, the PSC is not a test. As the name indicates, it is a brief (and inexpensive) screen. </p>
<p>It simply indicates which and how many children reach the level they should be at. In doing so, it provides uniform feedback to teachers about their instructional approaches.</p>
<p>All that is being proposed in Australia at this stage is a pilot of the PSC. </p>
<p>If a robust pilot indicates that the decoding skills of Australian students in Year 1 are at or above expected levels, then there is probably no need for further investment in the PSC.</p>
<p>We have an opportunity to work together on lifting the “long tail of under-achievement” in our beginning readers. Underachievement is costly to us all because of the exclusion from the economic mainstream it cements. It is also not going to fix itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pamela Snow receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Castles receives funding from the ARC and the NHMRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Wheldall has previously received research funding from various government and non-government organisations. He is chairman of and owns shares in MultiLit Pty Ltd. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Max Coltheart has received funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council.</span></em></p>A focus on phonics may be the cure to Australia’s literacy woes.Pamela Snow, Professor and Head, Rural Health School, La Trobe UniversityAnne Castles, Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie UniversityKevin Wheldall, Emeritus Professor of Education, Macquarie UniversityMax Coltheart, Emeritus Professor, Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/693552016-11-25T03:07:59Z2016-11-25T03:07:59ZA new phonics test is pointless – we shouldn’t waste precious money buying it from England<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147472/original/image-20161124-15359-1cf5w85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new phonics test won't help us understand what the problems are. We need solutions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the May budget, the federal government <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/back-to-basics-phonics-test-to-be-rolled-out-in-australian-schools-20161123-gsvoxs.html">allocated money</a> to buy England’s phonic screening test for six-year-olds in Year 1. </p>
<p>The screening test, introduced in England in 2012, tests students at the beginning of Year 1 and again at the start of Year 2. </p>
<p>There are 40 words in the test, and all can be easily sounded out, but only 20 are real words. The other 20 are pseudo words like “shup” or “doil”. The purpose of the test is to see if children can match sounds to letters.</p>
<p>The Australian government claims the test will address a decline in reading as measured in international tests of reading for 10- and 15-year-olds. </p>
<p>It aims to tie education funding to this phonics test and has threatened to withhold federal education funding for states and territories that do not implement it. The matter will be discussed at the meeting of state and territory education ministers with the federal education minister in December.</p>
<p>That is a lot of weight being given to just one part of the literacy puzzle. </p>
<p>Here’s why Australia should not follow the English model.</p>
<h2>1. The impact on reading outcomes is underwhelming</h2>
<p>The phonics test has been deemed successful because the children get better at doing it over the course of the year. This is not surprising as schools are required to use government-sanctioned phonics programs to teach to the test. </p>
<p>In some schools in England, literacy time is now spent learning <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/primaryeducation/10801747/Infants-taught-to-read-nonsense-words-in-English-lessons.html">how to read made-up words</a> in order to do well on the test. </p>
<p>So the impact of the phonic screening test is clear. Six-year-olds in England are getting better at sounding out individual decodable words, including made-up words. </p>
<p>What isn’t yet clear is if they are getting better at reading.</p>
<h2>2. A new phonics test doesn’t help answer the hard questions</h2>
<p>Identifying the children who are struggling with phonics isn’t hard. It is very evident to teachers, and <a href="http://www.education.uwa.edu.au/pips">we already test for it</a>. We don’t need another test to tell us what the problems are. We need solutions.</p>
<p>The challenge is understanding how a struggle with phonics fits in with other information we have about the student – and then understanding what teaching intervention is required. </p>
<p>An English Additional Language (EAL) learner’s struggle with phonics will be different from a native English speaker who has a language-processing problem. </p>
<p>An EAL learner will find some English sounds hard to hear and hard to reproduce, just as English speakers find the sounds of other languages hard to hear and reproduce. </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean they have a reading difficulty, it just means they have an accent.</p>
<p>Instead of spending money on a screening test that confirms what teachers already know, governments should fund professional learning for teachers to help them understand what to do with the copious data already collected on their children’s reading, writing and spelling. </p>
<h2>3. We are jumping the gun</h2>
<p>The last international test of reading for 10-year-olds – Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) – was in 2011. In <a href="https://www.acer.edu.au/files/TIMSS-PIRLS_Australian-Highlights.pdf">that test</a>, England was 11th on the league table and Australia was 27th. </p>
<p>This was prior to England’s mandatory phonics screening and accompanying phonics-first approach in the early years. It was also before the introduction of the Australian Curriculum and its <a href="http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/english/curriculum/f-10?layout=1">very clear articulation of phonics</a> in the early years. </p>
<p><a href="http://timss.bc.edu/pirls2016/framework.html">PIRLS is not a phonics test</a>. It is a reading comprehension test. Specifically, it assesses students’ ability to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>retrieve information</p></li>
<li><p>make inferences</p></li>
<li><p>interpret and integrate ideas and information</p></li>
<li><p>evaluate and critique content. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The highest-performing English-speaking country in the 2011 PIRLS was Northern Ireland, in fifth place. <a href="http://ccea.org.uk/sites/default/files/docs/curriculum/area_of_learning/fs_northern_ireland_curriculum_primary.pdf">Northern Ireland was not running a phonics-only approach</a> to reading, nor was it employing mandatory phonics screening tests. </p>
<p>While Australia was languishing at 27th, the scores for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) were exactly the same as Northern Ireland’s – top five internationally. </p>
<p>The ACT was not running a phonics-only approach to reading in the early years. It still doesn’t. Yet it also consistently tops the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) standardised tests in reading.</p>
<p>So we cannot even identify a correlation – let alone a causation – between a phonics screening test and later success in reading comprehension.</p>
<p>When our government insists it is <a href="http://www.afr.com/news/policy/education/australia-needs-a-phonics-check-for-young-school-kids-like-the-one-which-has-worked-in-the-uk-20161123-gsvl7x">intent on pursuing evidence-based approaches to education</a>, one would hope that it would seek out all the evidence and consider it carefully.</p>
<h2>4. Phonics is just one player in the literacy story</h2>
<p>Phonic knowledge is an <a href="https://www.alea.edu.au/documents/item/943">important part of learning</a> to read, write and spell. But phonics is only one of the tools you need to read. </p>
<p>Being able to sound out letters in words doesn’t mean you can understand them. </p>
<p>To be a successful reader you also need strong spoken language, a wide vocabulary, a good understanding of how sentences are structured and lots of experiences that you can draw upon to make sense of what you read. </p>
<h2>5. Monkey see, monkey do</h2>
<p>It is worth understanding <a href="http://clie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Ellis_Moss_2013.pdf">the historical background</a> to England’s “back to basics” phonics push. </p>
<p>Key evidence for this policy emphasis was a longitudinal study conducted in a cluster of Scottish schools for the Scottish government. </p>
<p>The study reported improved phonic skills in schools where phonics was taught systematically and explicitly. However, the children from the study ultimately did not perform any better than any other school in Scotland’s national standardised reading test in Year 7. </p>
<p>The study did not undergo peer review and its method has since been <a href="http://www.edalive.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/RoseEnquiryPhonicsPaperUKLA.pdf">negatively critiqued</a>. Scotland itself <a href="http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/LitEngProgFramOct15_tcm4-830976.pdf">did not pursue a phonics-first approach to literacy</a> as a result of the study.</p>
<p>It seems England has decided to put all its “reading” eggs in a very shaky basket. </p>
<p>So should we be following England’s lead?</p>
<p>As my mother wisely counselled,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“And if your brother jumped off a bridge, would you too?”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Misty Adoniou works for the University of Canberra. She has received funding from government agencies to investigate curriculum, teacher standards, spelling and the orientation and education of refugee background students. She is currently on the Board of Directors of TESOL International.</span></em></p>Being able to sound out letters in words doesn’t mean you can understand them. There is no clear evidence that a new phonics screening test for children in Year 1 will help improve reading levels.Misty Adoniou, Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.