How synthetic phonics works

Last updated at 15:15 03 June 2005


Synthetic phonics has been described as a "back to basics" way of teaching children to read and it will be the focus of the Government's literacy review.

The system teaches pupils to recognise the sounds of individual letters, and then blends of letters such as "sh", "th" and "ee".

Gradually pupils build up to "decoding" whole words from their constituent parts, for example "s-t-r-e-e-t".

Those in favour of synthetic phonics say it teaches children very quickly how to read almost any word they encounter.

But critics of the method have argued that while children can read individual words they often do not understand what the words mean.

Synthetic phonics proved hugely successful in trials involving 300 schoolchildren in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, that were evaluated earlier this year.

By the age of 11, those children taught using synthetic phonics were three years ahead of their peers in reading skills.

Phonics was the dominant teaching system until the 1960s when new methods arrived, such as teaching children to learn whole words without mastering the alphabet "by rote".

The Government's national literacy strategy involves a combination of phonics with other methods.

Ministers have insisted phonics is already central to the literacy strategy but critics argue that it is being diluted by the other classroom techniques.

They say synthetic phonics only works when it is the sole method used.

Former Ofsted director of inspection Jim Rose will make recommendations to ministers by January next year on the role of phonics in a new literacy strategy.

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