Our study shows that there is no solid evidence behind this method, and its ‘nonsense words’ are counterproductive
Over the last decade the way in which children are taught to read in primary schools in England has fundamentally changed. The teaching of reading is now dominated by phonics, or more accurately “synthetic phonics”, where the focus is on teaching children the connection between phonemes (sounds) and letters. This teaching of the alphabetic code has always been part of learning to read, but our new research suggests it now dominates, to the exclusion of a more balanced approach involving reading whole texts and understanding the meaning of words.
For example, children are given a statutory test when they are five or six called the “phonics screening check”, where they are given pseudo-words, or nonsense words, like “sut”, “blem” and “meck” to read. They do not need to know what these mean, but are judged to have “read” them correctly if they say the appropriate sounds. Yet this is decoding, not reading for understanding. Moreover, the inconsistencies in English spelling mean that children cannot only rely on phonics to read: common words like “the” and “she” have to be taught as exceptions.
Alice Bradbury is a professor of sociology of education, University College London
