Which Phonics?
Potentially children could be taught up to a maximum of 461
phonic skills. Most commercial synthetic phonics programmes
teach anything between 90 to 120 skills and an optimal number
appears to be around 65. In this context, optimal means the
smallest number of skills to read the maximum number of words
where confusion is minimised. For example, three pronunciations
are frequently taught for the letter combination ‘ch’ (as in ‘check’
‘school’ and ‘chef’’) which means that the word ‘chip’ has several
phonically plausible pronunciations. In such instances it is best
to focus on just one pronunciation that enables children to read
the maximum number of words. The skill matching conducted
within 500 Books is based on the phonic skills that children are
expected to be taught to pass the annual phonic screening test
that they take when they are six years old at the end of Year 1.
It is anticipated that they will be taught 64 graphemes and
44 phonemes which generate 85 diff erent phonic skills.
|