Systematic Synthetic Phonics
Introduction
Synthetic phonic is a system of teaching where children are taught to decode words by their sounds instead of recognizing the whole word. It is practiced in the early years of teaching. The words are divided into the smallest sound units called phonemes and the children are shown how to master the letters (graphemes) that represent the phonemes and use them to make words. For example in the word street, a child individualizes sounds in the word street as follows s-t-r-ee-t to make a word. A sound can have more than one spelling. After the children have learned synthetic phonic, they are ready to read books (GOV.UK. 2010).
Application of Systematic Synthetic Phonics
Over the years, the use of this form of teaching has been controversial with scholars, teachers, governments and parents. According to Professor Andrew Lambirth, who is a professor of education at the University of Greenwich some children need to be exposed to more phonics than other kids. To him, English posed a great challenge in teaching synthetic phonic because the language is not written in a consistent phonic way. Besides, he adds that parents and teachers should help the children in making the meaning in the words (Marie Kilgallon Associates Ltd. 2013). According to Rose report (2006), the synthetic phonics have to be imparted to children as a key approach that will help them learn to read, spell and write print. They have to be taught in a systematic manner within a multisensory curriculum.
One can associate several advantages of synthetic phonics in a child. It assists children in learning how to pronounce and make words. Some of the advantages are as follows. Firstly, the learning pace of synthetic phonic is fast which means the children hardly get bored in learning new things. It means the children can learn and remember new words as a hobby. Secondly, those words that are not regular in the analytic phonic they are regular in the synthetic phonic giving the child an easy time in learning words. Thirdly, this method has proven to be the best and transparent learning methods compared to the other learning methods because they give a logical structure of the writing system. Lastly, the children can learn those sounds that are presented by two letters as well those presented with one letter.
Various challenges are facing the synthetic phonetic which makes it loose credibility with many people. According to Henrietta Dombey (2009) the main limitation is that the system does not help the child understand what the word means but only increases the pace of which the child read the word. In addition, children are not taught how to appreciate the text because the teachers do not emphasize on the fluency.
Conclusion
Though the government is showing interest in reviving and implementing the system, it should know phonics represents only a small portion of learning how to read. However, it appears to be the quicker method compared to the other methods because it is easy to teach and provide short-term results. The key thing the debate on this system should consider is the applicability of the teaching method for example, can the child apply the system at home. However, the learning of a child is determined by many things, for instance, the background of the child. Children from families with a reading culture are said to adopt fast to any reading activities compared to other children whose families less interested in reading or hardly access reading materials. The intelligence level of a child can also determine the adaptability of the child to any learning system.
References
Henrietta Dombey.2009. The Simple View of Reading.
Marie Kilgallon Associates Ltd. 2013. Learning about Phonics. http://www.mariekilgallonliteracy.co.uk/learning-about-phonics/
Rose Review. 2006. Key Findings from the Final Report of the Rose Review into the Teaching of Reading, March 2006. Retrieved from http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0000/1175/Rose_Review.pdf
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