Phonics for the Teacher of Reading Programmed for Self-Instruction

Reading is a complicated process. It requires competence in several sets of skills including the ability to identify and recognize words which leads to developing independence in reading. This text presents the content of phonics and its use as one set of word attack skills. It should be especially helpful to classroom teachers, reading teachers, and special education teachers. A knowledge of the content of phonics is important for teachers because the English language is based on the alphabetic principle--the principle that letters represent speech sounds--to transcribe spoken language into written language. When teachers teach phonics, they help students learn, understand, and apply the alphabetic principle to reading and spelling. What Does the Research Say about Teaching Phonics? In a recent analysis of American-English spelling, Venezky (1999) describes English as a fundamentally alphabetic writing system. It is not surprising, then, that researchers (Carr & Posner, 1995; Adams, 1990) conclude that reading achievement is higher when instructional programs include phonics. Classroom teachers also recognize the importance of phonics for the teaching of reading. When a national sample of kindergarten through second-grade teachers was asked to describe their perspective on phonics instruction, nearly all of them said that phonics is a significant component of their own classroom reading program (Baumann, Hoffman, Moon, & Duffy-Hester, 1998). In its report on early reading, the Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998), recommend that children develop a knowledge of, and the ability to use, the letter-sound associations of the English language. After analyzing the research in reading, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000) came to the conclusion that phonics, when taught systematically, significantly improves the reading ability of elementary-age children. The subgroup responsible for assessing the research in phonics instruction reports that a knowledge of phonics not only improves spelling, but it also has a positive effect on children's ability to read and comprehend text (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000). While phonics is certainly critical for learning to read the English language, it is only one of many components in a balanced classroom reading program. The International Reading Association (199'7) emphasizes this point, noting that effective phonics instruction should not only lead to independence in reading, but should also be linked to children's reading and writing. In order for you, the teacher, to instruct and support children as they learn and apply phonics to reading and spelling, yob need to understand how written English uses the 26 letters of the alphabet to represent as many as 44 different speech sounds. How Is This Text Organized? This text,Phonics for the Teacher of Reading,is set up as a self-paced program of instruction that has proved to be a useful technique for presenting phonics background to readers. Thus, the text will guide you through a series of small steps to help you learn the terminology associated with phonics, develop phonics concepts, and clinch your understandings of how phonics instruction can impact children's reading ability. Brief reviews, comprehensive reviews, and a pretest and posttest will enable you to measure your growth as you follow along. To further assist you in your study, this latest revision of the text includes 13 new study guides, arranged in tables, which give you concise overviews of the letters, key pronunciation symbols, and generalizations you are studying. For example, the study guide on onsets and rimes lists 50 frequently occurring rimes (vowel and consonant combinations in the English language). To help you apply this information when teaching, a new appendix lists aFox, Barbara J. is the author of 'Phonics for the Teacher of Reading Programmed for Self-Instruction', published 2002 under ISBN 9780130265388 and ISBN 0130265381.