Today, it is not all uncommon for reading experts to maintain that there are only four methods that effective for teaching reading today: phonics, look and say, the language experience approach, and the context support method. However, a newer method, syllabics, seems to be gaining considerable visibility as a promising, even a preferred, alternative method for teaching children to learn to read. Each method deserves a close examination.



Teaching Reading with Phonics

Without a doublt, phonics is perhaps the most widely used and most easily recognized method for teaching today. Instructing children to read using this method begins with the alphabet and the sound associated with each letter. Reading begins with one- and two-letter words and blends which are easy to "sound out". After they master two-letter words, children progress to three-letter words, then four-letter words, and longer words.

The principal issue with teaching reading using phonics--and it is a serious issue, indeed-- is that the method gives children the introduction they need to pronounce sounds so that they can manage words that can be read phonetically, but it does not prepare them for words that are not phonetically regular (such as vowels). Phonics also requires that children be provided with sufficient phonetic reading material. Creative teaching formats also have to be used to keep children from getting bored with the method.

Look and Say Reading

The look and say reading method is also known as look-see or the whole-word approach. With this approach to reading, a child learns the whole word at once rather than as a series of letters or sounds. To teach whole words, the teacher often uses pictures or flashcards (or both) to represent the word. The teacher might sound out the word for the child and ask the child to repeat the word rather than sound it out for himself/herself.

Look and say reading has been criticized as not giving children the tools they need to sound out words for themselves. Essentially, the child must memorize every word rather than really learning how the letters and sounds come together to form words. Some educators maintain, however, that the combination of phonics with look and say reading can help children to tackle more challenging words.

The Language Experience Approach to Reading

The language experience approach to reading uses the child's own life experiences to teach words and reading. For instance, if a child draws a picture of his or her family, a teacher might ask the child to identify person is in the drawing. As the child says such words as "mom", "dad", "my brother Rob", the teacher writes those words under each person's image in the picture. If a child draws a picture of a cat in a tree, the teacher writes the words "a cat in a tree" under the drawing.

When the student gains a better comprehension of words, teachers can talk about and write more complicated sentences such as "This is my family. I have a mother, a father, and a brother named Rob".

Some educators recommend making a little book out of the child's drawings. This personalized book could then be filled with pages that the child can automatically "read" if only because that child is the author of the book. Teachers can also encourage students to trace over the words they've written to begin early writing experiences.

Many educators use this method as a means to introduce children to reading even before they begin teaching reading using phonics, the look and say, or any other reading method. This is a useful technique to help children appreciate the connection between the images and words that appear on the pages of a book and to aid them as they begin recognizing simple words. Unfortunately, the method seems to be limited to teaching children only how to read concrete nouns—-those that represent physical objects that can be drawn or photographed. Verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles, prepositions and nouns that don't have a common physical representation cannot be accommodated by the language experience approach for learning to read.

The Context Support Method

As with the language experience approach to reading, the context support method uses the associative connection between pictures and words to attract and hold the attention of the student. Although this is a position that is not widely accepted, some educators nevertheless believe that holding a child's attention may be the single most important factor in learning to read. A disinterested child is less likely to pay attention long enough to learn the material. Obviously, an interested child is likely to be more interested in learning.

Parents sometimes can be heard complaining that there is little material available for their children to read, especially once their boys move past the early reading stage. Toddler boys and girls are often presented with reading material geared toward their particular interests, such as boats and robots for boys and dolls for girls. However, some professionals note that the relative disinterest that many boys eventually develop in reading could be attributed to the relative paucity of reading materials that interest them. Therefore, after the initial boost that boys get in the early reading stages, there might not be nearly enough context support for them to continue to read for pleasure.

Using Syllabics to Teach Vowel Sounds

One of the major criticisms of using phonetics to teach reading is that the method addresses consonant sounds far better than it does vowel sounds. For instance, the letter "b" is pronounced the same way, whether the word it is used in is "bite" or "bit". However, using those same two words, the letter "i" can be either "short" or "long". This discrepancy in sound "rules" makes it especially difficult for early readers to understand how they should handle the pronunciation of vowels.

Syllabics teaches both consonant sounds and vowel sounds in a way that enables children to master them both properly. Syllabics teaches children the consonant sounds and the main consonant blends, and then teaches them how to tackle the sounds made by vowels. Rather than rely on rote-memorization, syllabics uses "rules" or "letter codes" to teach children how to read just about any word except those that does not follow general English conventions.

At the end of the day,no one method is yet viewed as being the cure-all, be-all for teaching reading to every student. Educators today typically use a combination of methods geared toward the specific needs of the individual child. Choosing the program that is best for each child requires an understanding of the strength and weaknesses of the methods available as well as a deep appreciation of what works best for the child.