Synthetic phonetics is a way of teaching children to read
and write by associating letters with their phonetics; linking ‘symbols with
sounds’. The idea being that children will be able to ‘sound out’ new words
they come across which they don’t understand. In a government data file
uploaded in 2013 they described phonics as “…the most effective way of teaching
young children to read.” They suggest that this method allows children to read
much more complex texts because once they have mastered phonics they can sound
out any word.
The disadvantages of phonics: studies have found that those
who learn to read phonetically read at a slower speed to those who learnt with
different methods. Some found that those who were taught phonetically were not
so good at deciding if a word was real or not, (perhaps since they can sound
out any word they may not have found patterns.) Research has also found that
older people who were taught phonetically were worse at reading unfamiliar
words which do not follow regular letter-sounds.
Good - what other approaches are there and what are their supposed benefits?
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