A LITERATURE REVIEW COMPARING THE TEACHING METHODOLOGIES OF PHONICS AND WHOLE LANGUAGE ALONG WITH DETERMINING THE OPTIMUM AGE FOR BEGINNING READING

UNIVERSITY OF LA VERNE
OJAI, CALIFORNIA


A LITERATURE REVIEW COMPARING THE TEACHING METHODOLOGIES OF PHONICS AND WHOLE LANGUAGE ALONG WITH DETERMINING THE OPTIMUM AGE FOR BEGINNING READING


A Paper Prepared for the Graduate Seminar in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Education


Kathryn Schurmer
March 2001







ABSTRACT

Dating back to the early Greek and Latin alphabets, phonics has been an integral tool in the teaching of reading. In the last two centuries whole language, as a methodology for teaching reading, emerged as an adversarial technique to phonics. For decades the pendulum has swung to the one and then to the other.

The purpose of this literature review is to examine the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches to the learning of reading to arrive at some conclusions as to which technique is more effective or if an integration of both is indicated. As a corollary of this research, some inference as to the optimum age to begin the teaching of reading will be garnered. It was found that both methods have value in the overall purview of learning to read.

Phonics alone, while providing useful and essential parts of the reading process, falls short of being the most efficient and sole technique in this field of pedagogy. Whole language adds a more natural factor in introducing images, senses and comprehension. The rote exercises and memorizations of phonics become the building blocks of the whole language method. The conclusion reached is that a balanced approach, gleaning the most effective elements of each school of thinking, is the indicated solution to the polarity that has existed for so many years between the two.

With regard to the optimum age to begin the teaching of reading, research is inconclusive. Some cultures begin formal education in this subject as early as 5, others start at 7. In the area of preschoolers, one case study shows that an infant as early as 6 months has responded to learning the rudiments of reading.

Both case studies and controlled experiments demonstrate that an optimum age is difficult to define inasmuch as developmental stages, maturity and domestic environment are factors influencing individual children.








TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………. i
CHAPTER
I. THE PROBLEM …………………………………………………… 1
Introduction…………………………………………………………. 1
Statement of the Problem…………………………………………… 1
Purpose of the Study……………………………………………….. 2
Importance of the Study……………………………………………. 2
Delimitation of the Study…………………………………………… 2
Definition of Terms………………………………………………… 3
II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE………………………………… 5
Introduction………………………………………………………… 5
History of Reading…………………………………………………. 5
The Pendulum……………………………………………………… 10
Whole Language…………………………………………………… 12
Phonics……………………………………………………………... 12
Explicit vs. Implicit Phonics………………………………………… 16
Beginning Reading………………………………………………….. 26
Skilled Reading……………………………………………………… 27
Age Acquisition of Learning to Read……………………………….. 28
Three-year-olds……………………………………………………… 29
Four-year-olds……………………………………………………….. 29
Kindergartners……………………………………………………….. 29
First Graders…………………………………………………………. 30
Second Graders………………………………………………………. 30
Third Grade and Beyond…………………………………………..… 30
A Balanced Reading Program………………………………………... 35
III CONCLUSION……………………………………………………… 38
REFERENCES………………………………………………………… 41

















CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
Introduction
There have been many approaches to reading over the centuries of formal education. Most often children have begun a reading program in its elemental form by learning the alphabet in kindergarten or even earlier, at home. Reading, as a subject in school, in which students are separately graded, now runs it's course in the elementary school through Junior High, or Middle School. Thereafter, pupils' reading skills are integrated into other language and writing subjects. But at what age is it best for children to begin reading? And what methods of teaching have proven the most effective? Various opinions and studies have sought to answer these questions. It is the purpose of this paper to review and summarize some of the prevalent theories in these areas.
Statement of the Problem
There are conflicting opinions on the optimum age for young readers to begin learning how to read. In the limited research available, some scholars opine that reading could begin as early as 6 months of age while others advocate beginning only when children are developmentally ready. There appear to be biases indicating a variety of optimum ages and instructions for beginning readers. There is little evaluation of existing research showing what is effective and what is not. There is present need to collate, if possible, this wide range of views into more concrete and defined formulas to guide teachers and parents in teaching children to read. Controversies exist over the reading methodologies of Phonics and Whole Language Teaching as to their effectiveness in teaching beginning readers to read and at what age to begin.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to examine extant source material to arrive at concrete conclusions on the optimum age in which children should begin their reading. Concomitantly, methodologies that have been tested and proven most effective as teaching tools will be pointed out.
Importance of the Study
Reading is an integral part of education and an essential building block of all learning. Its importance is fundamental to all future education. Some research shows that pushing a child too early can cause psychological as well as academic problems.(Source unknown) Others intimate that age is not so important. "Coltheart (1979) concluded that whether or not a child learns to read depends not so much on mental or chronological age as on the kind of instruction they receive, the ability of the teacher, the size of the class, as well as on the ability and motivation of individual children" (Author unknown). The need for this study is apparent from the present disparate approaches to incipient reading programs. There is a polarity between those teachers who move young readers through the developmental stages rapidly and those who adhere to a slower pedagogic approach. There is need to synthesize and draw conclusions from these desperate studies.
Delimitation of the Study
The genre of this project is a Literature Survey. Available sources have been researched along with current knowledge gleaned from the Internet. Attention will be given to specialists in the developmental reading field. A comparison of literacy rates and reading methodologies will be addressed. The role of parents and their attitudes and practices in reading to and teaching their children to read will be prerequisites to draw inferences. With the review of available sources, some conclusions will be derived.
Definition of Terms
Basal Reading Programs
Programs that contain some form of phonics instruction to teach beginning decoding skills.
Explicit Phonics
The systematic, sequential presentation of phonics skills using isolated, directed instructional strategies.
Implicit Phonics
Instruction in which students are asked to identify the sounds associated with individual letters in the context of whole words rather than in isolation.
Mental Age
Intelligence quotient (I. Q.) multiplied by the chronological age divided by 100.
Phoneme
The smallest units of speech that distinguishes one utterance or word from another in a given language.
Phonemic Awareness
Spoken words comprising separate sounds that can be analyzed, manipulated, and represented in print.
Phonics
Theory in which the proper analogy for learning to read is learning music notation, or Morse code, or Braille, in which mastery of a set of symbols comes first. Beginning readers first learn that letters and letter combinations that convey the English Language's forty-four sounds; then they can read whole words by decoding them from their component phonemes.
Whole Language Teaching
Theory that learning to read and write English is analogous to learning to speak it- a natural, unconscious process best fostered by unstructured immersion.

















CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
Introduction
If a child doesn't learn to read to comprehend what he/she is reading, if he/she doesn't learn to read to render reading pleasurable, if he/she doesn't read fluently in all content areas, his/her chances for fulfilling life either by academic success, financial success, and the ability to find interesting work are practically nil (Mc Pike. 1995). Our goal is that every child born in the 21st century will read by the age of nine (Learning First Alliance,1998). Now nearly half of the country's children can not read at grade level and many adults have trouble reading the newspaper, filling out a job application, and balancing a check-book. Unfortunately high school education no longer guarantees literacy (Zaidman,1998).
Any Literature Review should survey the history of reading methodologies. Phonics, Whole Language and their relationship has been studied by various educators. Their conclusions are important to review and compare in order to evaluate them. Individual case studies also bear mentioning.
History of Reading
An analysis of reading is as Wilson (1997-2000) states :
At first sight it means that someone can recognize marks and translate them into spoken words. It is someone who is "functionally literate." Beyond the recognition of the letters and words is the knowledge and understanding that the reader must bring to the written words to be able to make sense of them. (p. 2)

What is the origination of language? The Greeks were first to have a fully developed alphabet. Ancient Greek and Latin were almost completely phonetically written. When the prime purpose of a very few schools was to learn to read Latin, the common method of reading instruction from Classical times through the Middle Ages was copying, not only the letters, but also various texts of great works. With the Reformation came the demand for reading the vernacular. Luther in Germany and the Calvinists declared that each person should be able to read and study the scriptures. The Bible was translated and books were available to many more people. After the reign of James I, Latin letters led to a mish-mash of spellings that took several hundred years to standardize. People couldn't learn the basic letters and translate them into the sound of words. "The method of teaching these many variations later came to be called the 'phonics' system which is really an elaboration of the alphabetical system used by the ancients" (Wilson, 1997-2000, p. 5).
In the mid 1600s, Comenius (grandfather of modern educational methodology) clearly used the ABC method but also showed a need to relate words to the real world. Later others used his work to support whole-word methods. Along with the Bible, there were books designed specifically for reading such as the Horn Book, primers and spelling books. The Horn Book is like an alphabet memory board. Many "spellers" began to take the place of the primers, the most famous being Noah Webster's American Spelling Book (1783). In the late 1700s there was still no connection between reading and writing. Reading and writing schools were separate (Wilson, 1997-2000).
By the second quarter of the 19th century there was a strong need and desire for change. Friedrich Gedike, from Germany, was the first person who was prominent in advocating the "natural" way of learning to read (1754-1803). He thought that the rote learning of meaningless letters led to slower reading. In his view, a child would learn to read by listening to songs and stories. There were many critics that said this system would lead a child to confusing words and not learning how to spell. An influence on teaching the "wholeness" of words was the theory of Frenchman, Jean Jacotot (1790-1840). He found that by memorizing long passages in a book students were able to learn how to read. He taught the "wholeness" of the book first and then broke it down into smaller units until the letters were learned. Horace Mann (1796-1859) brought this method to the United States and gave it great publicity. A similar method was already being used in Boston and New York. John Keagy (1792-1837) proposed a miniature museum of articles whose names children would learn and later would learn their letters and spellings. In 1841 Mann attacked the alphabetic and syllabic methods of teaching reading. He called it a meaningless repetition. Samuel Greene challenged Mann. He declared that letters have to be learned, and learning just words does not lead to mastery of other words. In the long run spelling is made more difficult (Wilson, 1997-2000).
During the middle of the 19th century many classrooms were still using the "ABC" method and a few were using the whole-word method. Many were teaching the "new" method which focused on teaching the sounds of letters. The name "phonics" began to be applied to this type of learning. Sir Isaac Pitman (1913) developed a phonetic alphabet of 42 letters for English and it was used to teach reading (Wilson, 1997-2000).
By the second half of the 19th century school conditions were harsh and crowded along with rigorous lessons. By the end of this century literacy was no longer the exception, but the rule. Stanley Hall (1844-1924) examined extensively the teaching of reading. He believed there was a critical period between the ages of five and eight when the child had both the interest and capacity to learn to read. "If forced upon the learner before this it will have long-term negative effects and if missed the learner will later have difficulties and disadvantages" (Wilson, 1997-2000, p. 1).
During this time children would come naturally to learn to read along with other natural development. Education was more hands-on rather than text-book study. From four to eight years a child would be introduced to reading and writing as part of other activities. The whole learning process was to be accepted widely. Progressive movement advocates believed that the whole word method was appropriate. A child will learn words more naturally than he learns letters. Some called this progressive movement as "permissive" and "indulgent." Maria Montessori (1870-1952) advocated enabling children to learn through the senses. John Cooke in 1900 said that children need the desire to read and then they will learn by any method. After the 1920s beginning readers used the "look-and-say" method, in North America, with "Dick," Jane" and "Spot" and Dr. Seuss books. There was a de-emphasis on phonics. A rising population of students were unable to read. "According to critics, because word attack skills were not being taught, children were handicapped in deciphering new words and could not handle further education" (Wilson, 1997-2000, p. 4). Rudolf Flesch's scorching 1955 best seller Why Johnny Can't Read turned the pendulum back toward phonics in the 1960s (Lemann,N., 1997).
In the 1960s there were many studies on the teaching of reading. When comparing the different methods, the majority supported the phonics approach. A solution to the high number of illiterate students was to again teach phonics directly. In 1961, Sir James Pitman, grandson of Sir Isaac, prepared the Initial Teaching Alphabet of 45 letters. For awhile it was used in the United Kingdom and North America. Old programs came out with new names. DISTAR (Direct Instructional System for Teaching and Remediation) incorporated intense phonics instruction, teacher directed, with constant teacher-student interaction. During this time speed reading was important. Many schools established laboratories to aid students in improving their skills in speed and comprehension. Now it had seem the phonics crusaders had won, although it did not last (Wilson, R., 1997-2000).
In the 1980's, Marie Clays's Reading Recovery program in New Zealand was an inspiration and "whole language" became the new faith. Students should learn to read by actually reading real books, following as the teacher reads, using context, pictures and known words in order to understand the print. Reading should not be taught directly. "While phonics would be taught incidentally, teaching separate language skills (encoding, decoding, spelling) in isolation was rejected"(Wilson, R., 1997-2000, p. 6). New Zealand had been seen as a highly literate, and print-oriented society (Guthrie, 1981). Many practices associated with whole language approaches to literacy instruction come from New Zealand, and Reading Recovery has been one of New Zealands successful programs. (Wilkinson, 1998).
Soon books were hard to find on phonics and teachers had little support for teaching it. There was an explosion of "learning disabilities" and more students in special education. California's new state reading test, administered in 1993 and 1994, was a political mess. The scores showed low levels of reading proficiency. Seventy-seven percent of fourth-graders were below their grade level. The consensus was that using whole-language as the primary theory had been a huge mistake (Lemann, N., 1997). In the U.S. the "reading wars" became more of an issue and entered the realm of politics and religion. Soon the market became popular with the sales of phonics books and commercial tutorial schools. "Hooked on Phonics" became very popular and sold over two million copies. Wilson(1997-2000) states that:
In 1996 in response to voter demand, the California legislature decreed that phonics must be taught, closely followed by Texas and other states. The whole-language advocates retreated, but not very far. The fashionable word now is "balance" with the whole language people maintaining that they also teach phonics without abandoning the essentials of their method. (p.7)

The Pendulum
The pendulum for whole language or phonics has swung back and forth for many years. Research data suggest that low income and minority students benefit from intensive phonics instruction because most often they don't have the education at home (Zaidman, 1998). In 1967 there was a struggle about whether phonics should be taught to children or whether they should be taught to read wholes. It was concluded that direct, systematic instruction in phonics was necessary for children to develop word identification skill and reading fluency in an efficient manner (Baumann,J., Hoofman,J., Moon,J., & Duffy-Hester,A., 1998).
Many still argued for balance with a strong emphasis on intensive phonics instruction. The rise of whole language in the 1980s made the pendulum swing away from phonics. Many teachers were discouraged because of the continuous low test scores. It was recommended to have a "balan...