Analysis: it turns out that literacy development is anything but as easy as A, B, C
As thousands of children return to school, one of the core objectives of primary education – learning to read and write – will recommence. But don't allow the lyrics of the 1970 Jackson 5 hit ABC deceive you. Literacy development is anything but as easy as 1, 2, 3 or as simple as do-re-mi.
On the contrary, the teaching and learning of reading has been compared to rocket science. Researchers from many different disciplines have picked the process apart and put it back together. For example, neuroscientific research suggests that reading requires us to repurpose a part of our brain that evolved for one use (identifying faces and objects in our environment) for an entirely different use (figuring out arbitrary symbols on a page).
From University of Reading, Dr. Daisy Powell on how kids acquire reading skills
Human evolution means that most children will learn to talk without being taught, but our brains are not naturally hardwired for reading. We need to forge those connections over time and with support from others who already 'know the code'.
A closer look at how we learn to read in English
The ABCs get less attention than you might think early on, at least in the order that the Jackson 5 sing them.Research-based programmes begin by teaching children to identify the sounds (phonemes) in words and how to match these with corresponding letters or groups of letters (graphemes). All words in spoken English are a combination of roughly 40 sounds, depending on the dialect spoken. All words are represented by combinations of our 26 letters. As fans of Wordle probably realise, we can create over 12 million words from combining any five of these letters.
At the start, children are taught how to read and write words using a small set of sounds/letters that can be combined to make words. This means it is more likely that a junior infant will encounter ‘SATIPN’ or ‘AMSTPF’ rather than ‘ABCDEF’ in the first weeks of formally learning to read. Children can ‘make’ many more words from combinations of the letters SATIPN (sat, it, pin, it) than ABCDEF.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, Tracy McEneaney, Executive Librarian at Waterford City & County Council, on Irish children's reading skills
The process of identifying a word by saying a sound for each letter (or combination of letters) and blending these sounds together is extremely important. This process becomes less laborious throughrepeated practice and words are increasingly read automatically. The reverse process – needed for spelling – is just as important.
English has what linguists call a ‘deep orthography’, a spelling system that has been influenced by many different languages over centuries. This means that there is often more than one way to connect a sound to a letter or group of letters. For example, the long ‘e’ sound (e.g. in tree) is captured by the letters ee, ea, ie, y, e, ey in different words. As a result, learning to read in English takes longer than in other languages
For some children, most notably those with dyslexia, more extended practice and precise teaching is needed to ensure that they can fluently crack the letter-sound code. In the absence of early assessment and high-quality instruction, literacy difficulties can compound and have a serious impact on success in and out of school.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Today With Claire Byrne, Prof Vera Regan from UCD on children learning languages from Third Class
For all children, learning letter-sound connections is a necessary but not sufficient aspect of becoming literate. For example, a child who can ‘sound out’ even the most complex word will not be successful in reading if they don’t know what the word means. A broad literacy curriculum is needed that extends well beyond phonics, giving due attention to motivation and engagement. The development of oral language is particularly important.
The reading wars
For many decades, there has been passionate debate on whether we needed to actually teach letter-sound connections. Two main camps characterised these reading wars. ‘Whole language’ advocates claimed that children would naturally pick up the skills needed to read if they were immersed in classrooms full of books, with an emphasis on the meaning of stories. On the other side, a focus on skills such as directly teaching phonics was advocated. Something of a truce eventually emerged around the turn of the century. This ‘balanced’ approach saw merit in both the motivational aspects of whole language and the ‘don’t leave it to chance’ elements of a more skills-focused approach.
Recently, this debate has been rekindled with significant attention paid to research findings from neuroscience, psychology and linguistics, collectively referred to as the science of reading. Omissions and inaccuracies have been identified in some of the most commonly used balanced literacy programmes used internationally
From Education Week, what the science has to say about how kids learn to read
In the United States, this has led some developers to alter their programmes and politicians to enact legislation mandating how early reading is taught. Similar policy initiatives have seen a large focus on phonics in England and Australia. The debate has spawned viral podcast series, social media campaigns and calls for a more structured approach to the teaching of literacy.
Do we have similar issues in Ireland?
Headline figures from international assessments suggest that Irish primary school children continue to outperform the majority of their peers in international assessments of reading. This is a significant accomplishment and suggests that we are doing a lot of things right.
But we shouldn't rest on our laurels. An unjustifiably large gap remains between the reading achievement of children in disadvantaged schools (DEIS) and others. The programmes and practices used to support children in disadvantaged contexts require attention in the upcoming OECD review of the DEIS programme.
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From RTÉ News, Ireland's 10-year-olds outperform international peers in reading ability
There have been some calls for a rethink on the approaches used in Irish classrooms. The reality is that we have limited research evidence to pinpoint practices that are working and not working in Irish classrooms. Teachers and schools are given significant control to make local decisions. This level of teacher agency is welcome, but it necessitates deep teacher knowledge of how to make research-informed decisions to support the children in their classrooms. It also means that up-to-date research findings must continue to inform the national curriculum and teacher professional development.
Of course, these highly qualified teachers need to exist in the first place. The current crisis in recruitment is having a particularly potent impact in the very schools that need the most skilled professionals. As the Department of Education reviews its national literacy strategy, it should consider affording greater funding to literacy research and professional learning in the Irish context, particularly to support those children in need of most support. We can learn from the international findings on phonics, but it's important that we do not neglect the range of other cognitive, affective, and social factors that influence children’s reading success.
As easy as ABC?
"ABC it’s easy, it’s like counting up to 3" is a catchy earworm, but its statement on the ease of early reading falls remarkably short. If a young person in your life is soon to have their brain wired for reading, remember just how enormous an achievement this is. Don’t underestimate the level of teacher knowledge and skill needed to ensure that all children can make meaning from what are, essentially, arbitrary squiggles on a page.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
