Early synthetic phonics teaching that emphasises blending letter sounds showed no evidence of impairing reading of irregular words¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r? · q2
Currency · newest study 2012 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The synthetic phonics approach, which early on teaches children to blend letter sounds to read unfamiliar words, showed no evidence of impairing irregular-word reading. → Johnston 2012

Evidence¶

Johnston 2012¶

Johnston, R.S., McGeown, S. & Watson, J.E. (2012). Long-term effects of synthetic versus analytic phonics teaching on the reading and spelling ability of 10 year old boys and girls. Read Writ. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9323-x

q2 · i? · causal · r?

The article reports a null finding: "There was no evidence that the synthetic phonics approach... led to any impairment in the reading of irregular words." Equivalence was not tested; the article reports absence of evidence for impairment.

"There was no evidence that the synthetic phonics approach, which early on teaches children to blend letter sounds in order to read unfamiliar words, led to any impairment in the reading of irregular words."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Decoding — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Boys taught by synthetic phonics showed better word reading than girls in their classes, with spelling and reading comprehension as good as the girls' — related
• The group taught by synthetic phonics showed better word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension overall than the analytic phonics group — related
• Gender differences in reading outcomes at age 10 depend on the type of phonics teaching received in early literacy programmes — related
• Instruction that includes systematic phonics leads to better spelling and reading outcomes than instruction that does not — related
• Systematic phonics outperforms unsystematic or no-phonics instruction on children's reading overall, but its advantage over whole-word teaching on novel words is untested in children and contested — a broader claim this one bears on
• Over a decade of legally mandated synthetic phonics in England has not improved standardized reading outcomes (PIRLS, PISA, SATs) — related