http://drsarahmcgeown.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... l?spref=bl
The word 'pint', however, is not irregular - it is commonplace for the letter 'i' to be code for the long /igh/ sound as in 'child', even the word 'I' and really common words such as 'find' and 'minus' - and many more such words.Tuesday, 12 August 2014
Synthetic phonics and irregular word reading: Cause for concern?
There have been numerous concerns about the introduction of a phonics focused synthetic phonics approach to the teaching of reading in England. One of the concerns often highlighted is that a phonics focused approach does not suit the opaque (i.e., irregular) nature of the English writing system. For example, words such as ‘aisle’, ‘pint’, ‘yacht’ are all irregular and pose difficulties for children learning to read. Indeed, of all the alphabetic writing systems, English is one of the most irregular and research has shown that the ease with which a child learns to read is related to the orthographic depth of the writing system (Ellis et al, 2004). Therefore learning to read English is challenging.
However, the argument that a phonics focused synthetic phonics approach is unsuitable to teach children to read English is an argument from which I have seen no research evidence. Examples have been given of children being unable to read ‘high frequency’ words such as ‘the’ – sounding out ‘t’’h’’e’ then blending them together and forming an inaccurate pronunciation. However, to me, this is better than I’ve seen prior to the introduction of synthetic phonics, where the first three words of the reading test that I used to administer (British Ability Scales II) were ‘the’ ‘up’ and ‘on’, and read by a number of students as ‘Biff’ ‘Chip’ and ‘Floppy’. Surely teaching children about the alphabetic nature of the writing system, illustrating that there is a relationship (albeit not perfect) between the letters and sounds, is better?
