Dialogue: Phonics debate blurs real aims of report on reading

Debate over the teaching of reading should focus on teachers' ranges of skills, not the relative merits of different approaches, writes BRIAN DONNELLEY*.

Media articles on the report of the education and science select committee's review into the teaching of reading have seriously distorted its conclusions.

The report definitely does not suggest a return to the old ways of teaching or drill-and-skill phonics.

Indeed, it specifically rejects such techniques and is at pains to point out that the whole language versus phonics debate is simplistic and unhelpful.

Nor does the report suggest that New Zealand has deteriorating standards of reading; no evidence was presented to support such a conclusion.

It explicitly states that existing literary strategies are effective for most of our students.

But the committee could not ignore the fact that New Zealand has the greatest variance among OECD countries between our top and bottom readers.

It could not ignore the fact that significant numbers of our children are not making the grade.

To quote the report: "Never before have literacy skills been as critical for the inclusion of an individual in the vocational and social activities of our society. Whereas past economies could absorb a proportion of the population into labouring tasks that required minimal literacy skills, this is no longer the case.

"In our modern economy those without literacy skills are disadvantaged in accessing further training opportunities and many jobs, and are likely to be marginalised with associated costs to the wider society."

In the process of learning to read, children must develop word-level decoding skills (often referred to as phonic skills) as part of a full repertoire of reading skills. If they do not develop them, they are seriously hampered in their progress.

What the report says is that these word-level decoding skills need to be developed in a deliberate and systematic way.

From the evidence, the committee could not have confidence that this is happening in all or even most classrooms. The report suggests that the amount of phonics teaching is far smaller than decision-makers understand it to be.

But it also emphasises that such skills should not be taught in isolation from reading-for-meaning skills. The report is insistent that we do not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

It urges a re-emphasis on the importance of the development of phonetic, word-level decoding skills in a balanced teaching of reading programme.

Teachers in our junior classrooms must have the full range of capacities and understanding to be able to develop the complete repertoire of reading skills. They also need to be able to recognise when children are not developing in certain areas and to take practical steps to remedy the situation.

The committee was far from convinced that all our teachers are fully equipped to cater for the wide range of learning-to-read needs they will encounter. It recommended nationally based competency standards that trainees must be able to meet before graduation, and national consistency of in-service programmes.

The report insists that the capability to develop word-level decoding skills is included in these competency standards.

Aside from school-based programmes, the major second-wave intervention is reading recovery, aimed at children who have not progressed adequately in their first year at school.

The committee recognised that reading recovery has made a valuable contribution to reading but that it was time the use of the resource was re-examined to create a more flexible and less formulaic approach.

One of the major concerns expressed in the report was the degree of fragmentation and lack of coordination of support and advisory services which provide help to schools and classroom teachers.

The report recommends that, if national goals are to be met, a coordinated structure of all these services around these goals is urgently needed.

Children do not become readers overnight. There is the world of difference from being able to dictate Hop On Pop to being able provide a critical analysis of Heart of Darkness. Progressive development of more and more sophisticated reading skills is required.

Such development does not happen by accident, and teachers need to have the skills and understanding to be able to promote such development.

The report also suggests that vision and hearing testing and follow-up remediation be upgraded.

But some factors which impinge upon reading achievement are largely beyond classroom teachers and schools.

The committee identified transiency and irregular attendance as serious matters which must be addressed nationally. There is a policy vacuum on dealing with the educational problems associated with transiency.

Irregular attendance can have just as devastating outcomes. The report urges the Government to take urgent measures to overcome the damage of these twin evils.

The report devotes a section to immersion Maori schooling and the additional issues raised in delivering the curriculum by way of the Maori language.

It identifies an acute shortage of trained, experienced teachers fluent in te reo Maori. Classroom resources in te reo have been sparse until recently, and huge gaps are still apparent.

Some outstanding work into the development of literacy in te reo Maori was identified in the report but it is important that this work is disseminated to all providers.



As with mainstream teacher education, the report urges the establishment of national standards for training providers.

The conclusion reached was that Maori-medium education needs further investment and support to make up for the shortfalls in qualified teachers, resources, materials and assessment tools.

This report was not about the relative value of whole language or phonics approaches to teaching of reading.

It was about what we have to do as a nation if we are to ensure that all our citizens have adequate reading skills for their fullest inclusion in our society, for the benefit of all.

* Brian Donnelly, a New Zealand First MP, chaired the parliamentary subcommittee which reviewed the teaching of reading.