The Science of Learning to Read Words: A Case for Systematic Phonics Instruction

Abstract

The author reviews theory and research by Ehri and her colleagues to document how a scientific approach has been applied over the years to conduct controlled studies whose findings reveal how beginners learn to read words in and out of text. Words may be read by decoding letters into blended sounds or by predicting words from context, but the way that contributes most to reading and comprehending text is reading words automatically from memory by sight. The evidence shows that words are read from memory when graphemes are connected to phonemes. This bonds spellings of individual words to their pronunciations along with their meanings in memory. Readers must know grapheme–phoneme relations and have decoding skill to form connections, and must read words in text to associate spellings with meanings. Readers move through four developmental phases as they acquire knowledge about the alphabetic writing system and apply it to read and write words and build their sight vocabularies. Grapheme–phoneme knowledge and phonemic segmentation are key foundational skills that launch development followed subsequently by knowledge of syllabic and morphemic spelling–sound units. Findings show that when spellings attach to pronunciations and meanings in memory, they enhance memory for vocabulary words. This research underscores the importance of systematic phonics instruction that teaches students the knowledge and skills that are essential in acquiring word‐reading skill.

How the Science of Reading Informs 21st‐Century Education

“…Some of these instructional approaches rest on sound theoretical and pedagogical grounds. For example, giving beginning readers the opportunity to read decodable texts provides practice in applying the grapheme–phoneme relations that these students have learned to successfully decode words (Foorman, Beyler, et al, 2016), thus building lexical memory to support word‐reading accuracy and automaticity (Ehri, 2020, this issue). However, the only study to experimentally examine the impact of reading more versus less decodable texts as part of an early intervention phonics program for at‐risk first graders found no differences between the two groups on any of the posttest measures (Jenkins et al, 2004).…”

Dyslexia and Academic Life

“…Research findings consistently conclude that early literacy learning affects success in learning (e.g. [22,23,48]). It is therefore of utmost importance that early education also includes the use of technology to access and present print for those struggling with literacy (e.g., [49][50][51]) as pupils are learning to break the code to literacy.…”

“…Access to the printed text paves the way for learning and economic growth and justifies ensuring that young learners learn to read as early and as expediently as possible (e.g., [9,20,21]). The speed and effectiveness of this early literacy learning process affects success in learning and has a Matthew Effect (e.g., [22][23][24]). However, education needs to include those for whom learning to read is not so easy.…”

An Exploration of Teacher Preparation Practices with Foundational Knowledge of Literacy

“…The science of reading issue refers to the large body of empirical research that focuses upon the development of a wide range of skills that contribute to learning to read. These skills encompass phonemic awareness and phonics (Ehri, 2020;Kearns, 2020), comprehension (Cabell & Hwang, 2020), academic language (Galloway et al, 2020) and writing (Graham, 2020). Since literacy teacher preparation programs develop curricula with current research in mind, the recent focus on the science of reading should be reflected in reading and literacy courses required among preservice teachers (Hindman et al, 2020).…”