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Show Know Your Schools . . . Shall We Nave Phonics Or Not? .... In at least two of the discussion groups at the Rural Education Conference a good - deal of concern con-cern was expressed over the lack of instruction in phonetics in the schools of Duchesne County. The following statement from an article ar-ticle by David H. Russell and Gretchen Wulfing explains pretty well the attitude in our schools concerning the somewhat controversial contro-versial issue of the phonetic approach ap-proach to reading. Many teachers and parents learned to read by a phonetic method and are inclined to place great faith in "learning sounds," although some admit that reading in the first grade was very difficult dif-ficult for them. At different times phonics has been considered the reading program and also has been something for teachers to scorn and ignore. Today the phonics phon-ics program is moving toward a middle ground and therefore to a less controversial position. The modern point of view sees phonics or phonetic analysis as one aspect of the word-recognition or vocabularly-building program. It is one method of word attack which enables a child to pro- nounce or identify an unfamiliar word. It does not tell him its meaning or use in a sentence, nor does it help him think about or interpret what he has read. It has, therefore, a definite place in the total reading program but a place with clearly defined limits. Moreover, phonics must be considered con-sidered as only one means of word identification and recognition because many children successfully success-fully use other methods of "attacking" "at-tacking" words. Sometimes, especially es-pecially in beginning reading, they recognize them by their general shape gxcoQiguration. Sometimes they identify them by the use of picture and context clues. Particularly Partic-ularly in the intermediate and upper grades, structural analysis such as syllabication and the recognition re-cognition of prefixes and suffixes is most useful in "unlocking' a new word. Along with this meth-or, meth-or, phonetic attack through the sounds of words is a valuable skill. In some cases it may be the easiest eas-iest way to identify a new word. Usually, however, the child who can combine several methods of attack on an unfamiliar word is the most successful reader. Phon-(Continued Phon-(Continued On Back Page) KNOW YOUR SCHOOLS .... (Continued from page one) ics alone may not give him the word, but phonics, plus use of context, plus recognition of a familiary part of the word may unite to achieve the desired identification iden-tification of the word. When are children ready to learn the sounds of individual letters let-ters and combinations of letters? Certinly not when they first learn to read. With emphasis on reading read-ing for meaning, children begin to read complete sentences; soon breaking these into phrases and words as they gain skill in recognizing recog-nizing words at sight. As their stock of sight words increases, they encounter words which resemble re-semble one another and they need to give attention to parts of words in order to distinguish one from another. This is a - more complex skill than knowing a word as a whole, requiring intellectual, visual, vis-ual, and auditory maturity. Although Al-though auditory readings for phonics may be established in the early stages of learning to read, most teachers now postpone other phonetic activities until children have mastered a working sight vocabulary of 75 to 100 words and have had experience in reading read-ing for meaning. These sight words can then be analyzed for similar beginning or ending I sounds, and pupils helped to form generalizations "lok alike, sound alike" which they can use in attacking at-tacking new words. The implication for teaching reading is clear. Phonics should occupy a definite place in the reading program, but the time of introduction and its limitations must be understood. This view is clearly put in the most recent authoritative au-thoritative statement on the teaching teach-ing of phonics as part of vocabulary vocab-ulary building. Since it is only one of the ways by which children chil-dren recognize words, it should be taught as one of a group of skills which include use of context clues and structural analysis. And since the central part of reading is deriving meaning' emphasis upon up-on word recognition as such should never overbalance strees upon comprehension , and interpretation inter-pretation while reading. |