‘English has 100+ phonemes’: some errors and confusions in contemporary commercial phonics schemes

ABSTRACT

From 2006 the British government strongly favoured synthetic phonics as the principal approach for the teaching of initial literacy in state-funded primary schools in England, and since 2010 has made it mandatory. In 2007–2013 just over 100 commercially published phonics schemes were available, and in that same period the government maintained a system of quality assurance, in the form of two (successive and non-overlapping) panels of independent evaluators. Their task was to judge whether commercial publishers’ self-evaluations of their phonics schemes and materials were correct, in the sense of justifying statements that they met the government’s criteria for such schemes, etc. Of the schemes that were judged, just over half (54) were found to contain linguistic errors. In this article the errors are analysed in detail, and classified into three main categories: phonetic inaccuracies, phonic inaccuracies, and misguided pedagogies. The criteria for that classification are stated, and conclusions and recommendations drawn – the main recommendation being that existing schemes need to be scrutinised in detail to ensure that they are fit for purpose. And this would apply to all phonics schemes used anywhere in the English-speaking world, not just in England, even though the criteria for phonetic and phonic accuracy would necessarily differ across accents.

KEYWORDS:

• Phonics schemes
• phonetic errors
• phonic errors
• misguided pedagogies
• classification criteria

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Correction

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge permission to use the database analysed here granted by the Department for Education.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was sought or received for the research reported here.

Notes on contributors

Greg Brooks

Greg Brooks is Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Sheffield, UK. In 2005–2006 he was a member of the Rose committee, and in 2008–2009 of the dyslexia subgroup of the Rose review of the primary curriculum in England. He has published widely on phonics and on what works for those with literacy difficulties.

Roger Beard

Roger Beard is Emeritus Professor of Primary Education at the University College London Institute of Education, London, UK. He has researched and published extensively on children’s reading and writing. His recent funded projects have included an international seminar series on Reconceptualising Writing 5–16, and a research project on Writing Development at the End of Key Stage 2.

Jaz Ampaw-Farr

Jaz Ampaw-Farr is an independent educational consultant resident in Milton Keynes, UK. Having qualified in 1994, she began her career as a teacher, and now runs a phonics and school development consultancy. She is an expert on literacy and its improvement, especially via phonics, and has provided training and advice in Britain and overseas.