Article title: ‘English has 100+ phonemes’: some errors and confusions in contemporary commercial phonics schemes
Authors: Brooks, G., Beard, R, & Ambaw-Farr, J.
Journal: Research Papers in Education
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2019.1646795
Since publication, corrections have been made to the final paragraph of page 14 of this article.
The final paragraph of page 14 now reads:
The other scheme, Letters and Sounds (DfES 2007), is just as accurate about the distinction, but does not draw either children’s or teachers’ attention clearly to it. /uː/ is explicitly introduced in Phase 3, given the symbol bold /oo/, and differentiated from the short vowel /ʊ/ symbolised plain /oo/, but /juː/ does not appear until Phase 5. The word new is listed amongst ‘New graphemes for reading’ (p.134), but the next word with /juː/ is rescue (p.149). This is followed by lists of other words with /juː/ spelt <ue>, and then lists of words with other common spellings for the sequence. /juː/ is eventually given the symbol /(y)oo/ (p.156) but not remarked upon, so that the distinction from /uː/, in particular the presence of the /j/ glide, seems to be glossed over in silence – unless explicit attention is meant to arise when the teacher ‘Ask[s] the children for the sounds in … the second syllable’ of rescue (p.149). Perhaps the authors of L&S thought this was an appropriate point for children to begin to self-teach by subconsciously internalising new correspondences. Whether this was so or not, it would seem essential to make the /juː, uː/ distinction explicit to teachers, so that they understand more clearly what is happening if (when) children mix up the relevant spellings.