Is systematic synthetic phonics enough? Examining the benefit of intensive teaching of high frequency words (HFW) in a year one class

Abstract

A comparative analysis of systematic synthetic phonics (SSP) and the intensive teaching of high frequency words (HFW) revealed the latter had greater impact on pupils’ reading attainment and fluency. Data were collected using multiple methods, including miscue analysis, Salford Reading Test, a phoneme skills test and HFW audits.

Keywords:

• Synthetic phonics
• high frequency words
• early reading