Phonics vs, the Look Say Method

Over the quondam(prenominal) decades, the disintegration in the rate of literacy in America has baffled many. At least 20% of high school graduates be functionally uneducated, contempt the education they receive in the public school administration. As these graduates work out the world tapeing at an elementary level, they argon un subject to stretch forth a normal life, which leads to poverty and can lead to delinquency and imprisonment. This decline is non tho a decline of literacy, but also a decline of indep reverseence, ingenuity, and responsibility.The beginning of this decline can be traced back to a certain event in the history of the public school system the introduction of the witness allege regularity in the 1930s. Ever since the nip scan manner, or all account book instruction, took the place of phonics, the number of illiterate graduates has grown higher and higher. Evidence proves that the belief regularise manner is non sufficient to properly de termine students how to call for. Phonics is distant superior to the count say system of let oning to strike. First of all, phonics is better than the look say regularity acting of learning to read because phonics has a firmer foundation than the look say method acting.Phonics is found on rules that the electric shaver gyps therefore, when he has memorized these rules, he can read some any intelligence he sees. A small article by the Abeka reading programs intends many rules that atomic number 18 taught in phonics, much(prenominal) as the quest When there is whizz vowel in a word, that vowel comm scarcely says its short sound and when there are two vowels in a word, the first vowel says its long sound, and second vowel is silent ( sextet Easy Steps to Reading, 1). When the kidskin learns clear rules such as these, he is more likely to apply them because he knows that they will non change.Sebastian wren writes in his article Developing Research- found Resource s for the Balanced Reading Teacher, he tells that tiddlerren are explicitly taught the rules about the way spoken communication are written and spelled, and they are taught spelling-sound relationships. After the teacher provides an explicit lesson in a particular Phonics rule, the child is presented with a passage text that contains many haggling consistent with that rule. This provides the child with an opportunity to apply each Phonics rule on a bod of actors line in context of the passage.The goal of the Phonics teacher, accordingly, is to instill the children with the Phonics rules and the common spelling-sound relationships, and to teach children to apply this knowledge in sounding-out each word they encounter, making that presumptuousness that comprehension and appreciation will be a natural progeny of accuracy (Wren, 1). Basically, when the child is taught these rules and then granted the opportunity try the rules, he will sustain that these rules can help him to r ead with ease. In contrast, the look say method has no definite rules that he can tramp into practice as he reads.Phonics is better than the look say method because it has a definite set of rules that the child can apply when he reads. The look say method requires much guessing if the child does not know the word that he is trying to read. Because he has not been taught definite rules like those of the phonics method, he is shy(p) of how to accomplish the task of reading. In her allow The Good check, Peg Tyre tells Instead of children being needed to learn individual letters by rote memory, then syll adequates, and finally words, they were given books with pictures of common objects.Underneath each picture was its simple fall upon. Kids were taught to derive meaning from words by memorizing the look of the words, or looking at the picture and guessing, or reviewing the context and extrapolating, instead of sounding them out (96). Rather than being taught how to read using rul es and hints, the children are taught to read by guessing what the word is based on the context. Samuel L. Blumenfeld explains in his book The New Illiterates some of what the students are taught He is taught the names of seventeen consonant letters and their sound values only as appear at the beginnings of words.What phonetic value they have in the middle of words is neither considered nor discussed. The letter is taught merely as a phonetic clue to the wordone clue among several taught as word-attack skills. In fact, the child is not encouraged to use a phonetic clue until he has first exhausted context and word-form clues. If these fail him, then he is to try the phonetic clue of the initial-consonant sound (74). Phonetic rules are not demonstrated clearly, and looking at the context to determine the word and its meaning is encouraged. However, simply guessing what the word is only makes the child unsure of himself.Phonics and its rules are far better to teach than the look say m ethod and its guessing. Secondly, phonics is better than the look say method because it is far easier for the child to comprehend, conquer, and enjoy. In an article entitle Whole Language vs. Phonics, Sebastien Wren, Ph. D. says that the look say method is nothing more than the rote memorization of e genuinely word in the side of meat language (Whole Language vs. Phonics, 1). The look say method basically requires the student to basically memorize every single English word in existence, an passing difficult endeavor for a preteen person.The article Whole countersign Versus Phonics tells that only the smartest Chinese can memorize 20,000 of their ideograms, but Whole Word promoters expect you to memorize 50,000 to 10,000 English words. In short, Whole Word expects ordinary people to accomplish a feat thats only possible with a photographic memory (Whole Word Versus Phonics, 1). A young student can hardly expect to conquer reading this way. Memorizing that many words is absolutel y ludicrous when one could read them if they knew the simple rules of phonics. Phonics is especially needed with someone who may be slow at learning.Blumenfeld writes it in his book NEA Trojan Horse in American Education Slow learners in particular found look-say irresistibly difficult. That would explain why before look-say was adopted slow learners learned to read without great bar via the alphabetic phonics method (118). The phonics method is far easier than the look say method to understand for any person. Progress with the phonics method is far more rapid than that of the look say method. The article Whole Word Versus Phonics says Phonics, it is claimed, can teach al just about all children to read by the end of first grade.The reading may be slow and halting at first, but in a few years the child is able to read ordinary books for amusement or education (Whole Word Versus Phonics, 1). This is vastly more rapid than the look say method. The article continues In fact, few stu dents can memorize even 300 words per year. This difficulty is confirmed all over the Internet by lists of sight words that have third grade students learning simple one-syllable words such as bring, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, and keep (Whole Word Versus Phonics, 1).Students learning phonics would have conquered these words in the first grade, if not sooner. The progress of the look say method is significantly slower than that of the phonics method. Phonics is more entertaining for the child, whereas the look say method becomes dull and monotonous. learning phonics is more interesting for the child because they are able to use the rules themselves and apply it to the words themselves. However, the look say method is very repetitious. Blumenfeld writes the following about his look for in his book The New Illiterates Oh is ingeminate 138 times and see 176.Repetitions of these two words alone must make up the entire wordag e of the first Pre-Primer. What a slow, tedious, monotonous way to learn two words (43). The look say method is dull and monotonous to the block of being just unnecessary. The children who are taught this method become extremely backward to reading because the way that they were taught is so tedious and uninteresting. Phonics is better than the look say method because it easier for the child to comprehend, conquer, and enjoy.Finally, the phonics method produces a larger number of competent, literate students than that of the look say method. Phonics gives the students a sense of definite understanding and work that can encourage them to make something of themselves. Because they tint confident, they will want to show the world what they can do. However, the reading students that the look say method produces do not feel as confident. The disappointment that this child will feel because he cannot read is acute.In his book NEA Trojan Horse in American Education, Samuel L. Blumenfe ld cites an article by Dr. Samuel T. Orton Faulty teaching methods may not only prevent the acquisition of academic education by children of average susceptibility but may also give rise to far make damage to their emotional life (111). The look say method could not only cause the child to be a poor reader but also harm the childs confidence. However, the phonics method gives the child a desire to use this ability to make a name for himself.Students who cannot read well are less likely to be successful in productive in their living. In her book The Good School How Smart Parents Get Their Kids the Education They Deserve, Peg Tyre tells of some research on the outcome of learning the look say method lxxiv percent of struggling third-grade readers still struggle in ninth grade, which in turn makes it hard to graduate from high school. Those who do manage to raise onand who manage to graduate from high schooloften find that their dreams of succeeding in higher education are frustr atingly elusive.It wont surprise you to know that kids who struggle in reading grow up to be adults who struggle to hold on to steady workthey are more likely to experience periods of prolonged unemployment, require welfare services, and are more likely to end up in jail (94). Learning the look say method has wrought horrible effects on the lives of many students in terms of their future. Because these students were taught how to read using the look say method and therefore do not read well, they are most likely not going to live productively. Phonics is far better than the look say method of learning to read.Evidence proves that the look say method is not teaching students how to read properly. The public school claims that they teach children how to read exceptionally well however, if that is the case, these students who graduate should be reading at high levels. only when as more and more functionally illiterate students graduate, they find it extremely difficult to live the liv es they had always dreamed for themselves because they cannot read well. This inability to read leads to many of the problems that are in society today, such as unemployment, negligence, and addiction on the government.