PUB TYPE Opinion Papers (120)

Because students too often leave the public school system with weak or non-existent reading skills, the subject of how to teach reading is debated. Most children bring a considerable level of oral language ability to their first day of school. Development of spoken language skills seems to come without conscious, formal effort for most children. Phonemic awareness helps to bridge the gap between oral language and text. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that every word can be broken up into individual sounds. Although whole language approach advocates claim that students taught reading using the whole language approach develop deeper, personal language experiences, phonics based instruction has legislative support. Researchers also note that spelling accuracy tends to be lower for whole language students. However, research indicates that once phonemic awareness is established, either a whole language or a phonics based approach is successful. The conclusion is that teachers cannot afford a dogmatic adherence to one or another approach to teaching reading. (CR) * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document.