Teaching reading – to follow a method or not? : A comparative study of teachers’ choice of method in early literacy learning

This is a study of how four teachers work with pupils’ early literacy learning. Interviews were conducted with two teachers who chose to use a specific method, Writing to Read (WTR), for teaching pupils to read, and with two teachers who had not chosen a specific method. The aim of the study was to compare how the teachers worked, their motives for their choice of method, and the ideas the teachers have about early literacy learning. To see whether the teachers’ choice of method was related to the individualization of the teaching and their views of pupils’ learning in interaction, Vygotsky’s theories about children’s learning have been used. The result shows that there are both similarities and differences in the teachers’ reasons for their choice of method. Those who use WTR say that they do so to be able to individualize the teaching, while the teachers who do not use a specific method use the same arguments. There is a difference in whether the teachers aim for structured or unstructured teaching, regardless of the choice of method. Several parallels to Vygotsky’s theories were found, in that all four teachers, irrespective of method, think that their teaching should be characterized by interaction and individualization