[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: What do Warwick Elley, Tom Nicholson, and other NZ'ers think of this?

[Yetta Goodman]

Good to hear from you in the present, Warwick.   All the best...
Yetta and Ken Goodman

On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 12:25 AM Brian Cambourne <bcambrn at uow.edu.au> wrote:

> Thanks for sharing these thoughts Warwick. Love the last two sentences.
>  Stay well.
> Brian Cambourne
>
>
> On 28 Aug 2019, at 3:12 pm, val.warwickelley at iconz.co.nz wrote:
>
> I have been asked to express my views on the recent debates in NZ and
> elsewhere on the role of phonics in learning to read.
> As one who has found it difficult to attend or participate in RHF
> activities, due to the frailties of advanced age, I have been reluctant to
> join in these controversies, once again.
>
> However, for what it is worth, I see no good reason to revise my former
> position that children best learn to read, and develop a long-standing
> interest in reading, when they are immersed in authentic, predictable books
> and have the guidance of a teacher who understands and applies the shared
> reading approach with its high-interest activities.
>
> Done well, this approach has worked effectively for me for most children
> in a wide range of countries learning to read and write in a second
> language, just as it has in New Zealand for many years. Certainly there are
> a few who may fall by the wayside, for a range of reasons, and who may
> benefit with greater phonemic emphasis, but I find most children learn
> their phonics as they learn to read by more natural meaningful approaches,
> rather than in phonics schemes studied out of context.
>
> These debates have surfaced many times during my 68 years as a teacher and
> researcher, here in NZ and internationally. It seems that empirical studies
> have so far not been convincing enough for those with entrenched positions
> to change their view. However, one study I came across recently has not had
> the publicity I think it deserved in this part of the world. Wyse and
> Goswami reported on a year-long study of how well children learned to read
> in their first language by synthetic phonics in 14 different European
> countries. Probably those in England know of the study.
>
> After one year of instruction, all the children in the selected classes
> were tested on 20 familiar words and 20 pseudo words.
> Not surprisingly children in Finland scored best, with an average of 98%
> on the familiar-word test, and 95% on the pseudo-words. Finnish is the most
> phonetically-regular language.  The children in eight other European
> countries scored over 90% on the familiar word test, and nearly the same in
> the other test. Three others, (French, Danish and Portuguese) scored in the
> 70%s. But those children learning in English, had an average of only 34% on
> the familiar words and 29% on the pseudo-words. Clearly, English is quite
> different from the other languages for children learning by synthetic
> phonics.
>
> Admittedly, the samples were small, and the mean ages were not equal, but
> the size of the differences between languages surely highlights the fact
> that learning to read with synthetic phonics is much more difficult in
> English than in other languages.
> As Wyse and Goswami point out, "The phonological complexity of the
> syllabic structure in English is different from the other languages. ...and
> requires instructional levels other than the phonemes may be required."
>  (p. 693)
>
> This research may well have been interpreted differently by others, but I
> find it explains well why children learning by phonic approaches learn well
> in phonetically regular languages, but not in English. As my grandchildren
> learning to read in England discovered, a year-long focus on phonics is
> merely an interference when one can already read meaningful text. Of course
> they were read to daily as pre-schoolers!
>
> Refs:
> D.Wyse & U. Goswami. (2008) "Synthetic Phonics and the Teaching of
> Reading." British Journal of Educational Research, 34, 6,
> p691-710.
>
> P. Seymour, P. Aro & J Erskine (2003) "Foundation Literacy Acquisition in
> European Orthographies" British Journal of Psychology, 94, p143-147.
>
>
>
> On 2019-08-23 01:58, Greg Brooks wrote:
>
> Brian and others
> My response would be as in the attachment.
> Best to all
> Greg Brooks
> On Wed, 21 Aug 2019 at 04:08, Brian Cambourne <bcambrn at uow.edu.au>
> wrote:
>
> https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12259907
>
> Assoc. Prof. ( Dr) Brian Cambourne
> Principal Fellow
> School of Education
> Faculty of Socal Sciences
> Building 67, Level 3.  Visiting Fellows Room
> University of Wollongong NSW 2522
> Mobile 0408684368
> socialsciences.uow.edu.au/education [1]
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the
> addressee
> and may contain confidential information. If you have received this
> message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and
> attachment.
> Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not
> necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email
> communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored
> where permitted by law.
> _______________________________________________
> Reading-hall-of-fame mailing list
> Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/reading-hall-of-fame
>
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee
> and may contain confidential information. If you have received this
> message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and
> attachment.
> Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not
> necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email
> communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored
> where permitted by law.
> Links:
> ------
> [1] http://socialsciences.uow.edu.au/education
> _______________________________________________
> Reading-hall-of-fame mailing list
> Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/reading-hall-of-fame
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Reading-hall-of-fame mailing list
> Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/reading-hall-of-fame
>
>
>
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee
> and may contain confidential information. If you have received this
> message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and
> attachment.
> Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not
> necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email
> communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored where
> permitted by law.
>
>
> Assoc. Prof. ( Dr) Brian Cambourne
> Principal Fellow
> School of Education
> Faculty of Socal Sciences
> Building 67, Level 3.  Visiting Fellows Room
> University of Wollongong NSW 2522
>  Mobile 0408684368
> socialsciences.uow.edu.au/education
>
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee
> and may contain confidential information. If you have received this
> message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and
> attachment.
>
> Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not
> necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email
> communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored
> where permitted by law.
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Reading-hall-of-fame mailing list
> Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/reading-hall-of-fame
>


-- 

*Yetta Goodman, Regents Professor Emerita*
*University of Arizona, College of Education*
*home address:  7914 S Galilleo Lane, **Tucson AZ.85747-9609*

*http://www.retrospectivemiscue.com <http://www.retrospectivemiscue.com/>*

*No child needs to be motivated to learn. To learn is their trade.*
*They can't stop learning because they can't stop growing.*
*             Emilia Ferreiro, 2003 *

*Every time we teach a child something, we keep him/her from *
*inventing it. On the other hand, that which we allow **him/her **to*
*discover will remain visible for **the rest of his/her life. *
*               Jean Piaget*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/private/reading-hall-of-fame/attachments/20190828/bd143d53/attachment-0001.html>