Towards a Balanced Approach to Phonics Teaching

Phonics is currently a topic attracting wide interest and concern. While there is general agreement that the teaching of reading needs to include attention to phonics, the form this should take is disputed. Recently synthetic approaches have attracted much publicity. This article examines what synthetic phonics involves, contrasting this with a more balanced approach, in terms of the phonic content taught, the means by which the teaching is transacted and its relation to other aspects of learning to read.