| Abstract: | The introduction of text conventions, such as word separation, the separation of letter and background and the lower‐case letter are appraised with respect to their contribution to literacy instruction. The change in the visual appearance of the graphic word over time led to the assignment of secondary status to spelling and low appreciation of the role of phonology, due to the disappearance of audible speech in skilled reading. Since the two major literacy programmes, whole language and phonics, are based on two different stages of reading, both programmes complement each other. Whole language represents the skilled stage of reading, given its reliance on the graphic word, whereas phonics represents the unskilled stage, owing to its emphasis on the intermediatory role of phonological processing in word recognition. Neither literacy programme offers instruction in the integration of letters in a verbally recoded form with the explicit goal of the creation of word gestalts in the course of literacy acquisition. |
