tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6304900740955463233.post8904138217499383092..comments2024-03-26T16:28:32.073-07:00Comments on SKrashen: Reading: NOT heavy phonics, NOT memorizing spellings of thousands of wordsskrashenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02243115140886175946noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6304900740955463233.post-20391880966603191542017-04-12T18:55:03.767-07:002017-04-12T18:55:03.767-07:00Could you please direct me to the part where Profe...Could you please direct me to the part where Professor Castles uses the word 'heavy'? Or did you make that up? If you made that up, then what we have here is a straw man argument.<br />Also, can you give me an example of 'the rules of phonics'? I know of about 30 core rules of spelling, but 'rules of phonics' sounds made up.<br />I'll just go ahead and tell my dyslexic students and their parents that what they lack is access to lots of good books. <br />PS Quoting the demonstrably wrong Frank Smith is hilarious!Lyn Stonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17627765276245256800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6304900740955463233.post-24808160546671463692017-04-12T08:07:00.839-07:002017-04-12T08:07:00.839-07:00You obviously don't keep up with phonics teach...You obviously don't keep up with phonics teaching methodology, Stephen. Smith's example is nonsensical. Take the words you've cited: 'hot': three sounds /h/ /o/ /t/; 'hoot': three sounds /h/ /oo/ /t/; 'hook': three sounds /h/ /oo/ (as in 'put') and /k/; 'house': /h/ /ow/ /s/; 'hope': /h/ /oe/ (taught as a split spelling) /p/; 'honey': /h/ /u/ /n/ /ee/; 'hoist': /h/ oy/ /s/ /t/. 'Honest' is one of a few words in which the sound /h/ was first lost (early centuries CE) and then restored (15th C) out of respect for the Classics. Other examples are 'heir' (one sound) and 'hour' (two sounds). All of that to a person who teaches phonics backwards would still make no sense. However, if phonics instruction begins by basing it on the 44 (45 in Scottish English) sounds of the language, which children learn to speak without having to be taught, after teaching the basic one-to-ones, the rest of the alphabet code can be grouped and taught according to sound. The common spellings (C. 175) of all the vowel and consonant sounds in English can easily be taught over the first three years of school and will also include the teaching for reading and spelling of five and six syllable words.<br />This would proceed alongside lots of practice examples of reading and writing. Through a sound-to-print approach, by halfway through the child’s second year in England, a child can read easily more complex texts from a ‘First’ encyclopaedia.<br />Instead of throwing outdated, theoretical hand grenades at the pro-phonics lobby, why don’t you take the trouble to find out what is really going on in phonics these days. I’m sure any one of a number of English schools would be only too happy to present themselves to a respected academic such as you.<br />Best wishes, John WalkerJohnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13315146014179526480noreply@blogger.com