Long-term effects of synthetic versus analytic phonics teaching on the reading and spelling ability of 10 year old boys and girls

Johnston, Rhona S.; McGeown, Sarah; Watson, Joyce E.

Abstract

A comparison was made of 10-year-old boys and girls who had learnt to read by analytic or synthetic phonics methods as part of their early literacy programmes. The boys taught by the synthetic phonics method had better word reading than the girls in their classes, and their spelling and reading comprehension was as good. In contrast, with analytic phonics teaching, although the boys performed as well as the girls in word reading, they had inferior spelling and reading comprehension. Overall, the group taught by synthetic phonics had better word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension. There was no evidence that the synthetic phonics approach, which early on teaches children to blend letter sounds in order to read unfamiliar words, led to any impairment in the reading of irregular words.

Citation

Johnston, R. S., McGeown, S., & Watson, J. E. (2012). Long-term effects of synthetic versus analytic phonics teaching on the reading and spelling ability of 10 year old boys and girls. Reading and Writing, 25(6), 1365-1384. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9323-x

• Online Publication Date: May 29, 2011
• Publication Date: 2012-07
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Journal: Reading and writing
• Print ISSN: 0922-4777
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-0905
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1365-1384
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9323-x
• Keywords: Synthetic phonics; Analytic phonics; Opaque orthography
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/464897
• Publisher URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11145-011-9323-x#Sec11
• Additional Information: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9323-x