Phonic Rules in the Reading Road
 

Which of the following statements is true?

  • The letter "c" represents the sound /k/. (The sound /s/ represented by "c" in "cease" and other similar words are exceptions)

  • The letter "c" represents the sound /s/. (The sound /k/ represented by "c" in "cash" and other similar words are exceptions)

  • The letter "c" can represent the sounds /k/ or /s/

    • Most of us would agree the third to be accurate, but is it a rule? Consider applying a "rule" to the effect that "In England we drive on the left or right".

    Only 9 letters (b, d, k, l, m, n, v, x and z) have a single consistent use.  For the rest, there are no rules, only statements which are sometimes true, and sometimes not.  To examine that a little further:

  • Many of our most common words are not spelt phonetically - consider "are", "as", "is", "of".

  • The phonic "rules" only work part of the time - consider the final ‘e’ rule which changes "hat" to "hate", and then consider "have" and "give".

  • Most sounds can be represented by more than one letter combination, consider "boat" and "note".

  • Many letter combinations can represent more than one sound, consider "though" and "thought".

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    The reality is that Standard Written English has no system of "phonics".  So why use teaching methods based upon phonics?  Because they do help.  If students are learning a particular "rule", and are only presented with words that follow that "rule", the students will know that they are reading correctly, and will learn to read those words

    a) without requiring help from the tutor, and

    b) eventually, without needing to decode the words.

    Successful readers do not decode words, they recognise them.  Phonics is a useful aid on the road to word recognition, the road to reading. 

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