In analytic phonics letter sounds are taught after reading has already begun. This is the process where whole words are shown, pronounced and then analysed hence analytic phonics.
Children start learning to read some words by sight, often in the context of meaningful text. This could be well known stories, Nursery Rhymes, songs, names etc.
In order to teach the letter sounds, whole words sharing a common initial letter sound are presented to children, e.g. ‘ car, cat, candle, cake, castle. The children are asked to focus on the sound heard at the beginning of the words. Children are typically taught one letter sound per week and are shown a series of alliterative pictures and words which start with that sound
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cat |
car |
candle |
cake |
castle |
When all of the letter sounds have been taught in this way, the children are asked to focus on the letter sound at the ends of words e.g. nap, cup, pip
Next the middle letter sound is stressed as in consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. e.g. cat, bag, rag
Children learn about letter sounds in the context of whole words. Children may also be taught to sound and blend CVC words, e.g. d,o,g to say dog, When children have coped with consonant-vowel-consonant words (three letter words) children are taught about vowel and consonant digraphs.
This is usually achieved by introducing word families of similarly spelt words, e.g. ‘cake’, ‘bake’, ‘make’, ‘lake’; ‘coat’, ‘boat’, ‘float’ etc.. In some cases teaching of spelling follows a similar pattern.
This method of teaching phonics is often in practice a method of teaching by rote. It also does not lead to the children when starting to explore reading being enthused by having meaningful and exciting text.
Children enjoy learning for themselves and having meaningful tasks. It was thought that they could learn for themselves the relationship between letters and sounds. Children could attempt unfamiliar words by using the context rather than applying a strict phonic approach. As the English language has many complexities in spelling analytic phonics can lead to ineffective and inaccurate pronunciation
SYNTHETIC PHONICS
Synthetic phonics is a very accelerated form of phonics that does not begin by establishing an initial sight vocabulary. Synthetic phonics teaches letter sounds very rapidly and children are explicitly shown how to blend the sounds together to pronounce unfamiliar words .
Children are usually taught letter sounds before they are introduced to the reading of books. It only takes a few sounds for children to be able to blend these together to make words.
Introduce the sounds ‘ t,a,p,s’ and the children can read ‘ tap, pat. sat, at’ etc. The children sound each letter in turn and then combine the sounds together in order to generate the pronunciation of the word. The children construct the pronunciation of the word on their own. The pace of learning is faster as most of the letter sounds including the consonant and vowel digraphs can be taught in a few months. This means that more meaning and stimulating text can be introduced and children are more stimulated to learn on their own. This gives each and every child more sense of success, a more rapid understanding and they are encouraged to enjoy reading and books more quickly and easily. |
