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Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. Chapter 2: Alphabetics 

Summary View | Full Abstract

At the request of Congress, a national panel of experts in the field of reading was created in 1997, known as the National Reading Panel (NRP). The NRP held public hearings to help decide what topics would be addressed in its report to Congress on the state of reading research and instruction. The topics were: alphabetics (i.e., phonemic awareness instruction and phonics instruction); fluency; comprehension (vocabulary instruction, text comprehension instruction, teacher preparation, and comprehension strategies instruction); teacher education as it relates to reading instruction; and computer technology and reading instruction. Each of these topics was addressed by a subgroup of the NRP and became a chapter in the final NRP report.

This abstract covers the report’s chapter on Alphabetics. Alphabetics is split into two sections for the purposes of this report.

1. The first section is phonemic awareness instruction. Phonemes are the smallest units of meaningful sound in spoken language. Sometimes a phoneme is a single letter, such as "t" or "s." Other times a phoneme is a combination of letters that make a distinct sound, such as "th" or "sh." Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to understand and manipulate the phonemes in spoken words.
2. The second section of this chapter is on phonics* instruction. Phonics instruction is a way of teaching reading that focuses on letter-sound relationships. In phonics instruction children first acquire letter-sound relationships and then learn how they can be used to spell and read words.

This research study reports the effectiveness of various approaches on reading instruction. Chapter 2, the focus of this abstract, examines the role of alphabetics in reading instruction and specifically answers the following questions:

1. Does instruction in phonemic awareness improve reading? If so, how is this instruction best provided?
2. Does instruction in phonics instruction improve reading? If so, how is this instruction best provided?

Phonemic Awareness (PA):

1. Phonemic Awareness instruction improved children’s ability to understand and manipulate phonemes by isolating, blending, and removing them from words.
2. PA instruction provided short- and long-term benefit on children’s reading and spelling.
3. Students can benefit from PA instruction taught by by researchers, teachers, and computers.
4. Effective PA instruction (a) used letters and print examples; (b) taught no more than two manipulations (e.g., blending and segmenting) at a time; (c) was between 5-18 hours in length; and (d) was implemented with small groups of students.

Phonics Instruction:

1. Systematic phonics instruction, in which students were taught a set of specified letter-sound relations and practiced using these relationships to decode text, was more effective than either non-systematic phonics instruction or non-phonics reading programs such as whole language.
2. Systematic phonics instruction was effective whether delivered to a whole class, a small group, or through one-on-one tutoring. Phonics programs were also effective whether they focused on converting individual letters into sounds or on reading larger word units such as spelling patterns.
3. Phonics instruction significantly improved the decoding, word reading, comprehension, and spelling skills of children in kindergarten and 1st grade.

This meta-analysis shows that both phonemic awareness and phonics instruction are useful components of teaching young children to read. Phonemic awareness helps develop pre-reading and early reading skills related to understanding that separate sounds make up spoken language and those sounds can be manipulated. Phonics instruction builds on phonemic awareness by teaching children that sounds correspond to different letter combinations, and those letters combine to make words. Learning these skills not only helps children learn to decode and sound out words, but also improves children’s overall reading and spelling skills.

For Future Research: The National Reading Panel suggests that, while this meta-analysis displays the usefulness of teaching these skills to children from pre-kindergarten to 1st or 2nd grade, there has not been sufficient research to support the use of teaching phonemic awareness and phonics skills to older children. More research should be done to determine if these methods are appropriate for older struggling readers, and, if not, what methods should become the focus of reading instruction for older children.