Learning to read is the first step in school education. It is essential to later learning. At first, it is also very difficult.
Things are made much easier for beginning readers if they are explicitly taught the regular correspondences between spelling and sound. It enables them to sound out words they haven’t seen in written form before, provided they know those words in spoken form.
Teaching spelling-sound correspondences is the first step in the ‘structured literacy’ approach to teaching reading. Mandating that approach was one of Erica Stanford’s first moves when she became Education Minister.
Different languages have different spelling-sound mappings. For example, in English, the letters ‘wh’ correspond to a /w/ sound, as in ‘where.’ But in te reo Māori, the same letters correspond to a /f/ sound, as in ‘whānau.’
Because the two languages have different spelling-sound correspondences, it is a mistake to introduce beginning readers to both at the same time. In fact, if a child is learning to read in English, it is best to also avoid English words that don’t follow the regular rules, until they are fluent with the regular spelling-sound mappings.
Children need to master the spelling-sound correspondences of one language before they tackle those of another. Otherwise, they are likely to become confused.
That is why Minister Stanford asked the Ministry of Education to remove Māori words from reading books for Year 1. That move was widely reported in the media last week.
It took me just six brief paragraphs to explain the reason for Stanford’s decision. Yet, none of the mainstream media clearly articulated that reason. Apart from a conversation with Professor Elizabeth Rata on The Platform, no structured literacy experts were interviewed.
This is a simple explanation. Have you seen it in any media outlet?
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
3 comments:
One thing Jacinda and Hipkins did, in common with all totalitarian governments, was to try to dumb everything down. Information taught in schools, universities, publicly funded art, the media etc was all politicized and encouraged people to be intellectually lazy. The last thing they want is for people to think for themselves.
The Maori pass rate for UE is currently 19%, according to Alwyn Poole's column two days ago. To Labour, The Greens, TPM and the mainstream media, equality is more important than achievement and the easy way of doing that is to bring everyone else down to that level. Hence the "indigenous universities" that give doctorates for three year courses to people with no prior academic experience. Hence the defunding of Shakespeare while funding "art" by people like Tama Iti. The aim is not to improve education but to lower the bar.
The mainstream media are still promoting Jacinda's policies and vision for NZ. Not only does that promote their own political views but also creates easily satisfied and compliant viewers, listeners and readers. Having children achieve in a structured learning environment, where they are encouraged to think, goes against everything they stand for.
The explanation was immediately self evident to those extreme oldies like me brought up on phonics. Can be very briefly expressed. RNZ eventually addressed but only after repeat criticism from ardently pro maori (ie all their announcers)
There is a very determined effort from the left/Marxist side of the ruling ‘elite’ and the media (but I repeat myself) to destroy the once-capable and honest culture that personified the NZ nation. Recent polls seem to indicate a continuing success in this treasonous activity.
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