Learning to Read: The Great Debate

In 1955, Rudolf Flesch published WHY JOHNNY CAN'T READ: AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. It was almost universally condemned by teachers, but parents praised it and it became a huge bestseller. Because the controversy Flesch started wouldn't go away, Jeanne S. Chall was commissioned by a foundation to study all available evidence on teaching children to read English. She reviewed all published studies, visited classrooms in both in the U.S. and Britain, and came to an unambiguous conclusion: begining reading instruction works best when it concentrates on "code-emphasis", otherwise known as phonics. In the eighties, Chall published an updated version, reviewing all research done since her first edition. Conclusion: phonics works best, and the improvement in reading scores since the mid-sixties was due to the increased emphasis on phonics. In the late nineties, yet a third edition. Conclusions: the de-emphasis on phonics since the eighties had led to a deterioration in reading scores. All available evidence showed that only phonetic methods work for reading teaching. The alleged evidence disputing this was methodologically unsound, and worthless. Phonics is the only way to go. THE GREAT TRAGEDY OF READING INSTRUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES IS THAT SOME PEOPLE, FOR POLITICAL/IDEOLOGICAL REASONS, REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THESE FACTS, AND FREQUENLY LIE ABOUT THEM. THEY DO PHONY 'STUDIES' THAT DON'T MEASURE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF READING INSTRUCTION, THEN USE THEM TO 'PROVE' THAT PHONICS DOESN'T WORK. THEY ALSO TAKE NON-PHONETIC METHODS AND CALL THEM PHONICS, SO THEY CAN FOOL CONCERNED PARENTS. If you want to find out what phonetically based reading teaching IS, and whether your children are really being taught phonetically, get a copy of this book and read it. If you then find out they aren't being taught properly, you have two choices: 1) use Flesch's book, or Diane McGuinness's WHY OUR CHILDREN CAN'T READ, and use them to teach your child, or 2) buy Roberta Pournelle's (Mrs. Jerry Pournelle)'s computer program, and use it to teach your kids to read. Btw, Flesch, McGuinness or Pournelle also work for adults with reading difficulties.

This is an update to Chall's classic that assessed the basal (basic beginners) reading series created by the publishers for our public schools. Has been influencial (unfortunately not enough). Strongly recommend to give overview of phonics, its advantages over Whole Language. Is textbook on the topic, not workbook. Also gives historical perspective. As Chall notes individual are continuously rediscovering what language experts in past decades have already known about the advantages of various aspects of phonics.