THE SCIENCE OF READING

What is the SCIENCE OF READING?

“Writing is a code for spoken language, and phonics provides instruction for children in how to crack that code,” says Castles. “Phonics is an essential basis for becoming a good reader, but it isn’t enough on its own — one aim of our review was to describe the other key ingredients that must be combined with phonics to support good reading development.”

To acquire sophisticated literacy skills, for example, children must progress from identifying individual sounds to recognizing whole words. They must also be able to pull forth the meaning of different words quickly within a particular context in order to comprehend a whole unit of text, whether it’s a sentence, a paragraph, or an entire page.

"Literacy opens up knowledge, opportunity, and enjoyment. Building it requires good instruction, solid foundations in vocabulary and language comprehension, and extensive reading practice,” Castles, Rastle, and Nation note. “By taking advantage of the strong evidence base around what helps children learn to read, we can support more children to go on to become confident, skilled readers.”

Excerpts from: Beyond the Reading Wars: How the Science of Reading Can Improve Literacy