Consider which social groups are advantaged/disadvantaged by these differing teaching methods and the impact it has on (socially engineered) performance outcomes for those groups.

Herein is the answer to why this thing has become politicised.

This sort of thing is borne out of the same mindset that doesnt keep score in competitive events and gives everyone a winners ribbon. It feels good, but its a lie. One which the poor kids, when they become capable of figuring out the truth, arent going to cope very well and wont be very happy about the deciet. Santa, the easter bunny and the tooth fairy is one thing, this is another.

Cna yuo raed tihs?
fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mind!, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt.
Pohcins or wohle lngauage, taehcing kdis to raed is mroe tahn usnig one theory or another.

I agree that a variety of methods should and can be utilised: gender, hereditary characteristics, socio-economics, stress - all impact on individuals. Surely we know enough now about how these variables affect people to know that the old one-size-fits-all position fails?

However, just to throw the cat among the pigeons:- in China education is still done by rote learning. English is not presented in the whole-word method. Primary school students start their day at 7.40 and finish after 6. Homework takes them until around 9.30. They start learning English in Year 1.

By the time they get to Uni they have been studying English for 12 years. Yet two thirds of them are unable to produce a sentence in correct English and the majority don't understand spoken English at all. It has to be taught as a completely separate subject.

However, I have yet to come across a student who, when presented with the text Rainier printed, do not read it effortlessly and almost without pause. If, as the text says, only a percentage of native English speakers are able to do so, then what conclusion is one to draw from this evidence? That phonetics and rote learning produce inarticulate people who are exceptional readers?

Personally, I have concluded that the figures given are apocryphal, but if anyone had difficulty with reading the text I would be very interested to know, as I think it would give a valuable insight into teaching methods.

Romany,

The most disadvantaged groups of aspirational readers in Australia are unfortunately those who are impoverished, low socio economic or Indigenous status.

One of many points I make in terms of posting the 'text' is to highlight the fact that the real challenge for teachers, researchers and policy makers is that irrespective of the system of literacy intervention utilised - those who come from the above stated groups tend to start school with fewer of the linguistic and literacy resources that are required as 'beginning points' of learning by schools.

As such, even if one is able to read the text above, this does not mean that readers are able to comprehend the underlying meanings or subtext. In fact many do not.

The social capital of literacy skill is varied amongst different sections of the Australian community. School is seen as the only educational avenue to remedy this deficit.

I believe a broader based approach to literacy intervention is required that includes schools.

Bear in mind that it was recently estimated that 7 million Australians are not functionally literate.

This threatens to deliver dire economic and social impacts over the next decade.

Literacy, as it was one hundred years ago, is a clear indicator of social exclusion or inclusion. We currently hover somewhere in the middle.

So the problem of literacy is much broader than attempting to devise didactic instruments for skill acquisition.

I have been involved in reading recovery at school, not for my children as they are intellectually gifted and were reading fluently by 2 and 3 years old but for children who were struggling to read in the early years. I found that all children in reading recovery had trouble with phonics. They couldn't easily recall the sound of the letters and that made them get stuck, loose their confidence and struggle.

The way that reading recovery was being taught we were asked to read the passage to the child first. The children, who were not dumb, were developing amazing memory skills wherein they would remember the story and read it back to you but they were not actually reading the words and so they were not actually learning. This method of memorising could easily see them through until high school and they could just be seen as not very good readers when in fact they couldn't read very well at all. If you did not read the passage for them first they struggled to decipher the word as they had trouble with phonics.

I tried different methods and put the focus on phonics and the letters that they consistantly struggled to grasp the sound giving them games that they could ask their parents to do with them so that they could have quick instant recall of sounds to letters. I stopped reading the passage to them first. It made a difference to their reading ability and their confidence.

Thanks for that Jolanda, fascinating, interesting, and etcetera.
I must confess to loving stories from parents and others on how they approached, modified, tested, and persevered with teaching little ones.