News Herald – Juliann Talkington
There are over 500,000 words in the English language. Unlike some languages that are very consistent, English has a Germanic base with many borrowed words from the Romance languages – Latin, Spanish and French.
As would be expected, the words from the Romance languages do not follow phonetic rules that apply to words from the Germanic part of English. This means only about half of the words are spelled like they sound. As a result, it can be confusing and frustrating to learn to read English.
Because of the complexity of the language, there has been an ongoing battle in the education community about how to best teach children to read. Some people believe it is wise to teach children to identify whole words rather than to teach rules. This approach is called whole language-based reading. At the other extreme there are those who believe it is best to teach English by rules alone. This approach is called phonics-based reading.
So what is best? The most reasonable answer seems to be a combination of both methods, with a stronger emphasis on the phonics approach.
After all, it is nearly impossible for anyone to commit over 500,000 words to memory. Not only would it overwhelm the brain, but would be very frustrating for a child learning to read. In addition, it would severely limit a child’s potential reading and spelling vocabulary.
If children learn the phonics rules they have the ability to read and spell over 250,000 words, many more words than they could hope to learn by rote memory. Then if children can memorize the commonly used words that do not follow the phonetic rules (sight words or look-say words), they should have a very good vocabulary.
Some people argue that this approach is boring for kids and will keep them from reading. Perhaps this is the case for a few children. However, as a general rule, kids like doing things that make them feel successful. Since repetition builds success, most children welcome it whether it is on the athletic field or in the classroom. The key is finding fun and engaging ways to repeat concepts through games, contests, worksheets and creative activities.
So help ensure your child loves reading. Read to your child early and often. When he/she is old enough, encourage him/her to learn the phonics rules. And then find fun ways to repeat, repeat, repeat!