Child Language Acquisition: Reading

Question 1

What are the two ways to a child learning to read?

Answer 1

Synthetic Phonics and Analytic Phonics.

Question 2

What are the features of the synthetic approach?

Answer 2

• Teaches children the individual phonemes.

- Once understood, they can blend them together to form a word.

Question 3

What are the feature of the analytic phonics?

Answer 3

• Doesn’t teach individual phonemes.
• Teaches them the breakdown of words in key sections.
• E.g. ‘th’ words, they would learn lots of them: thorn, thief and thirds.

Question 4

What did the theorist Frank Smith suggest?

Answer 4

A child shouldn’t learn to read by braking individual words up.

Question 5

What are semantic cues?

Answer 5

Using knowledge and experience of stories to predict events, phrases and words. E.g. Once Upon A Time

Question 6

What are syntactic cues?

Answer 6

Using prior knowledge and experience of patterns in oral and written language to predict texts.

Question 7

What are grapho-phonic cues?

Answer 7

Using knowledge of sounds and symbols to read a word.

Question 8

What are the two basic reading needs according to Frank Smith?

Answer 8

• The availability of interesting material.

- Guidance from an experienced reader.

Question 9

What are the advantages of analytic phonics?

Answer 9

• it runs along reading scheme books.
• thorough approach.
• methodological approach.

Question 10

What are the disadvantages of analytic phonics?

Answer 10

• can’t apply the sounds to all texts given.

- long time to memorise.

Question 11

What are the advantages of the synthetic phonics?

Answer 11

• memorise quickly.
• learn the underlying principles.
• multi-sensory approach.

Question 12

What are the disadvantages of the synthetic phonics?

Answer 12

-whether it is a thorough approach is questionable.

Question 13

What are the features of the ‘whole word’ approach?

Answer 13

Children learn the shapes of words, not breaking them down phonologically.

Question 14

What are the features of the ‘look and say’ approach?

Answer 14

• Childrens learn to recognise whole words or sentences rather than individual phonemes.
• Flashcards with individual words written on them are used for this method, often accompanied with a related picture so that children can link the object and the referent.

Question 15

Explain Jeanne Chall’s theory.

Answer 15

There are 2 approaches of learning to read:

• Look and say approach
• phonetic approach