THE PHONICS INSTITUTE
Definition of Reading

        To read aloud, we convert written words into spoken words.  We can call this word recognition. Usually we read to understand, but the ability to sound out the written word may be taught as a skill.  In his 1955 book Why Johnny Can’t Read, Rudolph Flesch wrote that this conversion to sound this word recognition is reading.  He relegated the understanding of words to a penumbral status in the concept “reading with understanding.”

         Precise comprehension flows from the ability to “speak the written word” word for word.  This is why word recognition habits are the backbone of reading.  To develop backbones so strong reading becomes easy and fun, phonics should be the all-pervading basis of teaching to read.  Through phonics, we learn the names and sounds of letter; how letter sounds may vary from word to word; the sound of special letter blends; the ability to blend successive letter sounds, one after another; the ability to break words into syllables; and the habit of consistently applying these principals to the sounding out of unfamiliar words.  When we have the phonics habit, we become justifiably confident in our ability to read well.

         Phonics discourages guessing at words.  In contrast, guessing using incomplete visual cues and context, and memorizing words without understanding the “sound values” of all the letters, are encouraged as “reading strategies” in most American classrooms, resulting in bad habits and poor readers.  Our nation is drowning in a rising tide of illiteracy and semi literacy because these bad habits inhibit understanding and make reading difficult.  Pervasive phonics, on the other hand, works fine with learning vocabulary, grammar, style, semantics, syntax, and the rest to foster understanding.

         Our modern definition of reading, “deriving meaning from print,” lumping word recognition and understanding together without analytical differentiation, obfuscates analysis of the methodology of teaching reading.  Proper habit development is key.  Let’s end the world of woe for the chronic guesser.  Let’s return en masse to Dr. Flesch’s definition of reading.  If we do, tremendous powers could blossom in the focus the redefinition would bring.

         Through THE PHONICS INSTITUTE its director intends to promote the phonics habit, and discourage guessing and memorization unassisted by phonics in teaching reading.  Financial support, though not tax-deductible by those paying income taxes, is needed and thankfully welcomed.

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