Hello all,

I am trying to find out how one should teach literacy skills to adults.  It 
has been suggested on several lists to visit the NCSALL web site, and look 
at research.

So I looked at the site and found the EBAEP model (draft for comment),
http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/ebaep_model_monograph.pdf,
which is about Evidence-Based Adult Education, to find out what evidence 
there was to support particular approaches to literacy, such as 
systematic/synthetic phonics versus whole language.  There was almost 
nothing there.  Worse, the teachers are expected to evaluate the research 
themselves, to decide how best to teach!  But no sources were given as to 
where there is good evidence for one method or another.

In particular I looked at pages 77-78, the section 27 on "Instructional 
approaches".  Quoting from this:
"Teachers need to understand why to use a particular technique, not just how 
to use it; they need the underlying foundational theory of teaching and 
learning that will allow them to integrate new thinking with new actions."

Now I know for children about the foundational theory, and evidence in 
practice, that systematic phonics works.  On the other hand, there is no 
scientific theory, or evidence, that the whole language approach works - 
because it doesn't.  See Scientific American, March 2002.  (And mixing 
methods doesn't work either.)

The March 2002 Scientific American put it well: "Because the controversy 
[between phonics and whole-language] is enmeshed in the philosophical 
differences between traditional and progressive approaches. The progressives 
challenge the results of laboratory tests and classroom studies on the basis 
of a broad philosophical skepticism about the value of such research." In 
other words, they are willing to ignore solid research that contradicts 
their beloved theories, theories that keep kids from reading.

So I am trying to find if anybody has used systematic/synthetic phonics on 
adults, because if it works on children I see no reason why it should not 
work on adults, given suitable initial teaching material (so as not to 
appear "childish").  The phonics approach must:

 1.   establish that the alphabetic principle is fully understood by the 
student;
 2.   work on phonemic awareness, so that all 44 phonemes can be recognised 
within words;
 3.  make sure common letter-sound (grapheme-phoneme) correspondences are 
known;
 4.  work on the basic skill of segmentation (for spelling);
 5.  work on the basic skill of blending (for decoding and reading).

After a basic reading skill level has been reached, with simple reading 
material:

 6.  add vocabulary to allow comprehension of increasingly advanced reading 
material.

It seems to me, as a scientist by training, that the above approach is 
sound.  The evidence of the Clackmannanshire study, shows that the approach 
works for everybody, including 'dyslexics' and childen with special needs. 
In this study of 300 children in a deprived area of Scotland there were no 
non-readers after synthetic phonics had been introduced!

Anyway, the UK government is now convinced, and is going to adopt synthetic 
phonics for schools.  See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4485062.stm. 
Should we adopt it for adults?

Cheers from Chiswick,

John


John Nissen
Cloudworld Ltd - http://www.cloudworld.co.uk
maker of the assistive reader, WordAloud.
Try WordAloud with synthetic phonics:
http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/teaching-synthetic-phonics.htm
Tel: +44 208 742 3170  Fax: +44 208 742 0202
Email: info at cloudworld.co.uk



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mariann Fedele" <mariannf at lacnyc.org>
To: "The Technology and Literacy Discussion List" <technology at nifl.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 9:04 PM
Subject: [Technology] New Issue of "Focus on Basics"


Hello All,
The following message is from Barb Garner.
Best,
Mariann

***************
The newest issue of "Focus on Basics" is now on NCSALL's web site,
http://www.ncsall.net. It's on ESOL and features research from NCSALL's
ESOL Lab School.