Reviews

Understanding Phonics and the Teach-ing of Reading: Critical PerspectivesKathy Goouch and Andrew Lambirth(2007) Maidenhead: Open UniversityPress (Mc Graw-Hill Education) ISBN13:9780335222261, ISBN10: 0335222269d19.99

We are currently revisiting a debateaptly characterised in a late 1920sreport of the teaching of English inLondon elementary schools (Jagger,1929, p.14) as ‘‘two schools of thought,one claiming that the process of learn-ing to read should follow the lines ofgeneral culture and disciplinary train-ing, the specific aim of the teaching ofreading being subservient to these, . . .[while the other] directs its wholeattention to the mastery of mechanicsof reading in the shortest possibletime’’. Understanding Phonics and theTeaching of Reading emphatically be-longs to the first of these ‘schools’,successfully showing, from a numberof viewpoints, how the teaching ofreading is embedded in a complex ofsocietal and pedagogical considera-tions, all of which need to be consid-ered. It is apparently inspired by aconference at the editors’ university,organised in response to the publica-tion of the interim report of the RoseReview (Rose, 2006) into the teaching ofreading in English schools. Drawingsubstantially on contributors’ existingwork, it makes a strong case, often byinference, for the use of multiple stra-tegies in the teaching of reading.

The book covers extensive ground:the need to establish appropriate aimsand practices for Early Childhoodteaching (Tricia David); to include theidea of multiple educational discoursesin making classroom provision and tore-establish teachers as professionals,rather than as transmitters of govern-ment messages (Kathy Goouch); toforgo the lure of the perfect system, theholy grail of reading instruction, andacknowledge that the teaching of read-ing cannot be subjected to absolutestandards (Patrick Shannon); to treadcarefully between the Wengerian alter-natives of ‘reification’ (seeing reading asan object which can be given andowned) and ‘participation’ (seeing read-ing as a part of the process by whichchildren develop their social identities(Kathy Hall); to acknowledge the ex-istence, in Bernstein’s terms, of both

‘visible’ and ‘invisible’ pedagogies andsee that neither one is necessarily betterfor children of different backgrounds(Andrew Lambirth); and to recognisethat the complexity of the readingprocess extends to its phonologicalencoding which requires more thanone strategy to decode (Usha Goswami).Interspersed with these contributions(which alone make the book worthbuying) there are interviews with par-ents and teachers and with proponentsof a rich approach to reading and itsteaching which give evidence of thecomplexity of the experiences that suc-cessful readers draw on in constructingand enriching their reading identitiesthrough encounters with texts (MyraBarrs, Margaret Meek Spencer, TeresaCremin, Goouch, and Lambirth).

Some important overarching themesemerge. Many contributors point to theadverse effects of the current politicisa-tion of the teaching of reading in theUnited Kingdom and United States,leading to the de-professionalisationof teachers and the positioning ofchildren as passive learners whoseprior learning experiences and culturalidentities can be disregarded. (It is goodto see here Goouch’s reaffirmation (p.54) of Nias’ work on the distinctionbetween teachers’ ‘substantial’ asagainst their ‘situational’ selves). Con-tributors claim that governmental ur-gency to achieve universal literacy runscounter to the organic nature of howchildren construct themselves as read-ers and can lead to a reductivistcurriculum led by the findings ofexisting measurable research studies,and to teaching focused on the test(Shannon, passim). This inevitably af-fects, or is based on, particular ideas ofhow we view children’s learning devel-opment. For example, Early Childhood,in this scheme of things, is seen as anessential first stage in the linear acquisi-tion of distinct reading skills, ratherthan, as in many European countries, adevelopmental stage in its own rightdevoted, in Goouch’s words (p. 49) to‘embedding’ children’s capacity tolearn across a number of reading (and,one might add, other) contexts.

Another highly significant theme isthe impact of this politicisation onteachers’ choice of pedagogy. Lam-birth’s contribution is very helpful here,summarising in a succinct way therelationship between underachieve-ment and the early teaching of reading,and pulling together pedagogical the-ories that might address the problem.

These include Krashen and Tyrell’sdistinction between acquisition (whereknowledge is gained through participa-tion in one’s culture, and learning(where knowledge is gained throughinstruction), Vygotsky’s semiotic media-tion and Bernstein’s categorisation ofvisible and invisible pedagogies in rela-tion to patterns of social dominance(chapter 7, passim).

While I am not sure that Lambirthresolves the difficulty of what contem-porary teachers of less successful read-ers should immediately do, there aresome clear messages here about cultur-al assumptions in relation to classroomenvironments, and Lambirth’s chapter,together with Hall’s discussion of Wen-ger’s categorisation of pedagogies intothose that emerge from the reification ofwhat is to be learned and those thatassume that reading emanates fromand enables participation within thelearner’s society, are among the mostimportant in the book. Thoughtfulconstructers of policy at all levels ofthe school system (and not just inEngland) will want to consider theimplications of these two chaptersalongside Barrs and Meek Spencer’scelebration of the diversity of children’slearning styles and the influence of thetexts they encounter, in their ‘conversa-tion’ about Bussis et al.’s 1985 Inquiryinto Meaning (chapter 9 of Goouch andLambirth, especially pp. 156 and 163).

The book’s stated aim, ‘‘to offercritical perspectives on contemporaryeducation policy in relation to theteaching of reading’’ (Goouch andLambirth, p. 1) is effectively achievedso long as one also accepts their addi-tional aim of offering ‘oppositionalresponses’ to current anglophone edu-cational policies (p. 4). Especially help-ful are chapters highlighted above andShannon’s excellent forensic analysis ofwhy evidence-based research is notalways the best basis for reading policy.Whether the case studies of parents andteachers talking adds anything is deba-table, especially since the former, bytheir own admission, and the latter defacto, belong to only one, privileged,section of society. It is also a littlesurprising that there is nothing aboutassessment for learning, surely theprofessional teacher’s most formidabletool, or about the possible detrimentaleffect on early reading of the form (asdistinct from the substance) of the newEnglish Foundation Stage CurriculumFramework. Some readers may alsodetect a slight steer towards fiction

160 Reviews

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Literacy

and printed texts when we know thatmany contemporary children often en-gage considerably with informationalreading and print on-screen. And theintroduction could perhaps have at-tempted a rather more analytical over-view, and one that pulled together themain points in a way that schooladministrators could find useful.

There is also, perhaps, a rather easyassumption that approaches to theteaching of phonics must necessarilybe exclusive when they only need to bedistinct and fit for purpose. Hall in factsuggests an approach that would allowfor this when she refers to the relation-ship in practice of Wenger’s reified andparticipatory pedagogies: ‘‘Althoughthey are distinct from each other [they]fit around each other’’ (p. 96). Goswa-mi’s elegant description of the soundsystem of the English language com-pared with that of Italian would alsoallow in practice for synthetic as well asanalytic phonics approaches to coexist.

That this is not impossible in practicecan be seen from the Clackmannanshireteachers who so impressed the RoseCommittee with their use of a syntheticphonics approach and who it seemswere also engaged in considerableprofessional development and in

schools that were providing numerousother reading experiences (Ellis, 2005;Farmer et al., 2006, p. 38). In fact, it maywell have been the cumulative effect ofall these experiences, rather than that ofthe synthetic phonics approach, whichworked for the children. One does nothave to see synthetic, or any other, kindof phonics as synonymous with readingto acknowledge that in professionalhands it could have its place, both infocusing children’s attention for a shorttime on a limited section of the Englishsound system, and as part of a ‘visible’pedagogy based on the ‘reification’ of aselection of sounds, a method that somechildren may well be accustomed to intheir family life.

What is important is that teachersretain their professionalism in employ-ing such a strategy, including makingtheir own judgements about when touse differing strategies; that any suchteaching is embedded in a web of otherexperiences of which it is only a smallpart; and that government policy andits funding, as in Scotland (Ellis, 2007),supports the development of bothrather than determining methods. IfUnderstanding Phonics and the Teaching ofReading eschews making anythingother than an ‘oppositional case’ to the

use of synthetic phonics (p. 4), it alsoprovides plenty of thoughtful ideas formaking an alternative case in whichsome kind of accommodation might bereached.

References

ELLIS, S. (2005) Platform: Phonics. TimesEducational Supplement (Scotland), 23 Sep-tember.

ELLIS, S. (2007) Policy and research: lessonsfrom the Clackmannanshire syntheticsphonics initiative. Journal of Early Child-hood Literacy, 7.3, pp. 281–295.

FARMER, S., ELLIS, S. and SMITH, V. (2006)‘Teaching phonics: the basics’, in M. Lewisand S. Ellis (Eds.) Phonics: Practice, Researchand Policy. London: Paul Chapman Pub-lishing, p. 38.

JAGGER, J.H. (1929) The Sentence Method ofTeaching Reading. London: Grant Educa-tional Company.

ROSE, J. (2006) An Independent Review of theTeaching of Early Reading. London: DFES.

Margaret CookIndependent Consultant

Rethinking English in Schools VivEllis, Carol Fox and Brian Street (Eds.).(2007) London: Continuum ISBN: 978 08264 9922 6 d70.00, hb

This book is a timely and provocativereminder that critical analysis of Eng-lish (and literacy) teaching, the ‘‘longtradition of socially critical work inEnglish Education’’ referred to by itspublishers, has been patchy of late.Accountability, and the associated stan-dards-driven curriculum, legislated bygovernments since the late 1970s, man-aged with vigour by New Labour sincethe late 1990s, has directed much ofwhat has been enacted, and writtenabout. The editors recognise that muchof our effort has been put into findingways of effectively implementing whathas been determined elsewhere. Theyseek to reclaim English teaching as a‘field’, in Bourdieu’s sense of an activitydrawing on many other disciplines. So,they draw on diverse perspectives fromliteracy studies, ethnography, socio-cultural psychology and post-colonialhistory in order to help us to share in ‘‘afundamental reconsideration of thepurposes of English’’.

The book’s origins were in a con-ference of international participants,held in Oxford in 2006. Out of this, the

editors, each of whom has a good trackrecord within the field, have crafted adeftly organised and cogent text. Theybegin with three ‘provocations’, cameosof learning and teaching. These areused to elicit themes that beset Englishas a subject. Readers of this journal willrecognise that each of these themes linkwith UKLA’s work, past and current.

First, it is claimed that what hascounted as priorities for schooling inEnglish has been determined by thoseother than experts in the field. ‘‘Thepoint of origin for English in schools –and its ownership – is at some distancefrom those who are meant to beengaged in its practices’’ (p. 4). Thesharp contributions to last year’s re-search day in Liverpool drove that pointhome! In a section exploring the histor-ical origins of literacy teaching, PatrickWalsh reminds us that much teachinghas its roots in imperialism and indeficit theories. Second, they critiquethe ‘‘disjuncture between the meaning-making practices of children and youngpeople in their lives outside school andsubject English as it is currently enactedin [these] classrooms’’ (p. 4). Thisjournal’s readers will connect this claimto the work of Marsh, Millard andothers; to pioneering work on literacyand social inclusion, and on digitalliteracies. Third, they identify ‘‘themarginalization of the aesthetic as auniquely important way of knowing

that draws its power from the integra-tion of the cognitive and the affective’’(p. 4). Misson and Morgan’s chapter onthe critical role of the aesthetic, and ofliterature in particular, chimes in wellwith some UKLA members’ manymisgivings about some of the mechan-istic ‘text-level’ teaching promoted bythe NLS. This excellent chapter is worthan extended quotation:

‘‘Some teachers focus almost exclusivelyon the particulars of experience asrepresented in the text their class isstudying. If it is a narrative, they askwhy characters speak and act as they doand how students respond to thosecharacters in action. But teachers ne-glect the way those particulars areselected and shaped in order to engageour feelings and thoughts’’ (pp. 76–77).

This cool and well-argued analysis ischaracteristic of the best pieces in thebook: reasoned, balanced argument,and good models for those of us helpingPGCE students, studying for Masters-level credits in their training year. Theirfirst chapter, ‘Why English?’ is alreadyon my list of required reading.

The structure of the book makes acarefully cumulative argument and theeditors can be congratulated for makingcoherent some diverse contributionsthat have shaken off their origins as

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