New research from the University of Portsmouth suggests that children should be taught English in a different way. Children are currently taught how to read and write by phonetics, sounding out words. This is why children are often taught the phonetic alphabet (ah, buh, cuh), before learning the alphabets actual letters. Phonetics works by treating sounds as the building blocks of language. A critique of this method though is that children are not taught how the English language works. Psychologists from Portsmouth University found that this critique is one we should be paying attention to.

”When children were taught to understand why English works the way it does, we saw a leap in their ability to learn to read and write.

”The written word is about conveying meaning, not the sound of speech.

”Expecting children to just figure out the rules of our language is worryingly common and it isn’t helping them become as proficient and confident as young children in many other languages.”

The different approach to teaching children English the psychologists trialed is called morphology. Rather than just teaching children the sounds of words, the approach teaches children about the meaning and sources of words. For example, ”’saying”, ”said” and ”says”, which all have the root word of ”say”.’ Phonetics is used around the world to teach languages but unlike other languages ‘about half of all the words in English are exceptions to the rules of phonics’. After trailing morphology on ’120 children aged five to seven [the researchers] found the average reading age increased by 14 months after just six months.’ These results are impressive and it appears that morphology could be the future of teaching English to children.

via: Southern Daily Echo