CLACKMANNAN
PROGRAM
RESEARCH
In 1998,
Joyce Watson and
Rhona Johnston reported on a study of three hundred Primary 1 children (ages 4/5)
in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, in which they examined the effectiveness of a synthetic
phonics teaching program compared with a traditional analytic phonics programme.
At the end of the
16 weeks, the reading and spelling of the children on the synthetic phonics programme
were around seven months above both their chronological age and the children on
the traditional
analytic phonics programme. In
thieir report they describe the progress of the children from Primary 1 through
to the end of Primary 5 (ages 8/9), to see whether these gains are maintained
in the following years and to compare the achievements of boys and girls. The
researchers found the beneficial effects of the synthetic phonics program to be
long lasting: for word reading, the gains increased from a seven-month advantage
in Primary 1 to a 26-month advantage in Primary 5. The
likely reason for this, they say, is that in learning to recognize and blend sounds
early on, children are given a procedure that they can apply for themselves whenever
they meet an unknown word. An
unexpected result on the synthetic programme was that in word reading in Primary
3, boys were eight months ahead of girls. In
the following two years, the girls were seven months ahead. Spelling
and reading comprehension did not differ significantly between boys and girls,
although both were well above their chronological age. In reading comprehension,
boys on the synthetic phonics program were also almost ten months ahead of boys
on the traditional analytic programme. The
children are being followed through Primary 6 and 7 to determine whether boys
keep their advantage to the end of primary school. The
researchers acknowledge that although the methods used in their study gave long-lasting
benefits for boys, it is not clear whether all synthetic phonics programs will
be so effective. With
thanks to the Scottish Executive Education Department.
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