School system fails in its approach to reading

Thursday, March 26, 2009

School system fails in its own approach to teaching children to read

A significant number of children start school without the language experiences they need to be able to learn to read, says the head of the University's College of Education, Professor James Chapman.

"These children have little knowledge of books, of the alphabet, or of the sounds that make up words in spoken language," Professor Chapman says. "We call this a lack of 'literate cultural capital'. Home background and pre-school experiences play an important role in language development, which is necessary for a child to be able to learn to read.

"We have an approach to reading instruction in New Zealand junior school classrooms that tends to favour children from middle-class families. These children typically have the language skills necessary for benefiting from the type of instructional approach to beginning reading, known as whole language.

"Children who start school without these language experiences are disadvantaged. There is a scientifically supported mix of instructional approaches that would better suit children who come to school without the typical middle-class language background experiences.

"It's a serious issue because the instructional approach contributes to the development of a wide gap in reading performance among New Zealand school children. It shows up later in poor adult literacy performance. It affects children's performance in secondary schools, and we are seeing increasing numbers of students coming into the university without strong literacy foundations."

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