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Since 2012, England has taken an increasingly narrow approach to how primary school teachers should teach reading.

The policies on teaching reading have insisted that an approach called “systematic synthetic phonics” is the only way to teach reading. Synthetic phonics involves teaching children the 44 sounds, or “phonemes”, of language and how they are represented by letters in words.

England’s approach to teaching reading was alleged to have created “the best readers in the Western world” by the previous government, when England rose up the rankings of an international reading assessment.

Other countries and regions are now following England’s lead. For example, Australia is following many aspects of England’s approach to phonics. The US has moved towards a much greater emphasis on synthetic phonics. And New Zealand has abandoned the programme called Reading Recovery in favour of more emphasis on phonics.

These regions claim to be basing their new teaching approaches on “the science of reading”. But an accurate reading of the science shows that there are a range of different evidence-based approaches that can be taken to teaching children about phonemes and letters. If countries are following England’s lead, then we need to be sure that England’s approach is based on the most up to date research evidence.

Unfortunately the outcomes for children with reading difficulties in England, over more than a decade, tell a different story from those who claim that narrow synthetic phonics is the only approach. The proportion of children struggling to read has remained at a similar level for many years. The percentage of children not at the expected standards in reading at the age of ten or 11 has remained at about 25% since 2017.

As part of new research my colleagues and I conducted, we surveyed a group of 133 experienced teachers and special educational needs specialists in England. We also carried out a new analysis of already published research. We examined the findings of studies that tested which approaches work best for children with reading difficulties, including those with particular problems such as dyslexia.

There are hundreds of well-conducted studies that have examined how children with reading difficulties can best be taught to read. We found more than 40 systematic reviews of all of these studies. There is clear evidence that flexible teaching approaches are more effective than a narrow emphasis on synthetic phonics.

This means that teachers emphasise a range of components – such as the meanings of words and sentences to contextualise learning about phonemes and letters in real purposes for reading, and teaching writing to help reading.

Little boy reading next to adult
Motivation is a key part of children’s progression as readers. Sokor Space/Shutterstock

Another of the components that is vital to attend to is children’s motivation for reading. The kinds of books that are used as part of the teaching is connected to this.

Systematic synthetic phonics is taught using “decodable” books that often have very limited content. But using real books is a way to motivate children through the imaginative ways that stories, poems and information are portrayed in these books. And my own research with Charlotte Hacking shows that phonics can be taught using real books.

Read more: Phonics isn’t working – for children’s reading to improve, they need to learn to love stories

I argue that teaching reading should explicitly focus on motivating children to read. This involves understanding more about children’s interests and providing reading materials that are likely to motivate them. It also requires teachers to actively assess children’s levels of motivation, and take steps to address this as needed.

Deviating from the script

Some of the teachers that we surveyed said that if synthetic phonics was not working to teach a child to read they would try a different approach, including multi-component approaches. But more than 20% of our respondents said they would continue with synthetic phonics even if it wasn’t working, because that was the government’s policy.

Some teachers are more confident than others to innovate with their teaching, and they will have the support of head teachers to innovate. But in education systems with great pressures to conform to one particular approach all teachers find it harder to innovate.

The previous Conservative government used a variety of ways to require teachers to use only synthetic phonics for all children, including those with reading difficulties.

The phonics screening check, taken by all children in year one, and associated targets for schools, encourage a narrow focus on teaching phonics. Ofsted inspections reinforce government messages about synthetic phonics. Teachers in training and new teachers also have new tight requirements on synthetic phonics.

The Labour government has not said it will change any of this. England has just reviewed its national curriculum. No changes were proposed for the teaching of reading in primary schools.

Unless action is taken this will be a missed opportunity that will probably mean that some of our children most in need will not get the teaching based on robust research evidence that they need. However, children and schools cannot wait. The evidence shows that when synthetic phonics is not working, multi-component approaches should be tried.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Dominic Wyse, UCL

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Dominic Wyse currently receives funding from the Helen Hamlyn Trust and The Welsh Government.