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An Investigation into the Opinions of Educational Literacy Teaching Professionals of Phonics Tuition in the United Kingdom

Phonics tuition in English primary schools has been the subject of highly contested debates since the implementation of the National Literacy Strategy in 1998. Initially the concept of phonics tuition for reading acquisition was competing against other techniques. Phonics has become accepted aspect of reading education, the debate furthers into two methods of presenting phonics. Analytic methods and Synthetic phonic approach. This study comes to the conclusion that synthetic phonics is a developed approach where as analytic phonics is considered an “after effect” of the whole language methods. This study, first, challenges the relevancy of the debate itself.
This qualitative study aims to look at the opinions of experienced teachers and their first hand experience on what is currently being taught, and their recommendations, in comparison with the views and of the government and researchers. There are three methods of data collection: (1) an initial interview with a ‘Programme Leader of a Primary Education course’; (2) a questionnaire, intended as an extensive screening process to find a suitable candidate to interview for the principle method of data collection (3) detailed email interview (a controversial qualitative method in itself) with a literacy coordinator.