Teaching and the Phonics Debate: What Can We Learn?

There is debate about whether New Zealand practices for teaching reading should include “more phonics”. With the focus on the first two years of school instruction, the status quo of receptive phonics and the teaching culture in which it is embedded are described and compared with the productive phonics practices of other teaching cultures. The response of New Zealand children to this practice is relatively faster reading procedures. However, there is much that remains to be learnt to sharpen New Zealand receptive phonics teaching practices to meet the successive developmental purposes of phonics; and also to reduce repetitive teaching rituals, as in practices to prompt for meaning.