John Bald: Our new reading crisis – and a solution

John Bald is a former Ofsted inspector. He is Vice-President of the Conservative Education Society.

Since the development of alphabetic writing in the ancient world, literacy has been based on representing sounds by letters. So it is a paradox that the improvements in reading scores brought about by phonics have been accompanied by a surge in reading problems. As Ofsted pointed out in its research report on English, if children can’t read, they can’t do the rest of their work. The result is anxiety, misbehaviour, refusal to attend and, at worst, crime. Not to mention the expense. A local authority (LA) is considering sending my 12-year-old pupil, “Neil”, to private schools costing over £37,000 pa, plus transport costs.

Neil could not read at all, as he was trying to sound out each word one letter at a time, adding a weak sound, or schwa, after each consonant, which prevented him from blending the sounds represented by the letters to form a word. He said that his school had taught him to do this, and, whether or not it had, this is what he had understood. Neil has good vocabulary for his age, and no additional learning problems.

After ten lessons with a parent sitting in, punctuated by a six-week break while I made a family visit to Australia, he read the following three paragraphs without error.

“Black Dragonfish

Few deep-sea creatures are as fearsome as the black dragonfish. With its staring eyes and huge, fang-filled jaws, it appears like something dredged up from a nightmare. And for the unlucky prey it feeds on, that’s exactly what the black dragonfish is – a nightmare in the dark, gliding ever closer, mouth open and ready to strike…

Scientists believe that the light-producing “photofores” on the dragonfish’s head and around its eyes might allow it to see a little way ahead. This gives us an advantage against the fish and crustaceans that it eats.

Black dragonfish babies are transparent and have eyes located on the end of stalks, which can be up to half the length of the body.”

Neil’s comment – “ Now I understand why people enjoy reading.”

Two more pupils from the North of England, aged 12 and 13, were trying to do the same thing, with the same result – they could not read at all, despite years of “interventions” using one of the best-known, government-approved, reading schemes. I taught them individually, remotely, with an assistant sitting in. Starting with their names, I explained that, while letters will always help us read a word, they won’t tell us all we need to know, because we have just 26 letters and over half a million words. Cherie’s name is French, and I explained how the language as well as the country was invaded in 1066, using this excellent animation of the Bayeux Tapestry. I then worked on simple words, beginning with table, and adding cable, stable, fable. Both succeeded.

Substituting words with the same letter group reinforces the adjustment in thinking, forms a new neural network in the brain, and means that the child does not have to start from scratch next time they meet a word with the same pattern. Variations in English spelling are second nature to people who have learned them – each time we meet them, they are consolidated by small charges of electricity running along the neural networks. But to a learner, each departure from their previous understanding, whether it be a group of letters, or the effect of one letter on another – eg the c in cat and face – requires an adjustment of thinking and an extension of their networks. As English spelling comes from a mix of Germanic, French, and Norse (answer) languages, these adjustments are more complex than in, say, Spanish, and so cause problems. Presenting them in terms of rules and exceptions, in linguistic terminology derived from Greek, without explanation of how things have come to be as they are, does not work for too many children and leads to confusion, frustration and failure. A simple explanation, in terms they can understand, does. All three of these pupils said that they had enjoyed the work, and wanted more. The assistant found the improvement “amazing”.

I usually ask children, in a jokey way, if they behave perfectly all of the time, and explain that languages, like children, behave most of the time – but not always. This makes sense to them, and does not set up false expectations. Letters will always help, but not always tell us everything we need to know. I’ve been demonstrating this since the mid-1990s, with parents, teachers, assistants and other colleagues sitting in, and will continue to do so. If you think I can help, please get in touch. There is no charge.