Professor Kate Nation, director of ReadOxford talks to TES's Kate Townshend on how schools need to get the right balance between phonics and comprehension skills so that children can thrive in reading.
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Two sets of things are critical for early readers.... you have to understand how the writing system works – the idea that letters represent sounds. It can be a penny dropping moment for some kids, the understanding that this letter S is changing the word because it changes the sound.
And then the other side of the coin is that we read to comprehend, too. We need that alphabetic principle, but we also need a broader understanding of language.
- Professor Kate Nation