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Why every child needs explicit phonics instruction to learn to read

<h3>Being able to read means being able to make meaning from printed words&period;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>At a functional level&comma; we read to get the message – such as how many times per day to take our medication – but <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;maryannewolf&period;com&sol;reader-come-home-1">in a literate society reading provides<&sol;a> much more&period; A successful reader is someone who can access the thoughts&comma; opinions&comma; memories&comma; theories&comma; desires&comma; experiences and feelings of others&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Reading is a transformative experience&period; But it is also a <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;tandfonline&period;com&sol;doi&sol;full&sol;10&period;3109&sol;17549507&period;2015&period;1112837">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;biologically unnatural” process<&sol;a> humans have been doing for only a brief time in evolutionary terms&period; Unlike acquiring spoken language&comma; children <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;aft&period;org&sol;sites&sol;default&sol;files&sol;reading&lowbar;rocketscience&lowbar;2004&period;pdf">need to be taught how the English writing system works<&sol;a> and how to master the code for both reading and spelling&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>The written English code<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Written English is considered a code because letters and letter combinations &lpar;graphemes&rpar; represent spoken speech sounds &lpar;phonemes&rpar;&period; The English alphabet has 26 letters&comma; which represent 44 speech sounds&period; This means some letter combinations &lpar;graphemes&rpar; comprise more than one letter&period; For example&comma; in the first sound of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;ship” two letters&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;s” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;h”&comma; make one grapheme that represents the phoneme &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;sh”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For beginning readers&comma; being able to connect graphemes to their corresponding phonemes is not an intuitive&comma; natural process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Learning the complex code is best done through <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;edweek&period;org&sol;ew&sol;issues&sol;how-do-kids-learn-to-read&period;html">explicit and systematic phonics instruction<&sol;a>&period; This involves <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;search&period;informit&period;com&period;au&sol;fullText&semi;dn&equals;284195782446653&semi;res&equals;IELHSS">directly teaching children<&sol;a> to associate graphemes with their corresponding phonemes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Instruction starts using a clearly defined &lpar;systematic&rpar; sequence of letters&comma; starting with only a few correspondences reflecting simple code &lpar;such as single letters&rpar; and progressively moving to complex code&comma; such as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;ng” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;ough”&comma; once mastery is achieved at each level&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"align-center zoomable"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301041&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;45&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;1000&amp&semi;fit&equals;clip"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301041&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;45&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;754&amp&semi;fit&equals;clip" sizes&equals;"&lpar;min-width&colon; 1466px&rpar; 754px&comma; &lpar;max-width&colon; 599px&rpar; 100vw&comma; &lpar;min-width&colon; 600px&rpar; 600px&comma; 237px" srcset&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301041&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;45&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;600&amp&semi;h&equals;471&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;1 600w&comma; https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301041&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;30&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;600&amp&semi;h&equals;471&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;2 1200w&comma; https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301041&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;15&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;600&amp&semi;h&equals;471&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;3 1800w&comma; https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301041&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;45&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;754&amp&semi;h&equals;592&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;1 754w&comma; https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301041&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;30&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;754&amp&semi;h&equals;592&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;2 1508w&comma; https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301041&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194665-yjxlm6&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;15&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;754&amp&semi;h&equals;592&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;3 2262w" alt&equals;"" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption><span class&equals;"caption">English has 44 speech sounds&period;<&sol;span> <span class&equals;"attribution"><span class&equals;"source">from shutterstock&period;com<&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Once children have learnt a few grapheme-phoneme correspondences&comma; they will be explicitly shown how to segment words &lpar;containing only known correspondences&rpar; into their constituent parts and blend them together to decode and read the word&period; At this point&comma; children will be able to read short <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;explainer-whats-the-difference-between-decodable-and-predictable-books-and-when-should-they-be-used-106531">decodable books<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All children must learn to decode&period; Without decoding skills&comma; children could not read made-up words such as Harry Potter’s &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;quidditch”&period; Nor could they read unfamiliar names &lpar;of places such as Oodnadatta&rpar; or medication names &lpar;such as azithromycin&rpar; as these have no other cues to guide the reader to pronunciation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Why phonics works<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Synthetic phonics instruction aligns with the two strongest and most well-regarded theoretical frameworks in <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;edweek&period;org&sol;ew&sol;issues&sol;how-do-kids-learn-to-read&period;html">contemporary reading science<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first is the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;link&period;springer&period;com&sol;article&sol;10&period;1007&sol;BF00401799">simple view of reading<&sol;a> developed in 1986&comma; which has more recently &lpar;2018&rpar; been reformulated as the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;tandfonline&period;com&sol;doi&sol;abs&sol;10&period;1080&sol;19404158&period;2019&period;1614081">cognitive foundations of learning to read<&sol;a>&period; This holds that reading comprehension is made up of two mutually dependent and essential processes&colon; being able to decode words and being able to understand what connected text means&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The simple view theory had provided <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;journals&period;sagepub&period;com&sol;doi&sol;full&sol;10&period;1177&sol;0741932518767563&quest;casa&lowbar;token&equals;eVUkhonKW6cAAAAA&percnt;3Ab&lowbar;mKIqBhxics0yvdYHozkSBHvscfnI&lowbar;YuF-HgSUC6Xm5yvl&lowbar;X-9GVhdkC7eWavpJtG3hH&lowbar;lr8Q1K">valuable insights into the cognitive processes<&sol;a> necessary for reading comprehension&period; Evidence <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pubs&period;asha&period;org&sol;doi&sol;full&sol;10&period;1044&sol;1092-4388&percnt;282006&sol;023&percnt;29&quest;casa&lowbar;token&equals;Q0xTHxENvYwAAAAA&colon;DmgfcQ3GTI2mtpqrg5gAB2muNDZOFst3SpfYJ2-xN4--PBa97bRXL7IQH6tTlPELq&lowbar;yWI9eOoFfJgw">also shows<&sol;a> the model to be a valid means of sub-classifying children as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;able readers”&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;poor decoders” and&sol;or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;poor comprehenders”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The second framework is <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;ingentaconnect&period;com&sol;content&sol;ioep&sol;clre&sol;2006&sol;00000004&sol;00000001&sol;art00002">dual route theory<&sol;a> &lpar;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;maxcoltheart&period;files&period;wordpress&period;com&sol;2019&sol;02&sol;drc-psychreview2001&period;pdf">developed<&sol;a> in 2001&rpar;&period; This refers to the fact some words readers encounter are already stored as <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;cec&period;sped&period;org&sol;&percnt;7E&sol;media&sol;Files&sol;Professional&percnt;20Development&sol;Webinars&sol;Handouts&sol;Excerpts&percnt;20from&percnt;20Equipped&percnt;20for&percnt;20Reading&percnt;20Success&period;pdf">recognisable letter strings<&sol;a> in their long-term memory&period; We instantly recognise these words when we see them&comma; through the lexical route&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But unfamiliar words need to be decoded&comma; via a phonological &lpar;sound-based&rpar; route&comma; using knowledge of how letters and letter combinations &lpar;graphemes&rpar; map onto speech &lpar;phonemes&rpar;&period; As we become more skilled as readers&comma; we access more words automatically&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Dual route theory aligns with <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;cese&period;nsw&period;gov&period;au&sol;publications-filter&sol;cognitive-load-theory-research-that-teachers-really-need-to-understand">cognitive load theory<&sol;a>&period; This is the idea that there is only so much information a human brain can hold at any one time unless there is a dedicated and structured opportunity to practise and rehearse it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"align-center zoomable"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301046&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194628-s1kdca&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;45&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;1000&amp&semi;fit&equals;clip"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301046&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194628-s1kdca&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;45&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;754&amp&semi;fit&equals;clip" sizes&equals;"&lpar;min-width&colon; 1466px&rpar; 754px&comma; &lpar;max-width&colon; 599px&rpar; 100vw&comma; &lpar;min-width&colon; 600px&rpar; 600px&comma; 237px" srcset&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301046&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194628-s1kdca&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;45&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;600&amp&semi;h&equals;449&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;1 600w&comma; https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301046&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194628-s1kdca&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;30&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;600&amp&semi;h&equals;449&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;2 1200w&comma; https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301046&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194628-s1kdca&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;15&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;600&amp&semi;h&equals;449&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;3 1800w&comma; https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301046&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194628-s1kdca&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;45&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;754&amp&semi;h&equals;564&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;1 754w&comma; https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301046&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194628-s1kdca&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;30&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;754&amp&semi;h&equals;564&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;2 1508w&comma; https&colon;&sol;&sol;images&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;files&sol;301046&sol;original&sol;file-20191111-194628-s1kdca&period;jpg&quest;ixlib&equals;rb-1&period;1&period;0&amp&semi;q&equals;15&amp&semi;auto&equals;format&amp&semi;w&equals;754&amp&semi;h&equals;564&amp&semi;fit&equals;crop&amp&semi;dpr&equals;3 2262w" alt&equals;"" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption><span class&equals;"caption">Children should be taught word structures&comma; so they can read unfamiliar words without context – like Cowra Boorowa&period;<&sol;span> <span class&equals;"attribution"><a class&equals;"source" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;flickr&period;com&sol;photos&sol;29901446&commat;N07&sol;2799180151&sol;in&sol;photolist-5gmwJK-4czneg-4detJa-4zz3Dc-43Dvjp-hQTpCi-ifPJ2-JyMXXa-5eXDk4-4WUPTH-6gU19c-4cDnkE-KcYoc1-2bAJEQK-7sxXyV-C9ZrkN-XLa9AN-2h9967q-8mkDJK-5gqSb5-2h4wSHG-VRjEwB-MoDJFy-Zr64dn-KCaefC-JenRQ8-XN2SpQ-2h4yHRH-sWhdxN-23x8uZP-2h4wSAx-2h4yHTm-KtvtQ3-21Yur5J-26ieuCe-27zatiy-29Noy3e-98EGyP-9bqpYK-vu8ox-4w3rEe-fHSsa-7sBVWb-7sBUmS-brDWMu-583W3i-brDWSw-UfRkcJ-UggKms-5v9GTC">Brenden Ashton&sol;Unsplash<&sol;a>&comma; <a class&equals;"license" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;creativecommons&period;org&sol;licenses&sol;by&sol;4&period;0&sol;">CC BY<&sol;a><&sol;span><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In line with this&comma; the workings of the English writing system are best taught <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;journals&period;sagepub&period;com&sol;doi&sol;full&sol;10&period;1177&sol;1529100618772271">explicitly and systematically<&sol;a>&comma; so beginning readers are not put into the unfortunate and unnecessary situation of being cognitively overloaded&period; The risk of cognitive overload is high when the code is shown to children in an unsystematic&comma; unstructured way or&comma; even more worryingly&comma; if it is assumed children will intuitively understand the code simply by exposure to written text&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Instruction should also include an emphasis on morphology &lpar;word building&comma; such as happy&comma; unhappy&comma; unhappily&rpar; and etymology &lpar;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;etymonline&period;com&sol;search&quest;q&equals;d">study of word origins<&sol;a>&rpar;&comma; so students recognise patterns and relationships between words&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Although knowing how to decode words is fundamental to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;edweek&period;org&sol;ew&sol;issues&sol;how-do-kids-learn-to-read&period;html">becoming a reader<&sol;a>&comma; teaching children to crack the code should also be done alongside instructional practices that ensure <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bep&period;education&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;09&sol;Bringing-Words-to-Life-Booklet&period;pdf">rapidly expanding vocabularies and world knowledge<&sol;a>&comma; so children can bring language skills and background knowledge to the task of comprehending what they read&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Covering all bases<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>A significant proportion&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dyslexiaida&period;org&sol;ladder-of-reading-infographic-structured-literacy-helps-all-students&sol;">close to 40&percnt;<&sol;a>&comma; of children manage to learn to read without explicit and systematic phonics instruction &lpar;or with phonics instruction of variable impact&rpar; due to a confluence of biological and environmental advantages&period; These children may receive less structured initial reading instruction that encourages them to use a variety of strategies&comma; such as picture and context cues&comma; before attending to the graphemes within a word&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The remaining 60&percnt; of children taught in this way are <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;europepmc&period;org&sol;articles&sol;PMC4240019">highly vulnerable<&sol;a> to falling behind as readers&period; And the proportion of vulnerability increases <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;books&period;google&period;com&period;au&sol;books&sol;about&sol;Language&lowbar;at&lowbar;the&lowbar;Speed&lowbar;of&lowbar;Sight&period;html&quest;id&equals;JqZVDgAAQBAJ&amp&semi;amp&semi;printsec&equals;frontcover&amp&semi;amp&semi;source&equals;kp&lowbar;read&lowbar;button&amp&semi;amp&semi;redir&lowbar;esc&equals;y&num;v&equals;onepage&amp&semi;amp&semi;q&amp&semi;amp&semi;f&equals;false">with the level of disadvantage<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>No teacher of children in their first year of school can reliably identify&comma; in the first term&comma; which children will struggle with reading and which will get there seamlessly&period; To wait until a year &lpar;or more&rpar; has passed and then try to back-fill and close this gap shows a poor understanding of the importance of making every day count in children’s early learning&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;tandfonline&period;com&sol;doi&sol;abs&sol;10&period;1080&sol;19404158&period;2013&period;840887">should be teaching<&sol;a> <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dyslexiaida&period;org&sol;ladder-of-reading-infographic-structured-literacy-helps-all-students&sol;">95&percnt; of children<&sol;a> to read successfully&comma; so need to be using high-impact teaching approaches from the outset&comma; with all children&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If not explicit and systematic phonics instruction&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;heinemann&period;com&sol;products&sol;e07433&period;aspx">what is the teacher’s time being spent on<&sol;a>&quest; Teaching words from flash cards for children to learn as wholes without any analysis of what is happening within the word&quest; Or promoting inefficient strategies &lpar;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;readingrockets&period;org&sol;article&sol;use-context-cues-reading">ironically those used by weak readers<&sol;a>&rpar; such as trying to work out what &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;kind” of word might work&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even more bizarrely &lpar;and unhelpfully&rpar;&comma; children might be encouraged to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;get their mouths ready” to read an unfamiliar word&period; It is not a child’s mouth that needs to be ready for learning to read&comma; but her brain&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We must provide and promote reading instruction approaches that ensure the overwhelming majority of children learn to read in the early years of school&comma; regardless of their starting point&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<h6><em>Read the accompanying article on the the whole language approach to teaching reading <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;reading-is-more-than-sounding-out-words-and-decoding-thats-why-we-use-the-whole-language-approach-to-teaching-it-126606">here<&sol;a>&period; <&sol;em><em>This article initially said the dual route theory was developed in 2012&period; This has now been corrected to 2001 and the reference updated&period;<&sol;em><&excl;-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag&period; Please DO NOT REMOVE&period; --><img style&equals;"border&colon; none &excl;important&semi; box-shadow&colon; none &excl;important&semi; margin&colon; 0 &excl;important&semi; max-height&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; max-width&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; min-height&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; min-width&colon; 1px &excl;important&semi; opacity&colon; 0 &excl;important&semi; outline&colon; none &excl;important&semi; padding&colon; 0 &excl;important&semi; text-shadow&colon; none &excl;important&semi;" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;counter&period;theconversation&period;com&sol;content&sol;125065&sol;count&period;gif&quest;distributor&equals;republish-lightbox-basic" alt&equals;"The Conversation" width&equals;"1" height&equals;"1" &sol;> <&excl;-- End of code&period; If you don't see any code above&comma; please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button&period; The page counter does not collect any personal data&period; More info&colon; http&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;republishing-guidelines --><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;profiles&sol;pamela-snow-5256">Pamela Snow<&sol;a>&comma; Professor and Head&comma; Rural Health School&comma; <em><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;institutions&sol;la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University<&sol;a><&sol;em> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;profiles&sol;tanya-serry-1806">Tanya Serry<&sol;a>&comma; Senior Lecturer&comma; <em><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;institutions&sol;la-trobe-university-842">La Trobe University <&sol;a><&sol;em>This article is republished from <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com">The Conversation<&sol;a> under a Creative Commons license&period; Read the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;theconversation&period;com&sol;why-every-child-needs-explicit-phonics-instruction-to-learn-to-read-125065">original article<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;h6>&NewLine;

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