The PSS Approach to Reading: Solution to the Reading Wars

The National Curriculum Framework, 2005 includes the section Learning to Read and Write under the heading Language and thus it is important to analyze briefly how early literacy as a part of language education in schools has been dealt with in the NCF. It says that speech, listening, reading and writing are the four communicative skills (NCF, 2005, p.40) essential for children to succeed in school. Instead of making the students sit quietly in classrooms, their speech should be looked upon as a way of expression and group-discussions among them should be encouraged. Listening ability teaches them to be attentive, respect each other’s opinions and interpret what is being said in different ways. Folklore and music can be used to make the compositions interesting for the students to listen.

In regard to reading, the use of memorization of information-stuffed books has been criticized and the up gradation of libraries with supplementary material useful and attractive for the students is recommended. The paper also brings to our notice the reasons for which students find it difficult to learn reading in schools. Some of the problems are-inadequate pre-service and in-service teacher training for reading pedagogy, inability of teachers to decide the approach (phonic or whole language) for teaching to read, decontextualized textbooks which make it boring for students especially the first-generation learners (NCF, 2005, p.41). Suggestions regarding measures that can be implemented to help students in learning to read include: providing print-rich environment, teaching letter-sound correspondence, encouraging children to write down their experiences and then asking them to read the same, for first generation learners, reading supplementary stories and poems taken from folklores and their cultural backgrounds may be helpful.

Expressing themselves through writing should be given more importance than writing essays or letters and other texts by simply copying from blackboards in a mechanical way. Thus reading and writing aptitude has been stressed upon from the beginning of schooling in order to ensure that all students gain mastery over them. As I mentioned above, there exists confusion among educators about the approach to teaching reading. This debate between phonics-based reading instruction and the whole language approach is not new and there are many arguments made in favour or against for both of these methods in the education field.

Phonics is a bottom-up approach for teaching children to read and spell words. In this method, the language is broken down into small components. It is a set of rules taught to students so that they can apply them while sounding out new words. It emphasizes that students should be able to speak the words out loud based on the way they are spelled. It is decoding the text by recognizing the sound-letter correspondence. This is where the difference between the scripts of English language and Indian languages emerges.

The English writing system consists of 26 letters and has sounds more than this, i.e., it does not have one-to-one correspondence between letter and sound. This is called as an opaque writing system. There are multiple spellings for the same sound, for example, too, two, to; be, bee; red, read (past tense), etc. There are combinations of two letters to make one sound which again sound different in different words, for example: break, appeal; toast, abroad, etc. Thus, it is not possible to decode the vast amount of vocabulary in the English language by applying a definite set of rules of phonics. Indian languages on the other hand have a script in which each letter corresponds to only one sound, i.e., one letter has only one corresponding sound and one sound has only one corresponding letter. This is a transparent writing system. Hence, it is easier to implement the phonic method to teach reading in Indian languages as compared to English.

The Pragat Shikshan Sanstha Approach to reading is an attempt to use this feature of Indian language (in this case, Marathi) to make it simple for children to learn reading. In this approach, phonemic consciousness is considered to be the first essential part of learning. Children are first introduced to familiar words relating to the objects/people they see around and are repeatedly asked to say them loud with emphasis on the pronunciation of each syllable of the word, for example the sound of ‘m’, ‘ma’, ‘k’ and finally ‘d’ in ‘makad’. Thus students realize that each word has small components which are associated with different sounds. Once the children are able to read and say the words correctly, they are taught how to write the letters and then the words which they form together. They feel with touch how the letters are written by using objects like tamarind seeds to form the letter and then they move their hands over it again and again. This helps them in remembering how to write the letters. After this, they are introduced with words and sentences which can be formed using that particular letter.

One of the drawbacks of phonics approach is that it tries to develop the students’ reading skills by decoding texts which are often meaningless and consequently fail to apply the skills effectively. This is not helpful for the children who belong to a background where there is a lack of exposure to print, since they do not get the chance to apply their reading proficiency for a long time. On the other hand, children who come from literate families build a strong vocabulary by reading meaningful texts along with proper pronunciations. Critics of phonics also say that the texts used for teaching to learn reading are meaningless and uninteresting for the children. Shobha Sinha in her article Acquiring Literacy in Schools gives many examples to show how the overdependence on phonics method actually makes reading, a difficult and dull activity for the students. But unlike other phonics-based reading instruction, in the PSS approach, words to be taught are selected in a way that children can relate to them easily, for example, ai (mother), mama (mother’s brother), etc.  Abbreviated vowel signs (matras) are introduced which allow them to read more and more words once they are able to read the letters.

PSS approach combines the whole language method with the phonics at this stage. Once students are able to read words and sentences after five or six lessons, they are given interesting and relevant poems and stories to read. Importance is given to meaning making of texts as a whole and since the children have already begun to acquire phonemic consciousness, breaking language into parts for decoding is not required. It gives opportunities to children for reading various types of stories, poems, etc. which are relevant to their socio-cultural context. Thus, they do not have to memorize a lot of difficult, decontextualized words (which is one of the criticisms of whole language approach).  

It is widely accepted that writing helps in improving reading skills of children (Teale & Sulzby, 1989). The PSS approach reinforces this fact by encouraging students to draw pictures and write down their experiences at home, school, the field visits they are taken for, etc. Initially their words are not comprehensible by adults, but when asked to read, they do read out what they have written. The teacher then writes down their account just below the pictures so that they gradually learn how to write what they can speak. The interesting thing is that the teacher does not completely point out their mistakes (grammatical, spelling, pronunciation), but accepts their thoughts as they wish to express. Gradually with the practice of reading, writing and talking to peers and teachers, the students themselves correct their mistakes. Thus, the joy of reading out their own experiences in school makes the reading-writing activity interesting for the students.

Berntsen (2009) rightly calls the PSS Approach as eclectic since it uses both the whole language and phonics method for teaching how to read. The phonics method prepares the children to spell and pronounce limitless words correctly, thus allowing them to read texts of varying levels. The whole language approach enables them to make meaning of texts without having to memorize a limited vocabulary. Students who undergo such a process of learning to read are able to read fluently and comprehend texts. This methodology is eclectic also in the sense that it focuses on children’s efforts to make meaning and not on their errors. The child is helped at every stage to improve giving everyone the chance to work towards their problems and finally gain mastery over the reading-writing skills. The PSS approach also effectively implements the recommendations made in the NCF 2005 for improving reading-writing competence of school going children irrespective of their background.

References

Berntsen, M. (2009). Teaching Early Literacy in Indian Languages. Learning Curve, newsletter of the Azim Premji Foundation, XIII, 38-40. Retrieved from http://azimpremjifoundation.org/pdf/LCIssue13.pdf.

Bomengen, M. (2010, September 23). What is the “Whole Language” Approach to Teaching Reading? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2010/09/23/What-is-the-Whole-Languagee-Approach-to-Teaching-Reading.aspx.

McGuinness, D. (2002). A Prototype for Teaching the English Alphabet Code. RRF Newsletter, 49. Retrieved from http://www.rrf.org.uk/archive.php?n_ID=95&n_issueNumber=49.

NCERT. (2005). National Curriculum Framework 2005. New Delhi: National Council of Educational Research and Training. Retrieved from http://www.ncert.nic.in/rightside/links/pdf/framework/english/nf2005.pdf.

Sinha, S. (2000). Acquiring Literacy in Schools. Redesigning Curricula Seminar 493, 38-42. Retrieved from http://www.india-seminar.com/2000/493/493%20shobha%20sinha.htm.

Teale, W. H. & Sulzby, E. (1989). Emergent Literacy: New Perspectives. In Strickland, D. & Mandel, L. (Eds.), Emerging Literacy: Young Children Learn to Read and Write. Reprinted in Richard D. Robinson et al., Issues and Trends in Literacy Education. Allyn and Bacon, 1996.