What is a reading approach?

Over the years teachers have used a variety of approaches to teach reading and writing.

A reading approach is a way to start teaching beginning readers.

Various approaches begin by

• teaching learners to get meaning from whole chunks of text
• teaching whole words and going on to larger chunks of text
• teaching whole words and breaking them down into smaller parts
• teaching parts of words and putting them together into whole words, or
• teaching meaning, whole words, and parts of words from the very beginning.

The approaches overlap with some common elements appearing in all of them.

The information here is introductory. You will need to study these approaches in more detail to understand the distinctions.

Here are some kinds of reading approaches:

• What is an analytic approach to reading?
• What is an eclectic approach to reading?
• What is a global approach to reading?
• What is a phonic approach to reading?
• What is a sight word approach to reading?
• The syllable approach to reading
• What is a synthetic approach to reading?

• Defining an instructional program

• Adams 1990
• Aukerman 1984
• Gudschinsky 1973
• Halvorson 1992
• McCormick 1988

• Concept module: reading approach
• In overview module: Glossary (Literacy): R
• In modular book: Glossary of literacy terms
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 27 July 1999

© 1999 SIL International