Open AccessBeginning Literacy: The Small-Unit Versus Large-Unit Debate Continues
Author(s) -
Juliet Twist
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
new zealand annual review of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1178-3311
pISSN - 1171-3283
DOI - 10.26686/nzaroe.v0i13.1455
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , unit (ring theory) , grapheme , literacy , relation (database) , mathematics education , analogy , psychology , order (exchange) , linguistics , computer science , pedagogy , philosophy , engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , graphene , database , chemical engineering , finance , economics
This article presents a review of the literature on the small- versus large-unit debate, followed by an analysis of the Ready to Read Teacher Support Material in order to determine where it stands in relation to the issue over whether only grapheme-phoneme correspondences should be taught to beginning readers, or whether they should also be taught rime-analogy strategies. The literature review shows the small-units-first argument as the more robust, and the analysis of the Ready to Read support material shows the small-units-first argument has been relatively more influential in the development of teaching suggestions for readers at the beginning of instruction.