Best ways for children to learn how to read

In its Year one report, the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EdCom II) highlighted issues on the old and new K-12 curriculum, including its congestion and unclear competency support for learners, and limited resources for instructional preparation. Recommendations were made on enhancing teacher training, resource distribution, and fostering more effective learner participation through community and parental involvement.

While valuable, the recommendations mainly focus on the implementation side of teaching and learning delivery. Adopting a theory- and evidence-based approach is crucial for refining the curriculum and enhancing educational outcomes.

For reading, the science of reading investigates the best ways for children to learn to read in different languages. Reading involves complex processes in the brain, as learners need to make sense of the written words in front of them. Reading a word involves “decoding,” a process of connecting written letters with the speech sounds they make. Once the written word is decoded, it is then connected with the words learners know in oral language. According to the simple view of reading, reading comprehension is the byproduct of decoding and language comprehension.

Despite Filipino being known as an easily decodable language, recent assessments show that many students are still struggling. Unfortunately, Comprehensive Rapid Literacy Assessment results in school year 2023-24 revealed that less than 20 percent of Grade 3 learners are still learning to decode or recognize words in their mother tongue. Why are Filipino learners struggling if our language is easy to decode?

It could be due to a lack of consistency in basic reading instruction. A 2015 Early Grade Reading Assessment report showed that some teachers start with vowels, others with alphabetical order, and some use custom methods when introducing the alphabet. However, experts recommend a clear and systematic way of teaching phonics, where students learn the sounds of letters in a particular order. The Marungko approach, which teaches phonics in steps from simple to complex, is perhaps the closest to a systematic phonics approach for Filipino. It helps students start reading simple words quickly and build up to more complex sentences. Consistency and intensity are important. The Educational Endowment Foundation suggests using systematic phonics methods in either one-on-one or small group remediation settings. They recommend 30-minute sessions up to four times a week for 12 weeks.

However, decoding is not enough. Understanding what those words mean is just as crucial. Even if children can decode words, they won’t understand what they’re reading if they don’t know the meaning of the words. Children naturally pick up language skills from their environment, which helps expand their knowledge, vocabulary, understanding of grammatical structures, and reasoning ability before they even start school.

But research suggests that children come to school with different levels of language ability. These differences can be larger when learners do not receive much language exposure or when the language of the classroom is different from the language spoken at home.

Teachers can help develop these language comprehension skills through activities that involve listening and talking. Strategies include providing new experiences to children, reading aloud books that model rich language, conducting meaningful discussions with questions that make kids think, and teaching new vocabulary.

The Institute for Education Sciences also suggests evidence-based strategies in the classroom. These involve repeating what a child says but adding more details or using accurate grammar, which helps them learn new words and sentence structures.

Outside the classroom, the community and family environment significantly influence language development. Despite challenges such as limited resources, studies show that Filipino families are resourceful and value education, often seeking help within their community or using available materials to support learning.

In the Philippines, embracing systematic phonics and interactive language interaction strategies can greatly improve literacy rates. These interventions should be evaluated using assessment tools that align with evidence-based decoding and language comprehension, and with sensitivity to differences in households and communities.

Helping Filipino learners with decoding and language comprehension is a good start, but reading comprehension goes beyond the basics.

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Katrina Dulay, Ph.D. is a lecturer in Developmental Psychology at City St. George’s, University of London and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow. Glenda Darlene Garcia, formerly a teacher and a reading and literacy interventionist, holds master’s degrees in Reading Education from UP Diliman, Educational Neuroscience from University College London-Institute of Education, and Birkbeck, University of London.