ABSTRACT
In order to focus on the specific questions it is important to see the place of this approach to learning to read in the history and theory of reading. This context becomes particularly cogent because we are now in the middle of contentious arguments about the teaching of reading. This central issue in primary classrooms and matter for concern when there are literacy difficulties has been politicised and given a polarised focus by the media. The debate all too often resolves into a simplistic argument about teaching methods, though, as teachers know, and HMI reports1 have confirmed, what teachers usually do in practice is to use a variety of methods and approaches which are matched to the needs of individual learners. These methods are, however, now subsumed under a wider understanding of the ways in which language works and the ways in which children learn.
