ABSTRACT
A look at the development of literacy policies in England reveals that at different times in history a variety of different approaches have been in favour. Until well into the nineteenth century the alphabetic method was prominent: children were taught to name and recognize the letters of the alphabet. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards in England phonics began to replace the alphabetic approach. The National Literacy Strategy advocated a multi-strategy approach to the teaching of reading, with phonics seen as just one component. The House of Commons Education and Skills Select Committee proposed a large-scale review of the National Literacy Strategy and the approaches schools take to teach reading and writing. It appears that this decision was influenced by the so-called 'Clackmannanshire study', a study into the effectiveness of synthetic phonics that was carried out in Scotland. The main aim of the Clackmannanshire study had been to compare the effectiveness of teaching phonemic awareness, with teaching analytic and synthetic phonics.
