In an experiment similar to that of Rozin's (1971), Chinese ideographs were taught to a group of American children having great difficulty learning to read English by the phonemic approach. The quick and sure learning of the ideographs suggests we should explore less abstract, less phonemic approaches to the initial phase of teaching reading in the hope of facilitating early learning. Because English is mapped through syllable sounds, a syllable introduction is suggested as the best initial step, later introducing phonemes as syllable building blocks.
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