The Curious Role of Letter Names in Reading Instruction

Abstract

For about two thousand years educators assumed without question that learning the letter n ames in their proper sequence was a prerequisite for literacy. Learning the ABC's became synonymous with learning to read. But today there is disagreement over the value of early letter-name training. Some claim that it aids letter or word discrimination; some claim that it aids attaching sounds to letters, and some claim tha t it interferes with both of these tasks. An analysis of the letter names and of experimental and pedagogic evidence lends little support to the claims of letter-naming benefits. In several countries-including the United States, the Soviet Union, and Israel-letter-name knowledge has been found to interfere with learning to attach sounds to letters. But leuer-name knowledge has also been shown to be one of the best single predictors of reading success, and no mauer what is shown experimentally about the utility of letter names, they are efficient labels for the leuers and an inseparable element in the popular concept of reading instruction.