Editing Phonics (section)

===Singapore===

[[Singapore]] has a diverse language environment with four official languages including English which is the language of education and administration. [[Bilingualism]] is the "cornerstone" of the education system where students learn both English and their own mother tongue language in school.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2016/encyclopedia/countries/singapore/reading-instruction-in-the-primary-grades/|title=Singapore reading instruction, primary grades, PIRLS 2016}}</ref> 99% of children attend preschool education (as early as 18 months of age) although it is not compulsory in Singapore.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2016/encyclopedia/countries/singapore/overview-of-education-system/|title=Overview of educucation system in Singapore, PIRLS 2016}}</ref>

The 2001 English Language Syllabus of Singapore advocated "a balance between decoding and meaning-based instruction ... phonics and whole language". However, a review in 2006 advocated for a "systematic" approach. The subsequent syllabus, in 2010, had no mention of whole language and recommended a balanced, interactive and comprehensive reading programme. It refers to ''Learning to Read: The Great Debate'' by [[Jeanne Chall]] (1967) and the [[National Reading Panel]] (2000) both of which supported systematic phonics; and the [[International Literacy Association]] (2005) that supported balanced instruction saying phonics is "necessary but insufficient".

The syllabus for 2010 advocates for a balance between "systematic and explicit instruction" and "a rich language environment". It called for increased instruction in oral language skills together with phonemic awareness and the key decoding elements of synthetic phonics, analytic phonics and analogy phonics. Specifically, it advocated for instruction in phonic's areas such as word families and rimes (e.g., '''jump'''s and '''jump'''ed; b'''ite''' and k'''ite'''), segmenting and blending (e.g., {{IPAc-en|k}}, {{IPAc-en|æ}}, {{IPAc-en|t}}= cat), vowels, consonants and syllables. And finally, it called for instruction in word study, grammar, vocabulary, writing and comprehension.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.moe.gov.sg/docs/default-source/document/education/syllabuses/english-language-and-literature/files/english-primary-secondary-express-normal-academic.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.moe.gov.sg/docs/default-source/document/education/syllabuses/english-language-and-literature/files/english-primary-secondary-express-normal-academic.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=2010 English language syllabus, Minister of Education, Singapore}}</ref>

Singapore received the second highest reading score (576) after the Russian Federation (581) in the 2016 [[PIRLS]] report on grade four students.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2016/international-results/pirls/student-achievement/pirls-achievement-results/|title=PIRLS 2016 student achievement}}</ref>