A chapter of errors: A response to Martin Turner

In the last issue of Support for Learning Martin Turner restated the evidence that, he claimed, prove reading standards had declined in primary school children. Controversially, he linked this directly with teaching method, asserting that the current decline was due to the widespread use of ‘psycholinguistic’ approaches. Readers were challenged to give an alternative explanation of the research findings.David Wray accepts the challenge. He is clearly angry at what Turner produces as ‘evidence’; his interpretation is that it is far from definitive. Similarly, his investigations lead him to the conclusion that there is no relationship between teaching method and achievement. Indeed, poor levels of reading may well be due to matters largely beyond teacher control. In particular he cites the recent study by Lake which links performance with social background, a not unfamiliar claim. Wray finally condemns Turner and others for their simplistic explanations and urges more substantial research before leaping to conclusions.