Critics Say `Hooked On Phonics' Program Flawed

The cheery radio huckster's pitch seems to be everywhere: "Did you know there were only 44 sounds in the English language? That's right, 44!"

She is selling "Hooked on Phonics" - and a promise to all that they can teach themselves to read.

The product's creator, a California musician, says "Hooked on Phonics" will help adults who can't read, children just learning to read and children with reading problems. His company plans to spend more than $35 million this year on the seemingly unavoidable radio and television commercials.

Detractors, including some of the nation's leading educators, say a flawed design and a $180 price tag make "Hooked on Phonics" a rip-off aimed at people too desperate to resist. That includes an estimated 27 million adult illiterates in the United States.

RESPONSE IS BLUNT

The company's response to all attacks is blunt: "Hooked on Phonics" works, and it has thousands of testimonials to back the claim.

Even some who challenge those claims acknowledge that the product's commercial success - more than 500,000 have sold in the past five years - shows that "Hooked on Phonics" fills a void mainstream educators have left vacant.

"These people have found a `hula hoop,' something that fits people's needs that nobody else is doing," said Dr. Judith Walker DeFelix, chairman of curriculum and instruction for the University of Houston's College of Education.

John Shanahan, the creator of "Hooked on Phonics," waves off most criticism.

"I'm not afraid of these so-called experts," he said. "They are the people who are responsible for the illiteracy crisis we have in the United States today."

"Hooked on Phonics" is a self-contained, systematic, phonetics-based instruction program that requires only a cassette tape recorder to use. It's easy to order - over the phone or even COD. That anonymity protects illiterate adults from the embarrassment of acknowledging their problem to a tutor or a salesclerk.

No other program combines all these features with comparably expansive claims of success, education experts say.

The question those experts have is simple: Does it work?

Some literacy programs and school districts have examined "Hooked on Phonics" and found it wanting.

"A couple of people called who bought it," said Molly Stewart, assistant director of the Dallas County (Texas) Adult Literacy Council. "They were almost in tears."

Eileen Enochs, language-arts coordinator for Richardson, Texas, schools, examined "Hooked on Phonics" after several parents called asking about the program, she said.

EXPERTS SKEPTICAL

"I do not believe that the person who goes through that program will be reading when they finish," she said. "They may have spent that money with minimal or less results."

Some national literacy experts offer similar comments. But Gateway Educational Products has a list of satisfied customers, including some education experts.

"When kids are having a difficult time with the learning process, you look for other methods," said Andrea Hilburn, principal at C.F. Carr Elementary School in Dallas. One of her teachers is using parts of the "Hooked on Phonics" program with selected students.

Some of those on Gateway's customer list offer glowing tales.

Albert Lee Rockins of Dallas heard the ad last year and ordered the program. Rockins, 72, said he was unable to read when he started "Hooked on Phonics."

"I won't say it made me speed-read," he said. "But I can read fast enough to complete what I want to read and then understand it."

But Bobby Phillips, 55, whose name was also supplied by Gateway, said she had made little progress since ordering the program earlier this year. She said she never completed the program but intends to try again.

Phillips, also of Dallas, said she can now read "my name, my husband's name - that's about all."

Shanahan, the former musician who scorns academic credentials and criticisms, admits his commercials have scaled back their claims. Earlier claims - that a person can read a 120-page book after learning the lesson contained on an 18-minute cassette - are no longer being broadcast.

NEW VERSION ON WAY

A new version of "Hooked on Phonics" now in production will respond to specific criticisms leveled by some educators, company officials say.

But those changes probably won't satisfy those who deny the basic premise behind "Hooked on Phonics": that a person armed only with flashcards, a few workbooks and a tape recorder can teach himself to read.

Recent ads say "Hooked on Phonics" has put "sounds to music, making learning to read simple and fun." But customers expecting music in the style of Michael Jackson, or even Ernie of "Sesame Street," will be disappointed.

The tapes have no songs or melody, only an unchanging rhythmic syntho-pop background setting a constant pace of about 110 beats a minute.

The instruction tape states that the music is beneficial because "many educators believe that when the right and left sides of the brain are stimulated at the same time, learning capabilities are maximized."

The music does that, said Jane Wages, a Gateway employee. Shanahan refers to her as his "resident Ph.D." and expert in teaching techniques, even though she acknowledges that she has no doctorate and that her master's degree is in comparative literature.

The slick national marketing campaign has made "Hooked on Phonics" a household name and has drawn the heaviest criticism from literacy experts.

Regarding the commercials asserting that by learning the lessons on an 18-minute tape, a person would be able to read a 120-page book, Shanahan said, the ad never said it would TAKE only 18 minutes.

"It was after learning, learning, learning, LEARNING one 18-minute lesson," he said.

He said he was not troubled that someone who could not read could miss the distinction.

He defended the claim that the lesson would lead to reading a book. The "book" referred to is not a novel or story. It is a soft-back workbook filled with lists of simple words.

"What is a book? Is a magazine a book? Is a menu a book?" he asked.

Besides, he said, for those who start the program able to read nothing, that workbook is a significant accomplishment in which they take great pride.

"You call them and tell them they're not reading a book," he said.