Importance of phonics

The advantage of phonics over simply teaching the alphabet is that once they have mastered the main sounds, they can then read many English words! It is a method of reading instruction that breaks language down into its simplest components.

Children learn the sounds of individual letters first, then the sounds of letters in combination and in simple words. Simple reading exercises with a controlled vocabulary reinforce the process.

A well-designed phonics program also teaches the most common spelling, pronunciation, and syllable division rules needed to figure out which sound to use when. It can also improve your spelling, even if you manage to read very well.

Phonics helps to develop a good solid sight vocabulary so that they do not need to sound out every single word they come across in their reading.
Signs that you may need phonics:
- Very slow reading

- Dislike of reading
- Poor spelling
- Difficulty reading technical material
- Difficulty reading the following words: Cardiomyopathy, Bibliography, etc

Necessary points to learn phonics

Knowledge of phonics and how it should be applied to sounding out unknown words is an essential skill that all readers must develop in order to learn to read with ease and understanding. If phonics is taught in a step by step fashion with much of the time spent on giving the student practice in applying the skill, tremendous results occurs.

The secret lies in teaching one skill at a time and then giving the student plenty of practice is using the skill. In this way the student internalizes the phonetic sound and can apply it to improve his reading skills.

One should first test this phonemic awareness in students, and then follow with instruction in letter/sound relationships, each letter/sound at a time. The next steps would be to teach blending sounds, and building words.

Start with one syllable words, then gradually increase this to two syllables, three syllable and then finally four and five syllable words. Teach them the vowels a,e,i,o,u and sometimes y. Explain to them about the short sounds (eg; i in pitch, a in bat, etc) and long sounds (eg; a in lake, o in cone, e in seat, etc). Make them learn prefixes, suffixes and their usage.

Teachers need to show students that even tiny sounds, that are not always consciously discernable to the ear, are there, and that they are represented by letters. In addition to teachers, parental involvement by way of encouraging them to worksheets, online reading program like ClickNRead and software is an added assistance to children.

Whole language v/s Phonics

There is an educational and political battle going on between proponents of a phonics emphasis in reading and a whole language emphasis.

Phonics is considered a "bottom up" approach where students "decode" the meaning of a text. The advantage of phonics, especially for students who come to schools with large vocabularies, is that once students get the basics down, they can go to the library and read a wide variety of children's literature.

Whole language is considered a "top down" approach where the reader constructs a personal meaning for a text based on using their prior knowledge to interpret the meaning of what they are reading.

With whole language, teachers are expected to provide a literacy rich environment for their students and to combine speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Whole language teachers emphasize the meaning of texts over the sounds of letters, and phonics instruction becomes just one component of the whole language classroom.

So who wins the debate then? Phonics or Whole language? What does succeed then, many experts say, is a carefully designed reading program that employs part whole language approach and part phonics, and takes into account each student's learning style and demonstrated strengths and weaknesses. Parental involvement is vital to reading success no matter which approaches are used, reading experts assert.