[Will88]

He certainly doesn't need the phonemes (syllables or character marks) in mind if he's never heard the word!

He might not need them to read the new word, but he needs them to learn to pronounce or speak the word. We pronounce words in a manner different from your description of how we read, or recognize a word by sight.

Then we need to learn the meaning, which we might discern from root words, etc, or we might need a dictionary.

[muawiyah]

I've learned most of the words I know without ever hearing them spoken, nor do I expect to EVER hear them spoken.