Phonetics is the foundation. Practicing reading leads to sight reading over time.
But without the foundation... It doesn't work. The numbers show it. Phonetics was taught in grammar school for ages, and literacy rates were high for those that learned to read.
Phonetics was dropped, and literacy has fallen even though we have near-universal education.
/johnny
I agree with that. We couldn’t figure out why our son wasn’t able to read well going into the third grade. It was the whole word crap that had him buffaloed. We did the phonics thing and taught him at home to sound out the word. After that he excelled in reading comprehension. It was like we hit the go button. BTW, that was long before hooked on phonics hit the market.