[bjc]

Genuine question: Why are these two approaches defined as being mutually exclusive? Given the oddness of much English pronunciation,it seems to me that both are necessary even if phonics provides initial building blocks and instills the notion of generalized rule formulation a la Chomsky. Idiographic languages clearly limit a phonics approach - and Chinese, Korean and Japanese students seem to manage quite well.

[spacejunkie2001]

it has to be based on sounding out words or they’ll be stumped whenever they come to a word they can’t remember.

[madison10]

Yes, you are correct. Did not think of that. One of the first words I could not sound out in the “Dick and Jane” book was LAUGH. So “gh” soundS like “F”...sometimes.

[BobL]

Nope, kids don’t have to be taught to read by sight, that comes automatically once they master phonics. Don’t get caught up in their BS that the best solution is a mix of both, do not! Phonics is the ONLY approach to teach kids reading.

It’s similar to people like Colin Powell saying that conservatives are a bit too ‘rough around the edges’ and liberals have valid points - so Trump should alternate judicial selections with Schumer for the best outcome for the country. Or that calculators should be used in kindergarten, but not all the time.

There are ABSOLUTES and teaching sight words in any form is simply DESTRUCTIVE to kids, and will screw them up as they try to figure out whether to apply phonics or sight words, when they see something new. Stay away from sight words!

[MortMan]

In Korea at the beginning of the month, i had a korean gentleman explain that the digraph and trigraph characters are strings of sounds that phonetically spell the words. I never knew that.

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

The Education Establishment loves your thinking. They call it Balanced Literacy. I call it schizophrenia. I think it’s like trying to rub your stomach and pat your head.. Each word is a mystery: how should I deal with this word?

I would urge you to consider the possibility that it is really better to read a phonetic language phonetically, all the time. There will be words here and there that stick in your mind because of a certain shape. But that’s the exception.

[metmom]

Genuine question: Why are these two approaches defined as being mutually exclusive? Given the oddness of much English pronunciation,it seems to me that both are necessary even if phonics provides initial building blocks and instills the notion of generalized rule formulation a la Chomsky.

There ARE words in English that just don't fit the phonics rules well.

Those few I figure are no problem to memorize.

FORTUNATELY, they tend to be the shorter words.