phonics
The study of letter-sound relationships in reading and spelling. Phonics is used to teach letter-sound relationships to beginning readers by having them sound out words.
See also whole language.
Additional information
Phonics is a skills-based model of instruction that focuses first on sounding out letters, then words, then passages. Advocates argue that this model helps children develop independent reading skills by being able to decode words on their own.
At one time, reading instruction consisted of either phonics or whole language based, with strong advocates on either side of the "reading wars." Most educators now seek to establish the proper balance between phonics and whole language reading instruction.
