It seems that the debate between phonics and whole language rages on. But it is a pointless debate… the only thing it generates is heat. Why?
Teaching reading effectively is not an either/ or approach. Phonics teach relationships of letters to sounds, and provide effective bottom up processing skills… but it takes time to master the skills effectively, and there are many exceptions to the rules that students learn. Students learn to decipher the words.
However, sight words are an important part of learning to read because many sight words don’t follow the simplest phonics rules at all. This means that it is difficult for students to decode the words.
Quicker to remember the word whole. Effective reading skills need both sight words & phonics development… because both offer significant advantages to beginning readers.