Parenting is not easy. There are so many things to worry about when you have a child, and teaching them how to read can be one of the most challenging tasks.
That’s why parents need to know which method – sight words or phonics – is best for their children. Here, we will talk about sight words vs. phonics to help you decide what would be best for your kids!
Let’s begin with sight words.
What are sight words?
Some words frequently appear in kids’ literature, and children need to know them by sight. These are called sight words.
Some sight words can be decoded and sounded out, such as “cat” or “dog.” Others are phonetically irregular words and require a child to memorize the word. A few examples of these include:
- the
- there
- here
Therefore there are two categories of sight words.
- High-frequency words – Are words that are commonly used in the English language. Memorizing these words makes reading smoother because of how often they occur.
- Non-phonetic (irregular word) are words that cannot be decoded phonetically. This means you can’t read the word by sounding it out with a letter. You have to memorize this word, and then it will help with other similar words too.
How to Teach Sight Words
Sight word instruction is a style of teaching reading in which the teacher teaches students how to recognize and pronounce high-frequency sight words without using phonics-based strategies.
Here are some examples of how sight words are usually taught in schools:
– Provide students with sight word lists and books that contain many of the words. (Two of the most popular lists of sight words are the Dolch sight word list and the Fry sight word list. The Dolch sight words were developed by Edward William Dolch in 1936. It contains 220 commonly used English-language sight words. The Fry list of sight words contains 1000 sight words. It was created by a man named Dr. Bernard S. Fry in 1951.)
– Introduce sight words to your class, one per day or week, depending on your teaching style, as an introduction activity before reading a story aloud together.
– Discuss new vocabulary in context by providing examples of where these high-frequency words are used throughout
How Effective are Sight Words
Here are the advantages of teaching sight words.
Sight words are used in about 80% of the text a child reads. If your child has strong sight word recognition, they will have an easier time with their reading.
Allowing them to:
- Read faster
- Build confidence
- Learn words with irregular spellings
Now let’s discuss phonics.
What is phonics
Phonics is all about learning the relationship between letters and sounds in the English language.
Letter sounds are the sounds each letter makes. Letters can also create different sounds when combined with others.
These letter-sound relationships are crucial for sounding out words and learning to read.
Here’s an example: the letter s is pronounced /s/ by itself and then as /sh/ when grouped with an h.
A vital component of phonics is phonemic awareness.
Phonemic awareness is the understanding that spoken words are composed of phonemes.
It includes knowledge about how speech sounds relate to written letters and spelling patterns and an ability to recognize relationships among individual language sound units (phonemes).
Phonemic awareness also refers to skills such as listening for rhyming sounds and identifying word patterns.
Explicit phonics instruction is key to teaching children to read.
Teachers can use decodable words to teach students how the sounds of letters correspond with their letter names and phonetic symbols.
Read our article on teaching your child to read using phonics for more information.
Are Phonics Effective
Here are some of the advantages of learning phonics:
– phonics develop early language skills, including vocabulary development
– phonics help children to read fluently and increase their comprehension of text. This is because phonetic reading helps the child figure out word meanings through context clues
– phonics teaches kids how to decode unfamiliar words by breaking them down into sound units.
-phonics promotes accurate reading by removing the need for kids to guess whenever they encounter an unfamiliar word.
-phonics make it easier to learn spelling rules because they provide the necessary knowledge for kids so that decoding new words becomes possible
-builds an essential reading foundation
Sight Words vs. Phonics, What is Better?
If we’re forced to pick only one, phonics is the better choice.
However, teaching phonics exclusively without sight words will cause problems later on when your child comes across words that cannot be decoded phonetically.
And by itself, memorizing sight words will not help your child understand how the English language works or develop foundational reading skills.
That’s why we recommend teaching both phonics and sight words.
Starting with phonics initially, and as you progress, teach individual high-frequency sight words as your child comes across them in their reading.
Strong phonics skills will help your child when they are reading. When they encounter an unfamiliar word, breaking it down into individual sounds and then adding their knowledge of sight words means they’ll become far more proficient readers.
There are two ways to teach reading, and they’re both critical.
Parents should start by teaching their children the phonetic relationship between letters and sounds and gradually introducing sight words.
Children Learning Reading is a comprehensive reading program that teaches kids how to read through systematic instruction of phonics skills while also logically incorporating high-frequency sight words.
To learn more, visit Children Learning Reading Here.
Natalie is a full-time blogger and former elementary school teacher who specializes in helping parents teach their kids to read. With a qualification in Early Childhood Education, over 7 years of experience in education, and a passion for literacy, Natalie provides practical tips, activities, and resources for parents looking to support their child’s learning-to-read journey. She is the proud mom of two young readers and loves sharing her knowledge and experience with other parents. Natalie enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and exploring the great outdoors when she’s not blogging.