Phonetic reading methods are actually older than the whole language approach: "The traditional theory of learning established in the 19th century draws on the notion that children need to break down a complex skill, like reading, into its smallest components (letters) before moving on to tackle larger components (sounds, words, and sentences). Phonetic reading instruction applies this theory; children are taught to dissect unfamiliar words into parts and then join the parts together to form words. By learning these letter-sound relationships the student is provided with a decoding formula that can be applied whenever they encounter an unfamiliar word" (Curtis 2009). Advocates of this approach would say that given that ESL students are more apt to encounter unfamiliar words compared with their native English peers of the same level of academic intelligence, phonetics seems like the best solution. Whole learning advocates state that approaching language in such a slow, methodical...
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