Although most teachers agree that phonics, which is the relationship between letters and their corresponding sounds, is very much a part of learning how to read, ideas about exactly how and when to teach phonics are recurring points of contention. Many educators today are being pressured by hysteria from the media, parents, and legislators to teach phonics systematically and explicitly, separate from rather than as an integrated segment of a text. But there is no strong research base to support this practice. In fact, as observed by Chall (1967/83), systematic, decontextualized phonics in comparison with traditional contextualized approaches, as in basal readers prior to the mid- 1990s, may at best produce better reading comprehension scores on tests (certainly a limited view) and only through Grade 3.

Despite the hysteria, many eager children, excited about learning to read, are being taught to do so every day by very good teacher readers who model, instruct, encourage, assist, practice, and praise until the children learn. One such teacher is Kelly Goss, a first-grade teacher at Oak Park Elementary School in San Diego, California, USA. Oak Park is a racially balanced, multiethnic urban public school directed by Juel Moore.

Many different terms have been used to describe the way that children learn to recognize words. In the past, confusion about some of these terms has led to misunderstandings about best practices. The following six terms are at the core of decoding: code, decode, word attack, word recognition, phonics, and sight word method

Code is a system of signals used to represent meaning. These signals become meaningful when an individual knows the meaning that has been assigned to them. When children apply meaning to signals they have learned to decode. In learning to decode the words of English, which has an alphabetic system, children have to learn to map letters and sounds. When children learn these mappings, they have "broken the code," and this enables them to figure out plausible pronunciations for the words they will meet in print. Even adult competent readers who have automated their word recognition skills use their knowledge of the code when they encounter new words.

All readers use a different level of attention to apply their knowledge of the code as they read. At one extreme, when they encounter familiar, well-practiced words, they apply their knowledge without any apparent attention; this phenomenon has been labeled word recognition, word identification, and/or sight word recognition. At the other extreme, readers need to consciously apply their knowledge; this happens when they encounter new words they know and they have to work to produce plausible pronunciations for the new words. The term that best describes this phenomenon is word attack. By noting spelling patterns in the words the children were meeting in their reading, Goss was helping them develop word attack strategies. Readers at both ends of the continuum are decoding even though they are doing it at different levels of consciousness. In both instances they are using symbols to interpret a unit that has meaning.

Sight word recognition and sight word method have also been confused in the past. Sight word recognition (in which the child builds a sight word vocabulary) is an important goal of reading instruction. However, this goal should not be confused with instructional procedures called "sight word method," "whole word method," or "look-say method" in which words are introduced to children as whole units without subword parts. Goss and the children shared the sight words found in the story (I, the, see, you, me).

Phonics embraces many instructional strategies that help children attend to parts of words, including syllables, phonograms (the at in cat), and single letters (the b in bat). The goal of phonics is to help children learn with the mappings between letters and sounds, but it is not a goal unto itself. Phonics merely provides children with the knowledge needed to decipher a word in order to approximate pronunciation.

Words Are Composed Of Letters
As children first attempt to decode print, they often find distinctive features of words that act as cues that help them identify the words (Gough & Hillinger, 1980). Frequently the distinctive feature that the child attends to will be tied to a picture.

In other instances, children will remember a word because of some distinctive visual configurations like the beginning and ending letters of bat (b and t), which may seem to frame the word for some children. Initial letters or clusters of letters are also frequently used to recall words by young children (e.g., they might remember the word duck by its initial letter d or chick by the ch or that by the th combination of letters). As children see more new words, they often encounter problems because they cannot find a single distinctive cue that is reliable. At this point in their development, reading can become very frustrating because their cueing systems are so completely inadequate.

Words Are Composed Of Sounds
After children understand that words are composed of letters, they need to be able to make correspondences between printed letters and sounds. In order to do this, children must hear sounds in spoken words. For example, they need to hear the/at/sound in cat, hat, and bat and to perceive that the differences between these words is in the initial sound in each. Goss attempted to illustrate this by having children note the short/a/ sound in cat, hat, and bat, and the at sound in these words. After recognizing these features, she also illustrated that these sounds were part of the words found in the books they were reading.

If children cannot perceive sound segments they will have difficulty when they try to sound out words in both reading and writing (Beck & Juel, 1995). This understanding that words are composed of sounds is called phonemic awareness. It is not a single ability; rather, it includes the ability to rhyme words (as in cat, hat, bat) and the understanding that bat has three distinctive sounds that are overlapping and abstract. This awareness comes to children gradually because phonemes in the speech they hear are difficult to perceive individually. For example, we begin saying the /a/ sound while we are still saying the /b/ sound. Beck and Juel (1995) maintain that we don't clearly know how phonemic awareness is acquired, but we do know that certain activities seem to foster its development.

These activities need to become part of early reading instruction. Phonemic awareness can be taught and will help young children decode words as they immerse themselves in the process of learning to read (Lundberg, Frost, & Peterson, 1988). Such instruction should not occur in isolation from books, since, as noted by Carbo (1987), most emergent readers are unable to learn through analytic, abstract, or auditory experiences. They are better able to learn to read through whole-to-part (books then phonics skills) experiences than through part-to-whole (explicit phonics first, books later) experiences. This is why Goss connected quality patterned stories and explicit phonics and comprehension instruction.

Teaching Explicit Phonics
Many researchers have recommended the teaching of phonics as an important aid in helping children learn the code (Adams, 1990; Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkinson, 1985). There are two approaches to phonics: explicit phonics and implicit phonics. In explicit phonics children are told the sounds of individual letters (e.g., the letter b represents the/b/sound in bat). In implicit phonics children are expected to induce the sounds that correspond to the letters based upon their accumulated exposure to words that have contained these letters. While there is not a definitive answer about which of these is a better approach, a trend in the data favors explicit phonics because it provides children with close approximations between letters and sounds. In addition to learning the code, children need to make meaning as they read--they need to comprehend what they are reading. Proficient readers have thoroughly integrated strategies since they use prior knowledge, context, and letter/sound relationships (phonics) as needed to identify words and to construct meaning. In contrast, less proficient readers are often the victims of isolated phonics instruction that is devoid of strategies, including phonics, designed to help one make meaning while reading (Chomsky, 1976).

Goss teaches phonics explicitly and contextually. She teaches all of the letters and phonogram families explicitly, but she also contextualizes this instruction because she believes that children come to school wanting to hold, touch, and read books. She believes that motivation to read is enhanced as children are taught strategies while exploring many wonderful age-appropriate books. When phonics is taught devoid of books, children are asked to postpone their excitement for literacy. Over-emphasized, isolated phonics instruction encourages many children to rely on "sounding it out" as their only meaning-making strategy (Applebee, Langer, & Mullis, 1988). A child in this situation is like some adults who practice their golf swings without understanding the relationship of the swing to the game--they may improve their swings but never become proficient golfers. Attitude and enthusiasm matter.

Balance and Harmony

As evidenced by Goss's instruction, a balanced approach toward literacy instruction creates harmony in the learner's and the teacher's mind. This approach helps children integrate what they already know with new strategies, skills, and content that will best serve their new and developing reading interests. A balanced approach ensures that this can become a reality when children are taught language arts skills and strategies in a context that invites them to explore the wonderful world of books. Figure 3 illustrates the language arts skills/strategies Goss explicitly taught as she worked with a heterogeneous whole class, heterogeneous and homogeneous pairs, individuals, and small homogeneous groups. As Goss continues to approach the task of helping young readers and writers grow, she needs to be sure that her methods are worthy of her students' time and effort. She and all other teachers must be certain that they are adding to students' understanding in a way that will make them lifelong independent learners who are able and excited readers, writers, and literate communicators.

Some Arguments in Favor of Whole Language Instruction
Some researchers have found that whole language instruction is better as compared to phonics instruction due to the following reasons:

Although whole language classrooms offer hospitable contexts for a range of social and cultural voices, they are also places where meanings are frequently contested. Literature sharing groups, peer writing conferences, small group projects, and whole class discussions of local and global issues (Primary Voices, November, 1994) often lead to conflict as students encounter views different from their own. Whole language teachers are not satisfied with merely exposing students to differences in opinion, however. They also explicitly teach students the skills needed to productively engage different points of view. A number of schools in Toronto, for example, are exploring Peace-making (Primary Voices, November, 1994; Fine, 1995; Fine, Lacey, & Baer, 1995) and other peer mediation curricula to enable children, starting at an early age, to acknowledge differences and to talk through conflicts as they occur. In these classrooms there are opportunities for children to articulate their versions of experience, to learn about the experiences and understandings of others, and to develop language and tools needed for active participation in a democratic community. These discussions take place within a framework agreed upon by students and teachers that ensures fairness and safety for all participants.
Respect for different viewpoints does not mean that whole language teachers promote a cultural or moral relativism. Whole language teachers readily challenge sexist, racist, classist, and homophobic views that threaten to marginalize or silence the voices of groups of students.

Whole language classrooms seek to foster community by helping students learn compassion, cooperation, civic responsibility, altruism, and commitment in order to work for the general welfare of this planet. Students in whole language classrooms who read together, write together, and work together on a range of classroom projects learn the value and skills of collaboration and cooperation. The emphasis on peer conferencing, literature sharing, peer tutoring, paired reading, and writing support groups in many whole language classrooms helps students learn how to support each other’s efforts to make sense of schooling.

Whole language teachers attempt to balance the needs of the individual and those of the community by providing frequent opportunities for individual reflection and exploration. Most whole language classrooms, for example, offer extended periods of time for students to read and write on topics of personal interest. Maintaining the appropriate balance between individuality and community can be challenging, and it may be that some whole language teachers, responding to the extreme individualism that dominates most school practices, tilt too far in the direction of community values (Portelli, 1995).