Why sight words are the worst way to teach reading

Sight word instruction is the worst way to teach reading.

Why is sight word or whole word instruction the worst way to teach reading?

1) English has too many words to memorize. There are approximately 1,000,000 words in English. It is impossible to remember so many words.

2) Memorizing one word does not help students to decode another word.

3) Words consist of speech sounds. There are only 44 speech sounds in English. So, though there are about 1,000,000 words in English, it takes only 44 speech sounds to create those words. Those 44 speech sounds are the building blocks of every English word. Therefore, it is far easier and more effective to teach students how to master the building blocks of all English words than to teach them how to memorize English word by word.

4) Science has demonstrated convincingly that students process sounds faster and more effectively than trying to memorize whole words as if they were pictures.

5) Our brains learn to read by turning alphabetic symbols into speech sounds.

6) Reading is a complex skill. And, as with every difficult skill, such as learning to play the piano, reading should be taught step by step, moving from the parts to the whole.

What should parents and teachers do?

Use spelling to teach kids how to spell and pronounce all the sounds we use to say and write every word in our language.

First, teach kids that letters spell sounds. Then help them match each letter (or letter combination) to the speech sounds it spells or represents. Next, teach them to spell simple syllable sounds, such as "ab, eb, ib, ob, ub." Finally, use oral spelling to help them focus on analyzing the structures of sounds within spoken words.