Phonics is not a method of teaching reading; it's a body of knowledge consisting of 26 letters used to symbolize 44 English speech sounds. There are about 70 most common spellings for these speech sounds. Find out more in our Phonics Primer in Microsoft Word format and PDF* format.

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Find out why explicit, not implicit phonics, is supported by scientific research.
Explicit, systematic phonics instruction means the direct teaching of a pre-planned sequence of relationships between speech sounds and all their letter equivalents.

Phonics lessons must be reinforced with decodable text.

Frequently Asked Questions About Reading Instruction

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