Phonic vs. Sight Reading… …and other False Dilemmas!
Phonic reading encompasses both letter by letter and syllable by syllable reading practices used to "sound a word out" or otherwise determine the sound of a word from the sequence of characters. This is a particularly slow form of reading that is severely impaired by any lack of diphthong and syllable recognition. Sight reading on the other hand, is the practice of reading by recognition of entire words, most effectively taught through the use of flash cards, with which the teacher would make a word visible for only a moment and the student would have to recognise rather than read the word in that very short period of time.
Although some may suggest that one is more important than the other, both phonic and sight reading techniques are vital to literacy and speed reading. Phonic reading is necessary to learning and estimating the sound of new or unfamiliar words. Sight reading on the other hand is necessary for improved comprehension and reading speed as research has confirmed.
Aaron et. Al. (1999) determined that the likelihood of success of sight-reading depended heavily on the prior implementation of phonic decoding methods. According to Fleisher et. Al. (1978) and Fleisher et. Al. 1979) , while decoding training in phonic reading skills significantly increased the decoding speed of single words, it did not improve comprehension performance. However, Tan & Nicholson (1997), determined that sight reading improves comprehension. These combined findings emphasize the importance of both methods.
As you can see, both phonic and sight reading methods have their uses and good reading skill depends heavily on both. While it is preferable to sight read, it is ridiculous to attempt to do so with new and unfamiliar words because of the need to learn the word phonically. All the same, attempting to sight read for the first time without flash card or similar training would prove ineffective because the effort would slow the reader and discourage further practice.
Sight reading can be taken a lot further than the recognition of individual words. In fact sight reading is the key not only to improved comprehension but it is the key to true speed reading as well.
