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Phonics is “an instructional approach to developing word identification proficiency” (Snow, Griffin and Burns, 2005, p. 78). Phonics instruction teaches the alphabetic principle (predictable and systematic relationships between written letters and spoken sounds) and enables the child to make grapheme phoneme correspondences, thereby providing them with an analytical tool to decode unknown words that have to be read at the beginning of a reading programme. This is basis for reading unfamiliar words and is a necessary part of the word recognition system (Marsh, Friedman, Welsh and Desberg, 1981; Frith, 1985; Perfetti, 1985; Feitelson, 1988; Seymour, 1997; Ehri, 1998). The orthography of the English language is complex and it is necessary to devote between two to three years of phonics instruction in the classroom (NRP 2000). Teachers need to consolidate this knowledge so that they understand how to teach phonics well (Moats, 2005).

Research over the past twenty years has shown that some phonics instruction is necessary in order to develop good word identification skills (Perfetti, 1985, Feitelson, 1988, Adams, 1990, Chall, 1997, Snow, Burns and Griffin, 1998; NRP 2000). Ehri, et al. (2001) found that systematic phonics successfully boosts sight word reading, decoding and reading comprehension. The application of phonics to the decoding of unknown words helps the novice reader to decode unfamiliar words, to internalize spelling patterns and eventually become a fluent reader (Mesmer and Griffith, 2005). The ability to decode is beneficial to sight word reading at the full alphabetic phase (Ehri, 2005). In order to gain meaning from print the reader must master the alphabetic system and consolidate basic grapheme- phoneme correspondences. When children are taught to detect the patterns of sounds in words and connect them with letter patterns they develop insights into spelling (Medwell, et al., 2004).

The British Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading (Rose, 2006), as well as the National Reading Panel (2000) in the USA, recommend the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics as the best approach to teaching decoding (reading) together with spelling (encoding). This is in opposition to the whole language approach recommended by Goodman (1965, 1967, 1970, 1976, 1986, 1992) and Smith (1971, 1973, 1978). Johnston and Watson (2009) explain that synthetic phonics teaches a small cluster of sounds initially so that the child learns to sound out and blend them. Letters are taught one at a time always incorporating previously taught sounds until all the sounds in English have been taught. The ability to match graphemes to phonemes and then to blend phonemes into words has to be consolidated by the novice reader. A child’s ability to analyse the phonemic structure of words and to connect phonemes to graphemes brings about the enhancement of a reader’s sight word vocabulary (Ehri, 1992; Rack, Hulme, Snowling and Wightman, 1994; Stuart, Masterson and Dixon, 2000). Uribe (2009) criticizes the emphasis on phonics instruction, and does not consider phonics to be an “essential element in the reading process” (p.11). In his opinion phonics can be applied as a tool to understand a text in specific situations but it is the actual event of reading which takes place between the reader and the book that counts. He bases his argument on the opinions of others such as Krashen (2003) who considers phonics to be a source of boredom leading to student frustration and discipline problems, Ward (2008) who

believes that phonics has no impact in later grades, Goodman (1986) who believes that phonics is used only in school and overlooks the connection between learning and reading and that students trained in phonics are good at word reading but lack comprehension skills (Garan, 2002). Hammil and Swanson (2006) provide a different interpretation to the results of the NRP (2000) promoting the superiority of phonics instruction. They argue that phonics is limited to teaching decoding skills, does not hold up over time and does not teach comprehension. However, they suggest that at risk readers who are taught to decode in a tutorial setting benefited slightly more from phonics than a non phonics approach. On the other hand, a study carried out on systematic phonics instruction using a computer programme on Dutch kindergarten children, showed improvement in phonemic awareness, reading and spelling (de Graaf, Hasselman, Verhoeven and Bosman, 2009) when compared with a non systematic phonics approach. Furthermore, an action research project carried out by Edwards (2008) showed that even struggling high school students benefited from a structured phonics intervention programme and their fluency improved. Both Chall (1967) and Adams (1990) recommended the use of phonics for the teaching of beginning reading without overlooking the importance of reading for meaning once decoding was in place.

Research has been carried out that supports the teaching of phonics (Chall, 1967,1983,1996,1997; Adams, 1990, 2003; Johnston and Watson, 1997; Foorman, et al., 1998; Moats, 2000 Ehri, 2004) and has refuted some of the basic beliefs that underlie the whole language approach. Reading is not a guessing game and learning to read is not a natural process but has to be learned (Gough and Hillinger, 1980; Liberman, 1999). Phonics is especially important as the medium of instruction of beginning reading in EFL. Eskey (1992) explained that the understanding of language and vocabulary is a major problem in FL reading, and therefore even the educated guessing of a word in context is no substitute for accurate decoding. He encouraged the use of phonics as the method of reading instruction in EFL (Eskey, 1992).

Phonics provides the knowledge to accurately predict the correspondences between phonemes and graphemes. It enables the reader to decode new words and to accurately

recognize familiar words and spell them. An explicit approach enables children to learn how to read and spell (NRP 2000; Independent Review of the Teaching of Early Reading, Final Report, 2006). The teacher plays a dominant role and makes it clear to the student what has to be taught (Minskoff, 2005). Further, children who are at risk for reading difficulties benefit from a systematic phonics approach (Hatcher, Hulme and Snowling, 2004). It can be seen from the literature that the phonics approach uses practices based on the teachers’ understanding of phonological and phonemic awareness which is the basis of the knowledge acquired in the PD process.