Phonics Instruction and Reading

Phonics instruction is often considered to be one of the key instructional techniques in reading. With its objective of teaching early readers to establish the relationships between letters and sounds, phonics instruction is considered to be crucial to the development of early literacy skills. In fact, national organizations such as the National Reading Panel (2000) argue that successful readers must possess "phonic awareness skills and phonic skills" (qtd. in Heilman, Blair, & Rupley, 2002, p. 164).

An obvious reason why phonics instruction should be used in the classroom is that early readers will learn to establish correspondences between letters and sounds. Since the English language comprises a group of written letters that represent speech sounds, phonics instruction can be particularly useful in helping early readers to develop and expand their language capacity. When they are exposed to new and unfamiliar words, these early readers can then apply their knowledge of phonics, or the letter-sound relationships, to decode the words in their reading. The decoding of the written words that they have utilized in their speech can thus help them acquire new vocabulary. Coupled with the use of other strategies such as context clues, readers who possess phonemic awareness will have an invaluable tool to help them in developing their reading skills (Heilman et al., 2002, pp. 164-5).

However, phonics instruction may not be appropriate for all types of student p

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drawing the association, the teacher will be able to stimulate the students' interest in the story (Heilman et al., 2002, p. 313). For the reading segment of the DRA and the GRL, the students are asked to read their texts silently. At the same time, the teacher is supporting the students in their reading process by reminding them to apply various types of comprehension strategies to facilitate their understanding of the text. For instance, students are encouraged to utilize their purpose-setting questions and their predictions to help them to assess their comprehension. At this juncture, the only difference between the DRA and the GRL is that the latter demarcates this stage as the "Reading" stage, while the DRA does not divide the reading process into stages (Heilman et al., 2002, p. 313). The remaining components of the DRA-�oral reading based on a specific purpose; the learning of a particular literacy skill or technique; and creative literacy activity pertaining to the study�can also be found in the "Postreading" segment of the GRL. However, unlike the DRA, this segment of the GRL comprises many additional components. Upon the completion of the independent reading, the teacher and the students address the text togethe

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