the foundation for learning thousands of additional words" (141).
However, Seymour W. Itzkoff believes that this foundation is beyond the capabilities of children at this stage of development. He writes, "Children taught exclusively through the various versions of systematic phonics programs . . . might be able to decode a word to its sound equivalent. But their reading speeds were so slow and halting that by the time they got to the end of a sentence they had forgotten the beginning" (xv). He contends that phonics tends to make children hate the process of reading, even if it does help them to master it. Itzkoff argues for a strictly limited use of phonics but calls it "only a brief way-station on the road to true or fluent reading" (34).
Jeanne S. Chall strikes a middle balance. She cites "research [that] . . . indicates that a code-emphasis method - i.e., one that views beginning reading as essentially different from mature reading and emphasizes learning of the printed code for the spoken language - produ
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