Benefits of Systematic Phonics Instruction

Systematic-phonics instruction appears to be more effective than nonsystematic phonics instruction for teaching reading (Ehri, Nunes, Stahl, Willows, 2001). In the present study, a systematic phonics approach was directly compared with a nonsystematic phonics approach for kindergarten children. Both approaches were delivered using computer programs teaching the same Dutch grapheme-phoneme correspondences. Both phonics-trained groups progressed to the same extent on productive letter-sound knowledge compared to the control group. However, on measures of phonemic awareness, spelling, and reading, the systematic phonics group made more progress than the nonsystematic phonics group and the control group.