What does phonics refer to in literacy instruction?

Phonics refers to a method of teaching reading that involves correlating the sounds of spoken language with the letters and symbols used in written language. This approach helps children understand the relationship between sounds and their corresponding letters or groups of letters, facilitating their ability to decode words when reading. By focusing on these sound-letter relationships, phonics provides a foundational skill that is crucial for developing reading proficiency. This method is highly effective in helping young learners form the skills necessary to read independently, making it an essential component of early literacy instruction. Other methods listed, such as teaching through context clues or focusing purely on sight words, do not emphasize this critical connection between sounds and letters, which is central to phonics and foundational for successful reading development.