Final answer:
The great debate in the teaching of reading concerns whole words versus phonics.
Step-by-step explanation:
The "great debate" in the teaching of reading concerns whole words versus phonics.
In teaching reading, some educators believe in the whole words approach, where students are taught to recognize and memorize words as whole units. Others advocate for phonics, which focuses on teaching students the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and the letters that represent them.
Whole words approach:
- Students are encouraged to recognize and memorize entire words by sight, without breaking them down into individual phonemes.
- Students may rely on context clues and visual cues to guess the meaning of words.
Phonics approach:
- Students are taught to decode words by sounding out individual phonemes and then blending them together to form words.
- Students learn to associate letters with specific sounds and use this knowledge to read unfamiliar words.