By allowing children/ students to "decode" words, has been found to be essential for teaching children how to read and learn how to comprehend what they read. How does teaching children the sounds of English (vowels, consonants, consonant blends, etc.) benefit them when they start to read on their own?
This allows children to develop skills that will help them to identify the meanings of words, especially when seeing a word for the first time. Having the ability to sound out words will help them, perhaps, recognize a word they already know but have never seen it in written form. Students with the skill of "decoding" will benefit. This not only teaches them to read but enables a child to read on their own without the help of an adult.
Even to this day when I come across an unfamiliar word on paper, I will sound it out. Most of the time I will either recognize the word or figure out the meaning to the new word I have just found. I know for myself, if I did not have the skills to determine how to say a word by sounding it out, I would not be as good of a reader as I am today. By allowing students to figure out meanings on their own, I believe also gives them independence. Every time you read something, there will not always be someone there to guide you through the unknown word/s.
I can recall in the past when I was with a child and they wanted to read a book to me, they would use these same "decoding" skills. They were able to figure out how to say the word without my help. However if they were still a little uncertain I would help them. Therefore they learn from their mistakes and will recognize the word next time they see it.
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