not to mention that if you know what prefixes and suffixes mean(as we were taught), you also have a good idea what the word means even if you've never seen it before...I learned in Montessori training that 80+% of English words can be sounded out through the use of phonics. What better reason to abandon phonics by the NEA establishment & derelict teacher training programs all hell-bent on ignoring its proven success. This is intentional destruction - get your kids out of public school and any govt. pre-K program.
not to mention that if you know what prefixes and suffixes mean(as we were taught), you also have a good idea what the word means even if you've never seen it before...And it's even higher than that if taught by an extended phonics program. English stuffs 44 sounds into 26 letters and is also an amalgam of several different languages. It is complex -- but it is also, despite ignorant liberal claims to the contrary, phonetic.