Phonics is a method for teaching people how to read and write an alphabetic language, such as English or Russian. It is done by demonstrating the relationship between the sounds of the spoken language, and the letters or groups of letters or syllables of the written language. Phonics instruction teaches the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. The goal of phonics is to help children hear, identify, and use different sounds that distinguish one word from another in the English language.

Phonics is one of the five essential elements of learning to read, alongside phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Reading by using phonics is often referred to as decoding words, sounding-out words, or using print-to-sound relationships. Phonics involves matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. Teaching children to blend the sounds of letters together helps them decode unfamiliar or unknown words by sounding them out.

Phonics instruction can be taught using two approaches: synthetic phonics and embedded phonics. Synthetic phonics is an approach to the teaching of reading in which phonics forms one part of a whole language program. Embedded phonics differs from other methods in that the instruction is always in the context of literature rather than in separate lessons, and the skills to be taught are identified opportunistically rather than systematically.

The National Reading Panel conducted a meta-analysis to review and evaluate research on the effectiveness of various approaches for teaching children to read. Their findings showed that students who received systematic and explicit phonics instruction were better readers at the end of instruction than students who received non-systematic or no phonics instruction.

In summary, phonics is a way of teaching children how to read and write by demonstrating the relationship between the sounds of the spoken language and the letters or groups of letters or syllables of the written language. It is one of the five essential elements of learning to read and can be taught using two approaches: synthetic phonics and embedded phonics. Systematic and explicit phonics instruction has been found to be effective in teaching children to read.