What is the difference between implicit (embedded) phonics and explicit (systematic) phonics?
Implicit phonics (otherwise known as embedded phonics) differs tremendously from explicit, systematic phonics. Let’s begin by explaining implicit Phonics. Implicit phonics begins with a whole word and works down to smaller parts. So blending and building a word (sounding it out from left to right) is NOT taught. Can you imagine memorizing 300 WHOLE words every year? Well, this is exactly what many American children have attempted to do; and, as you can imagine, many of those children have failed miserably! With implicit phonics, the child does a great deal of “guessing.” In fact, he is taught that “guessing” is the correct approach to “figuring out” what a word is. Children taught with implicit phonics are instructed to: 1) “Guess” at the word by looking at the picture on the page. 2) “Guess” at the word by looking at the beginning and ending letters of the word. 3) “Guess” at the word by attempting to recognize the word ending or any other “chunk” of the word in the middle or at the e
