If we immerse our students in language and literature, they'll become good readers. Written language is invented. Writing has been variously invented in various cultures and civilizations. A quick review of history and anthropology reveals that most civilizations never developed a written language. Don't worry about word recognition.
Comprehension is all that matters.
Focus on the semantic, syntactic, and schematic cueing systems in teaching reading. Don't worry about spelling. Let it happen naturally. Educators ignored what they had learned about the re-learning curve in Ed Psych 101. Spelling inventions were learned so thoroughly they became impossible to unlearn.