In the 1970s, when students filled in endless phonics work sheets and read inane basals, and teachers felt overly controlled, whole language exercised a strong attraction. By the 1980s, it had come to dominate the teachers colleges and was strongly influencing publishers. Chall argues that the shift from a code emphasis to a meaning emphasis hurt reading scores. Adams' purpose, similar to Chall's, was to synthesize innumerable, uncoordinated studies of reading. Programs that combined systematic phonics instruction with a meaning emphasis seemed to work best of all.
Phonemes are the smallest meaningful sounds in a language.
English has 44 phonemes that its speakers combine to make all its words. Some people have phonemic awareness intuitively, but others must be taught it, which can be done with simple exercises. For Adams, the key to reading is that words must be recognized almost instantly so that the brain can be free to comprehend what is being read. Eye-movement studies show that readers do fixate on virtually every letter in the text. Each letter, then, must be sounded out with incredible speed.