Analytic phonics teaches students how to read by breaking down and analyzing the different components and corresponding sounds that form a word, with the objective of recognizing the relationships between those components. The students are then able to use the relationships between the components and sounds to understand how to read other words with similar components. This method emphasizes the shape of words, the first and last letters of the words and the sounds (or phonemes) of the different components.
Analytic phonics, also known as implicit phonics, is the opposite of synthetic phonics. Synthetic phonics teaches students to read and spell simultaneously by having them produce the sound of each letter or syllable and then combine the letters or syllables simultaneously to produce words. On the other hand, analytic phonics encourages students to break down the words in front of them to analyze the internal parts that make the words. Thus, students using the analytical method focus on the different sounds that create a word and then the combinations of letters that create those sounds.
Using the analytic phonics method, after successfully analyzing the components that form a word and the relationships between those components, the students can begin to recognize patterns and apply those patterns to decode and understand how to read other words that feature similar components. For instance, the student may read the word "street" and observe that the "str" sound is created by the combination of an s, t and r. He can then look at and decode other words that begin with "str" such as "string," "strike" or "straight."
In turn, the student can recognize the pattern that connects all these words and thus learn that the "str" consonant blend produces that respective sound whenever he reads it in other words. Likewise, the student can observe that the letters e, e and t combine to produce the "eet" sound in street. He can then use the pattern to decode other words such as "meet," "greet" and "feet."
Critics of analytic phonics argue that the method does not teach students to read by spelling, but instead encourages them to learn new words by the memorization of shapes. However, many words have similar shapes, but produce different sounds and contain entirely different meanings. Thus the analytic method can cause confusion for the students as they reach more advanced words and sentences. Furthermore, some words do not have clearly defined patterns that match other words. For instance, there are few words that have similar components as "cafeteria," and as a result, students using the analytic method may experience difficulty decoding these types of words.