Which of the following is NOT an evidence-based approach for decoding instruction?

• A. Multisensory phonics instruction
• B. Explicit phonics with systematic progression
• C. Phoneme-grapheme activities with feedback
• D. Whole-language instruction

Answer: (D)

When teaching decoding, you want to build a solid, step-by-step map of how sounds link to letters. Explicit phonics with a systematic progression does exactly that by teaching letter-sound relationships in a careful sequence and checking progress along the way. Multisensory phonics adds additional modalities (like touch or movement) to reinforce those mappings, which can help solidify learning for many students. Phoneme-grapheme activities with feedback give immediate corrective information to help students adjust their decoding attempts and solidify accurate mappings.

Whole-language instruction, in contrast, emphasizes meaning-based reading and exposure to text with less focus on teaching the explicit sound-letter connections. Because decoding relies on knowing those connections through explicit instruction, whole-language alone isn’t supported by evidence as an effective method for teaching decoding.