My Own Experience When I learnt to read and write French in the 1970s, the method was clear and systematic: phonics, often referred to as the syllabic method . We started with sounds, linked them to letters, and built words from syllables. It was simple, repetitive, and effective — and it gave me the tools to decode my own language independently. Later, as a teacher, I found myself using a “watered down” version of phonics to help pupils make sense of French sounds that weren