Sight word

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High-frequency sight words (also known as sight words) are commonly used words that young children are encouraged to memorize as a whole by sight so that they can automatically recognize these words in print without having to use any strategies to decode.^[1] Sight words were introduced after whole language (a similar method) fell out of favor with the education establishment.^[2]

The term sight words are often confused with sight vocabulary, which is defined as each person's vocabulary that the person recognizes from memory without the need to decode for understanding.^[3][1]

However, some researchers^[who?] state that two major concerns with sight words are:

(1) memorizing sight words is labour intensive, requiring around 35 trials per word,^[4] and

(2) teachers who focus solely on teaching sight words while neglecting phonics instruction are making it harder for children to "gain basic word-recognition skills" that are critically needed by the end of the third grade and important to be used over a lifetime of reading.^[5]