Encoding vs. Decoding: How Spelling and Reading Build Each Other

Short answer: Decoding turns printed letters into sounds and words. That is reading. Encoding turns spoken sounds into letters. That is spelling. Both rely on the same sound-letter map, used in opposite directions, so practice in one strengthens the other. A K–3 lesson that has students read a word and then spell it gives them two chances to learn every pattern.

Why does the encoding and decoding link matter?

Teachers often plan reading and spelling as separate blocks. One happens in a phonics lesson. The other happens on Friday, with a word list.

The What Works Clearinghouse practice guide for K–3 pairs the two skills in a single sentence: to "decode (convert from print to speech) and encode (convert from speech to print)" words, students need the same foundation. They must hear the individual sounds in words, name the letters, and know each letter's sounds.

If the foundation is shared, the instruction can be shared too. That saves minutes in a crowded day and gives struggling readers more repetitions with every pattern.

At a glance: encoding vs. decoding

The row on memory load matters most. Reading researcher Linnea Ehri notes that reading and spelling are "closely related" and that correlations between them are high. She also notes that spellers must "produce multiple letters correctly sequenced," so spelling asks more of memory than reading does. A short dictation therefore shows you quickly which patterns a student has really learned.

What is decoding?

Decoding is how a reader gets from letters to a word they have never seen. The student looks at each letter or letter team, says the sound, and blends the sounds into a word.

Take the word ship. A student who decodes it sees three sounds, not four letters: /sh/, /i/, /p/. The sh is one unit. Blend the three sounds and the word is ship.

Decoding is not guessing. A student who sees ship and says "sheep" because of a picture on the page is guessing. Decoding means the letters drive the answer.

What is encoding?

Encoding runs the other way. The student hears a word, breaks it into its sounds, and picks the letters that stand for each sound.

Say the word ship. The student stretches it: /sh/, /i/, /p/. Three sounds, three units. She writes sh, then i, then p.

English has about 41 phonemes, according to the National Reading Panel, and many more ways to spell them. That is why encoding takes explicit teaching. The student has to learn that /k/ can be c, k, or ck, and that the choice depends on the word.

Does spelling instruction improve reading?

Yes, and the evidence is not small. Graham and Santangelo (2014) pooled 53 studies covering 6,037 students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Formal spelling instruction improved spelling over no or unrelated instruction (effect size 0.54). It also improved phonological awareness (0.51) and reading skills (0.44).

Two points follow.

First, spelling is not a separate subject that competes with reading time. It feeds reading. The pooled results show spelling instruction lifting reading skills, so the time is not lost to reading.

Second, the authors report that the positive outcomes were generally consistent across students' grade levels and literacy skills. Teaching spelling directly is not only for strong readers.

What is orthographic mapping, and how does it connect the two?

Orthographic mapping is the process that turns a word from something a student sounds out into something they know on sight. Ehri (2014) describes it as forming "letter-sound connections to bond the spellings, pronunciations, and meanings of specific words in memory."

The same process explains how children learn to read words by sight and "to spell words from memory." That is the whole case for teaching the two together. One set of connections supports both skills.

You can see it in a classroom. A student who has read stamp a few times and spelled it a few times stops sounding it out. The word is stored. Both activities helped store it.

Which comes first, decoding or encoding?

Neither, in practice. They start together.

The WWC guide says teachers should begin the foundation work, which covers sounds, letter names and letter sounds, "as soon as possible." Once students know a few consonants and vowels, they can blend those letters into simple words and also spell simple words with them.

For a kindergartner, that looks like this. After learning /m/, /a/, /t/ and /s/, the class reads mat, sat, and am. Then the teacher says sat and the students write it. Reading and spelling use the same four letters on the same day.

Timing matters at the program level too. The National Reading Panel found that systematic phonics instruction had its biggest impact on reading when it began in kindergarten or 1st grade. The mean effect size was 0.56 for kindergarten and 0.54 for 1st grade. The panel also concluded that systematic phonics produces gains in reading and spelling.

What are the best decoding strategies for K–3?

Good decoding strategies are short, explicit, and repeated. Five work across K–3.

1. Sound-by-sound blending. The student points to each letter or letter team, says its sound, then slides the sounds together. Start with continuous sounds like /s/ and /m/ because the WWC guide notes that words with continuous sounds are easier for students to elongate as they identify the sounds.
2. Chunking by letter team. Teach digraphs and common patterns as single units. In chain, ch and ai are each one unit. Underline them before reading.
3. Syllable division for longer words. For napkin, find the vowels, split between the consonants (nap/kin), and read each syllable. The WWC guide gives teachers a list of syllable types to teach, such as closed syllables and vowel teams.
4. Reading word parts. Teach common endings and prefixes like -ing, -ed and un-. A student who sees unpacking as un + pack + ing has three small words to read, not one long one.
5. Cumulative word lists, then connected text. Practice the new pattern in a list, then in a short decodable sentence. Every word in the sentence uses patterns the class has already learned.

What these share is a refusal to guess. Strategies that send the student to the picture or the first letter skip the sound-letter map that encoding depends on.

What does a five-minute dictation routine look like?

Dictation is the simplest encoding routine, and it works with no materials beyond paper or whiteboards. Here is one version for a first-grade class that has just learned ch.

1. Sounds. Say a sound; students write the letters. Try /ch/, /a/, /t/. Then one review sound from last week.
2. Words. Say chat. Students repeat it, tap the sounds (/ch/-/a/-/t/), and write it. Then chip, then much.
3. Check. Write the word on the board, one letter team at a time. Students touch each unit on their own paper and fix any errors.
4. Sentence. Dictate a short sentence using words the class has practiced: The chimp had a chat. Say it once, have students repeat it, then write it.
5. Reread. Students read their own sentence aloud. That last step is decoding, done on words they just encoded.

Do the check step every time. Correcting at the moment of writing lets the student fix the pattern while the word is still in front of them.

If you use sound boxes, a technique shown in the WWC guide, students write letters into boxes one sound at a time. The guide's example says to "say the words one at a time," then have students "create the words by writing letters or moving letter tiles into the appropriate boxes." Letter tiles work well for students who are not ready to write fluently.

How do you teach both in one lesson?

A single lesson can move through reading and spelling in about 20 minutes. This sequence works for a small group or a whole class.

1. Review the sound-letter patterns already taught. Flash cards, two minutes.
2. Introduce the new pattern. Say the sound, show the letters, give two or three example words. Two minutes.
3. Read words with the pattern (decoding). Students blend words on a list or on cards, with the teacher modeling the first one. Four minutes.
4. Spell words with the pattern (encoding). Use the dictation steps above. Four minutes.
5. Read connected text. A short decodable passage that includes the new pattern. Five minutes.
6. Write a sentence. Dictate one sentence with the new pattern. Three minutes.

Notice the order. Students read the pattern before they spell it, then read it again in text. The loop is: see it, say it, write it, read it in context.

Use the same word lists in steps 3 and 4. When students read chin, chop and rich, then spell them minutes later, the words are fresh in memory and the link between the two skills is plain to see.

If a student reads well but spells poorly, look at which pattern breaks, such as vowel teams, endings or doubled letters, and reteach that pattern in both directions. If a student spells rane for rain, the sounds are there. What is missing is the pattern, so teach when to use each spelling.

The takeaway

Reading and spelling are one system with two directions. Treat them as separate subjects and you teach every pattern once. Treat them as paired and you teach it twice, using the same words, in the same lesson.

You do not need new materials to start. Pick the pattern you are teaching this week, add a four-minute dictation to the end of your phonics lesson, and have students reread what they wrote.

If your school is looking for teacher training in structured literacy, talk to Eight Strands Literacy about what training could look like for your teachers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between encoding and decoding in reading?

Decoding is turning printed letters into sounds and words, which is reading. Encoding is turning spoken sounds into letters and words, which is spelling. Both use the same sound-letter relationships in opposite directions. A student who can decode the word chin has the knowledge to spell it, though spelling takes more effort because the student must recall every letter in order.

Which should I teach first, encoding or decoding?

Teach them together from the start. Once students know a few letter sounds, they can read and spell simple words with those letters in the same lesson. The What Works Clearinghouse practice guide for K–3 tells teachers to begin foundation work on sounds, letter names and letter sounds as soon as possible (Recommendation 2). It pairs decoding with writing and recognizing words in a separate recommendation (Recommendation 3).

Does teaching spelling help students read better?

Research says it does. A meta-analysis of 53 studies by Graham and Santangelo found that formal spelling instruction improved reading skills (effect size 0.44) as well as spelling and phonological awareness. The authors report that the positive outcomes were generally consistent across grade levels and literacy skills. Spelling instruction supports reading rather than taking time away from it.

What is orthographic mapping?

Orthographic mapping is how the brain stores a word so it can be read instantly. According to Ehri, it forms connections between a word's letters, its sounds, and its meaning in memory. The same connections let students read the word on sight and spell it from memory, which is why reading and spelling practice reinforce each other.

How long should a dictation routine take in K–3?

Five minutes is enough. A simple version has students write sounds, then three or four words, check each word against the correct spelling, write one short sentence, and reread it aloud. Keep the words limited to patterns the class has already learned, so students succeed and the practice strengthens recent teaching.

What are good decoding strategies for struggling readers?

Start with sound-by-sound blending using a small set of letters the student knows. Teach letter teams like sh and ai as single units, then move to syllable division and common word parts like -ing. Have the student spell the same words before rereading them. Avoid strategies that rely on pictures or first-letter guesses.

Keep reading

• What Is Structured Literacy?
• Structured Literacy in the K–3 Classroom
• The Simple View of Reading
• Scarborough's Reading Rope Explained
• Orton-Gillingham vs. Structured Literacy

Sources

• U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse. Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade (2016, revised 2019).
• Graham, S., and Santangelo, T. (2014). Does spelling instruction make students better spellers, readers, and writers? A meta-analytic review. Reading and Writing.
• Ehri, L. C. (2014). Orthographic mapping in the acquisition of sight word reading, spelling memory, and vocabulary learning. Scientific Studies of Reading.
• Ehri, L. C. (2000). Learning to read and learning to spell: Two sides of a coin. Topics in Language Disorders.
• National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read.
• International Dyslexia Association. Structured Literacy.