The basic strategy of a phonics approach assumes that if you sound out the word and can hear it you will know what it means. For the most part it is an effective strategy and one that worked for me. On the other hand, those for whom it does not work, we simply call reading disabled.
The purpose of reading is to get meaning from the printed word. A phonetic approach requires you to look at the word and auditorize it (at least mentally) and when you hear the word, you will know what it means. This assumes that English is inherently phonetic and the reader knows the word to begin with. But let us accept the phonetic premise.
