“…In this method, dating from the sixteenth century, the pupil was given a pamphlet (the cartilla ) with the vowels, the alphabet, and then over 300 isolated syllables, followed by sentences embodying Catholic doctrine. Tanck de Estrada (1998, 54) explained how children were taught to read: ‘El alumno al ver “tra ba jo” diría’, ‘Te, ere, a, tra; be, a, ba; jota, o jo: tra-ba-jo.’ In other words, pupil would name the letters for the syllables in isolation, followed by a final reading of the word, separating the word syllable-by-syllable. An advance in method by the nineteenth century was to substitute the letter-by-letter reading ( el deletreo ) for the direct reading of the syllables with blended letter sounds ( el silabeo ).…”