When I was at primary school, we were given words on paper to be kept in a tin to memorise. Then we learned to put these words into sentances.

Whereas my sister was taught the letters first and sounds (how 'th' and 'ph' are pronounced for example) and so she learnt in a way which allowed her to try to read words which she'd never seen before and learned to read a lot faster.

However it doesn't seem to have made a difference in the long run as I was pretty good at English in school and I enjoy reading/writing and my sister is completly uninterested in it.