Wherever there is evidence on the subject, it suggests that school children typically began learning the letters of the alphabet and then syllables, and later proceeded to words and sentences. This was often accompanied by a heavy dose of memorization—of Scripture, cathechism, or prayers. The emphasis was on producing the ability to "sound out"—to translate the written symbols into the sounds of speech. The final product of instruction in reading was a smooth oral rendition of a printed text. Although the earliest reading schools had centered on Latin texts—justifying the study of Latin for either religious or pedagogic reasons—by the end of the eighteenth century vernacular instruction had apparently supplanted Latin elementary schools throughout Europe. Latin prayers and the like were still taught in Catholic areas, but no longer exclusively, and rarely before reading in the national tongue. Still, many pupils were effectively learning to read a foreign language, since even where texts were "vernacular," they were printed in a national language rather than in one of the numerous local dialects still spoken in rural Europe. This process of decoding the written word, of learning its oral correspondent, was the center of primary instruction. There was no part of the traditional pedagogy that concerned itself with understanding textual meanings. More advanced instruction, once the pupils had learned to decipher print, addressed itself to more complex deciphering—that of writing in various styles—and to writing itself.

— Schooling in Western Europe by Mary Jo Maynes (Page 27)