As a flight instructor I teach my primary students the following. (in low power general aviation training aircraft)
Cruise flight - Pitch controls Altitude. You select your cruise speed with power. (small changes in pitch produce a large change in lift and very little change in drag at high speed)
Slow flight - Pitch controls airspeed, power controls altitude. ( a small change in pitch makes a large change in drag and very little change in lift therefore making the speed change)
They learn it that way and can succesfully operate an aircraft usssing that information....
Sorry Bill, I can't agree (and welcome to Prune!
).
While it may work on a C150 because lighties are so speed-stable, it absolutely DOES NOT work on a jet on final, the most critical time of the flight where changes are required almost instantly.
Low-time pilots should not be taught to control the aeroplane via the secondary effects of controls, if for no other reason that when they fly something bigger, the technique doesn't work. While they are coupling effects so that the nose may come up when the thrust is increased, the primary method of changing the speed must be with the throttles (or speedbrake). Likewise, flight path change must be made with the elevator. Any speed changes are then sorted by changing thrust.
There is a case where, in the flare, the angle of attack/nose attitude is so high that jamming the thrust on may have a cushioning effect, but that is not the norm down final.
My analogy is flying down an ILS (or letting the AP do it). If you get low on the slope, you pull the nose up, just as the AP does. You don't put up the thrust and wait for the secondary effect of controls to get you back up onto the GS. Carrier pilots maybe, but not normal aircraft.
Similarly, speed. If you get slow, you definitely do not lower the nose! The speed will never increase satisfactorily; all that will happen is your descent rate will increase.