Investigates the relation between phonological awareness, sound-to-letter mapping knowledge, and printed word learning in novice five-year-old readers. Explores effects of visual memory and of teaching methods. Finds mental representations of printed words are more easily formed by beginners who are able to match at least some of the phonological…

Discusses the teaching approaches which English primary schools are encouraged to use as part of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) and the ways in which the case for their increased use is supported by research and inspection evidence. Outlines the studies which have influenced the NLS in promoting greater direct interactive teaching of…

Suggests that abandoning controlled vocabulary texts on the assumption that reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game was wrong. Claims that the current emphasis on strategy instruction, scaffolded reading experiences, and the use of writing to foster letter-sounds may provide good outcomes for those teachers and children who dreaded reading…

Transcriptions of 156 recordings of teacher/child interactions were analyzed and teacher verbal moves were described as pedagogical, asides, or providing feedback. The pedagogical moves were subdivided into areas concerned with welfare, directions, providing words, word recognition, phonics, and comprehension. (MKM)

Cites the case of Hebrew learning in Israel to show that, contrary to popular belief, the complexity of grapho-phonetic relationships is a minor or nonexistent factor in learning difficulties. (FL)