Many digital reading applications have built-in features to control the presentation flow of texts by segmenting those texts into smaller linguistic units. Whether and how these segmentation techniques affect the readability of texts is largely unknown. With this background, the current study examined a recent proposal that a sentence-by-sentence…

This study examined the combined effects of teachers' instructional practices and students' reading-related affective engagement on predicting the high and low levels of elementary reading literacy from a linguistically and culturally comparative perspective. Data were based on 9748 students from 4 English-speaking and 3 Chinese-speaking education…

Two experiments explored rates for introducing grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) and the types of correspondences taught for optimal alphabet and early literacy skills learning. In both studies, children entered with minimal alphabet knowledge and were randomly assigned within classrooms to one of two treatments delivered individually over…

Orthographic facilitation refers to the boost in vocabulary learning that is provided when spellings are shown during study periods, but not during testing. The current study examined orthographic facilitation in beginning readers and whether directing their attention to print enhances the effect. In an experiment, first graders (N = 45) were…

The effects of electronic book (e-book) and printed book reading on children's emergent reading with and without adult instruction were investigated. One hundred twenty-eight 5- to 6-year-old kindergarten children from low SES families were randomly assigned to one of four groups (32 children each): (1) independently reading the e-book (EB); (2)…

Determines the effects of training of phonological abilities upon the acquisition of reading and writing during the first year of primary school. Finds significant effects on both reading and writing measures for the groups trained on phonological activities using manipulative materials. Discusses theoretical and educational implications. (RS)

Finds no evidence to counter the assumption that reading begins with a logographic stage; teaching method had a significant impact on children's reading strategies; and several children taught using the whole word technique appeared to exhibit letter-by-letter reading. Suggests that letter-by-letter dyslexia might be an extreme form of a strategy…

Investigates the effectiveness of instruction in phonological awareness provided in low-income, inner-city kindergarten classrooms. Finds that, after an 11-week intervention, the treatment children significantly outperformed the control children on measures of phoneme segmentation, letter name and letter sound knowledge, 2 of 3 reading measures,…

Finds that children identified as at-risk for reading disability scored higher on numerous measures of reading achievement after receiving two years of instruction in a structured phonics code-emphasis approach compared to similar children taught using a "context" approach in which children are taught to first identify unknown words using the…