Reading comprehension is a complex task which depends on a range of cognitive and linguistic processes. According to the Simple View of Reading, this complexity can be captured as the product of two sets of skills: decoding and linguistic comprehension. The Simple View explains variance in reading comprehension and provides a good framework to…

Designed to contribute toward providing opportunities for young children to enlist their own powerful intelligence in the construction of their understanding of reading and writing, this book is a collection of six studies presented at the International Reading Association's Eleventh World Congress. An introductory chapter, "Discovering…

Reports that readiness tests given to children in bilingual villages in Papua New Guinea showed that children learning to read in an unfamiliar language were more confused than were children who had never had literacy instruction. (FL)

The causal relationship between metaphonological skills (sound blending and segmentation) and reading/spelling was investigated in two studies of first graders. One tested causal models using data from a longitudinal study of 46 dyslexics and 44 control children. The other studied the effects of metaphonological training versus general language…

A comparative analysis evaluated three studies that dealt with the differences among five-year-olds that should be considered before reading instruction is initiated in kindergarten. The premise of the comparison was that children from different countries (especially Israel, where these studies were conducted), have different abilities, react…

Successive studies conducted in Sweden have shown that linguistic awareness is an important prerequisite of learning to read. In one survey that measured the various aspects of the linguistic awareness of 6-year-old children, a very close connection was found between preschool linguistic awareness and reading proficiency in school. Another study…

A cognitive developmental theory of reading was proposed and tested in a longitudinal study that (1) compared the development of conceptual reasoning (Piaget's "operativity") and oral language (vocabulary and grammar closure) of 148 Australian children during the first 5 years of school and (2) traced the relationship of these variables to reading…

Using the tools of systematic grammar, this case study examined 3- and 4-year-old children's experiences with storytelling and the potential effects of those experiences on the children's future success in learning to read. Subjects were students attending one of two nursery school classes held at a large primary school on the south coast of…

Intended to discourage classroom reading teachers from relying on "phonics instruction" as a remedy for students' inadequate reading performance, this pamphlet presents reasons why phonics drills should not be taught at all in the classroom and offers a set of practical phonic awareness activities to help poor readers overcome reading…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 56 titles deal with a variety of topics concerning the relationship of reading achievement to many variables such as memory, listening comprehension, intelligence, self-concept, classroom behavior, reading attitude, home…