To determine the degree of emphasis on phonics instruction necessary for beginning readers, a study was conducted involving five pairs of four-year-old monozygotic twins. Randomly selected twins from each pair were exposed to two different levels of phonics instruction. In one group, the reduced treatment group, only one sound equivalent per…

This paper examines the relationship between beginning reading and cognitive development and reviews some of the research conducted so far. It is noted that children learning to read may be in various stages of cognitive development, some at a preoperation stage, some at a concrete operation stage, and some at a transition stage. Instructional…

A 40-item nonsense word list was administered to 27 first-graders who had been taught letter-sound correspondences in isolation. The results displayed a succession of stages through which subjects apparently passed. At the second stage, subjects could sound letters but not blend the sounds into words; at the third stage, subjects could sound some…

An explanation of the child's mind and his language, stated in terms of the nature of the learner, is presented in this book. The authors ask teachers to think about the competence of the child and try to discover what he must know to be able to read. They ask teachers to examine the nature of the learner--what he knows that enables him to learn…

Conceptualizations of the reading process and the nature of comprehension are discussed in relation to the Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) Beginning Reading Program. A method of syntactic analysis is proposed to help identify segments of meaning in reading materials. Components for comprehension assessment and instruction based on auch an…

Teachers' concern with the "what" of reading has clouded the issue of the "how" of reading. Knowledge of how a child goes about particular reading tasks may give clues to the difficulties he is encountering. Work with disabled readers during three phases of behavior--(1) before the breakthrough in acquiring a reading process, (2) at the time of…

A sample of 100 first graders participated in a study of the relationship between three types of spacing used in written sentences for segmenting word boundaries and pupil errors in completing word-boundary tasks. The results indicated that eliminating printer's word boundaries in written sentences had a significant effect on first graders'…

Compares the effect on beginning readers' main idea comprehension of a direct instruction model, basal reader main idea comprehension lessons, and language extension lessons for group-dictated experience charts. Reports that the direct instruction group outperformed basal and control groups in determining main ideas across a variety of tasks. (MM)

Investigates the process involved in acquiring word knowledge from written context in prereading kindergarten children. Analyzes children's readings of picture books to identify patterns of vocabulary growth. Concludes that children learned lexicogrammatical information incidentally through exposure to written context. (MM)

Longitudinal study investigated the relationship between print awareness and reading during the reading acquisition process of children from kindergarten through first grade. Results indicate that while print awareness plays a role in children's transition towards literacy, that role is entwined with the role of other reading knowledge and skills.…

This Topical Bibliography and Commentary examines recent studies on phonological awareness, finding the evidence conclusive that teaching phonological awareness to young children greatly facilitates the reading process. Researchers have studied problems children experience in reading for many years. The focus of research during the 1990s has been…

Contrasts the relative impact of the behaviorist and cognitive views of learning and language on beginning reading curricula and the teaching of comprehension skills. Points out that current measures of reading comprehension ignore the concept of maturity in reading. Includes a pro-reaction and a con-reaction paper. Bibliography. (WB)

Goodman critiques a previous article in this journal (see EJ 217 652) that discussed a 1965 research study he conducted; he argues that the other article reflects confused thinking, and he suggests why the findings and implications of his research study have gained wide acceptance. (GT)

Presents reasons for the current upsurge in interest in oral reading errors, including theoretical shifts in how the process of learning to read is to be viewed and evaluated. Stresses the difference between descriptive and linguistic error analysis and develops leads that have emerged from studies using linguistic error analysis. (Author/FL)

Twelve first-grade children were tested on word-reading and automaticity of letter and word processing. Word-reading speed increased steadily during the year. Apparently, their ability to process letters automatically was acquired prior to the ability to read words rapidly and accurately. (Author/CP)