A series of experiments were conducted to determine what information readers use when they read to understand a story. The experiments examined both skilled adult readers and children beginning to read. Oral reading was used both because elementary school teachers frequently ask children to read aloud and because oral reading provides an…

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…

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 68 first graders to identify what ideas young readers hold about the reading process. Specifically, the study questioned whether good and poor readers held the same views about how they learned to read, what they and others did as they read, their reading ability, and why people read. The responses of…

Children will meet one less obstacle to making the transition from spoken to written fluency in language if, during the transition period, they experience written language that corresponds structurally to their spoken language patterns. Familiar children's folksongs, because they contain some of the structure of children's oral language, provide…

Oral language is used before written language, according to this paper, which contends that the acquisition of literacy is merely an extension of natural language learning for all children. This view of literacy development as natural is distinguished from the views of those that think language is innate; the naturalness of children learning to…

This study compared the rapid word processing abilities of groups of students in college, fourth grade, second grade, and kindergarten to see if there is a developmental pattern in such skill development, and to see if phonics training should emphasize either letters and the orthographic rules that create words or letter clusters (common words)…

A study tested the instructional hypothesis that variation in instructional methods in the initial stages of formal reading development will differentially develop subsystems for attaining comprehension. The 91 kindergarten and first grade students in the study received their usual reading instruction plus supplementary instruction in one of four…

Descriptions of language learning and reading behaviors are presented, in this paper, within the context of a model of cognitive processing that reflects a continuum for the logical procession of language skills in human maturation and learning. Portions of the paper differentiate silent and oral reading in terms of cognitive load, which is a…

A study investigated the extent to which bottom-up and top-down conceptual frameworks of reading were held by primary grades teachers. In the first phase of the study, 66 teachers were given the Theoretical Orientation to Reading Profile (TORP), which was designed to reflect belief systems of reading instruction organized around a continuum from…

Although reading is often viewed as a mysterious process, sufficient evidence is available to identify certain areas as promising for further research and others as unpromising. In applied research, the study of how reading programs are implemented in schools, including an examination of leadership roles, teacher attitudes, teacher training, and…

THE EXTENSION OF THE CONCEPT OF READINESS INTO EDUCATION EARLIER IN THIS CENTURY RESULTED IN STUDIES WHICH CONCLUDED THAT CHILDREN ARE NOT READY TO READ UNTIL A MENTAL AGE OF 6.5. BUT ACTUAL RESEARCH ON PRESCHOOL READING WAS, AS OF 1957, EXTREMELY LIMITED. TWO LONGITUDINAL STUDIES WERE UNDERTAKEN TO REMEDY THIS LACK. BOTH STUDIES SOUGHT TO…

This collection provides a number of perspectives on the central role that language plays in reading comprehension. Following an introduction by the editor, entitled "Attention and Individual Differences in Comprehension," the following papers are presented: (1) "The Line of Sight Approach," by Norman H. Mackworth; (2)…

This selective bibliography is one of nine documents compiled to provide titles and descriptions of useful and informative reading documents which were indexed into the ERIC system from 1966 to 1974. The 280 entries in this section of the bibliography concern the reading process and are arranged alphabetically by author in one of the following…

Reading requires the synthesis of auditory and visual skills and therefore involves almost all of the brain. Stages of reading include prereading skills (requiring an adequate spoken vocabulary), the ability to name letters and pictures, good memory for spoken sentences, and manual dexterity in copying patterns. Learning to read involves the…

This collection of 19 articles included in the 34th Yearbook of the Claremont Reading Conference focuses on the theme "Reading and School Life," with specific emphasis on how the quality of school experiences affects the reader and the development of the reading process. The permanent conference theme is "Reading is the Process of Making…