Problems occur in teaching English to the child whose native language is not English because of a lack of relevant research about the specification of the native language and the transfer of reading skills from one language to another. Most bilingual instruction in the United States is based on either the "native language approach"…

In the Netherlands, explicit beginning reading instruction usually starts in grade one. The children learn grapheme-phoneme correspondences, blending, and phonemic analysis. However, some children experience difficulties in beginning reading that the existing educational procedures are not adequate to resolve. One possible solution being…

Nonformal educational programs, which are frequently characterized by their transmission of knowledge outside the limitations and role expectations of the traditional classroom, exist today as they have throughout the past. Among the common characteristics of the diverse nonformal educational programs throughout the world is their responsiveness…

A great deal of time could be saved in all grades and for all content areas if a truly phonic alphabet were developed. This alphabet would have only one symbol for each sound and only one sound for each symbol so that beginning readers could learn to pronounce any word they could see and spell any word they could pronounce correctly. Such an…

Teaching practices in Italy, where teachers combine three different methods for teaching reading, may provide insight into ways to improve methodologies in the United States. The first method is the natural method, which, unlike American methods, teaches reading and writing simultaneously with the emphasis on writing. The teacher writes as…

The development of certain cognitive skills to a certain level may be necessary to acquire beginning reading skills. A review of research on cognitive skill development and beginning reading revealed that only a few studies investigated the need for ascertaining the presence of some cognitive processing abilities before reading instruction is…

Reflecting the interdisciplinary emphasis that reading comprehension has received during the past decade, the articles in this volume deal with both the processes involved in reading and the instructional practices used in teaching it. The six articles devoted to reading processes deal specifically with the following topics: schemata,…

Children can acquire written language skills and abilities through the natural process by which they acquire oral language. If as infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, children are exposed to rich print environments, they transfer assumptions from experiences with oral dialogue to the more focused situations of print. Discrepancies in the ease with…

The relationship between first graders' listening comprehension and reading comprehension was examined in a study involving 64 children. Two forms of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, Primary A, were administered--one orally and one silently. No significant difference was found between the mean score of the silent test and that of the oral test.…

The phonological information provided by written words may be used by the reader as a convenient temporary storage medium and as a way of gaining access to the lexicon. Beginning readers should be able to exploit the sound-based patterning of the orthography in reading single words and to bypass it on occasion. Some words do not conform to English…

The extent to which cuing strategies and basic skills explanations of early reading constitute complementary approaches was examined in a study involving 94 fourth grade students. Basic skills--a unidimensional component based on measures of vocabulary development, language skills, and work-study skills--proved to be a powerful variable mediating…

A BEGINNING READING PROGRAM FOR SPANISH-SPEAKING CHILDREN IS REPORTED. A STUDY, SPONSORED BY THE SOUTHWEST REGIONAL LABORATORY FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (SWRL), DEVELOPED LEARNING SEQUENCES FOR A BEGINNING READING PROGRAM FOR KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOMS WITH SPANISH-SPEAKING CHILDREN THROUGHOUT THE SOUTHWEST REGION. EACH OF 21 10-MINUTE…

THE GREATEST PROBLEM FACING EDUCATION TODAY IS THE ERADICTION OF ILLITERACY IN OUR OWN AND OTHER COUNTRIES. TEACHING READING TO ILLITERATE ADULTS IS PRIMARILY A MATTER OF ESTABLISHING THE PROPER CORRELATION BETWEEN THE ELEMENTS OF THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE, WHICH ARE UNKNOWN TO THEM, AND ELEMENTS OF THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE ALREADY IN THEIR REPERTOIRE. THE…

ADULT ILLITERACY RESULTS FROM POVERTY, AND, MANY TIMES, SUPPRESSION. ILLITERACY IS SELF-MAINTAINING BECAUSE ILLITERATES CANNOT GAIN NEW KNOWLEDGE OR FULLY PARTICIPATE IN ECONOMIC, CULTURAL OR POLITICAL LIFE OF THEIR SOCIETY. THE PROJECT WAS AN ATTEMPT TO APPLY THE PRINCIPLES OF PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION TO THE TEACHING OF READING TO ADULT ILLITERATES.…

A DESCRIPTION IS MADE OF AN ATTEMPT TO APPLY TO FIRST GRADE READING INSTRUCTION THE IDEA THAT CHILDREN CAN BENEFIT WHEN THE TEACHING OF READING IS ADAPTED TO THEIR COGNITIVE STYLE. PRETESTING WAS DONE TO DISCOVER THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES IN LEARNING APTITUDES, AND THE TEACHING PROCEDURE WAS MODIFIED TO EMPHASIZE COMPARATIVELY STRONG ABILITIES.…