The purpose of this monograph is to provide a basic discussion of the general nature of syntactic complexity. The monograph describes how the rules of language produce syntax and raises some questions about reading difficulty. The contents include: "Arrangement," which discusses 12 basic sentence types, noun determiners, verb expansions, negative…

Prepared to guide the nonprofessional in helping another person learn to read, this book consists of systematic phonics for the remedial or beginning reader. Some of the pages in the book are addressed to the tutor and some to the learner. Introductory material includes descriptions of reading, the teacher, phonics, tools used in learning to read,…

A sample of 79 first grade children, selected from a total sample of 350 subjects from an upper middle class school district, were involved in this study. The sample population was divided into three reading groups (depending on their reading scores) to permit statistical comparisons among groups with differentiated reading achievements. A battery…

This study deals with the ability of the beginning reader to recognize the relationships between isolated letter sounds and the same sounds embedded in a word context. The subjects were 64 prekindergarten children attending six private preschools in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The subjects were all Caucasian and spoke a standard English…

The research reported here was designed to examine a number of factors that findings from verbal learning studies indicate should affect the recall and transfer of word identification materials. Sight word and phonics-based or rule-based learning were investigated in 112 kindergarteners who were identified as nonreaders. Groups were trained on…

This study investigated the effects on oral reading reversals of various contextual conditions ranging from no context to highly predictable contexts among white, middle-class, male first graders. The study was designed to demonstrate the relationship between language redundancy and reversals in a beginning reading population in order to suggest…

The employment of the graphoneme approach in reading instruction is based on several generally accepted concepts regarding the learning process and the nature of the English language. A graphoneme is a closed syllable, a syllable which begins with a vowel and ends with a consonant, and it is thought to be the stable unit in the relationship…

The strategies used by children in word recognition are examined. A critical review of some of the classical research which has influenced current thinking about how words are recognized is presented along with a discussion of some of the errors which can be found in these studies. A five-stage model of how beginning readers learn to recognize…

A review of Jeanne Chall's book "Learning to Read: The Great Debate" is presented. A summary of the book's research and a reaction to its content are offered. The following four elements considered important to effective reading instruction are listed: (1) teacher competence, (2) pacing, (3) method, and (4) content (motivation). The manner in…

This teacher's manual presents the Spanish decoding skills. Used prior to basic Spanish language primers, it teaches the basic skills necessary for reading Spanish. The manual is organized into four sections. Section 1 contains day-by-day instructional plans; section 2 contains general information concerning the mechanics of the Spanish language…

A teacher-parent recounts how she used labels on grocery items and other advertising formats to help her preschooler gain confidence in beginning reading. (JMB)

This paper reviews research on children's use of contextual cues in reading, and reports on a study which explored the contextual sensitivity and word recognition behavior of 108 beginning readers from grades 1, 2, and 3. (CM)

Children's rhymes are one way of introducing children to the world of print and reading instruction. (DD)

Examines the importance of consistency of letter-sound patterns in beginning reading instruction. (HOD)

Reviews the literature concerning the importance of a child's oral language in learning to read. (JM)