The primary goal of early reading instruction, according to this paper, should be to teach children to comprehend written discourse in a manner similar to that for oral discourse because both types of discourse require decoding ability--graphic or acoustic. The paper asserts that to simply design reading instruction to achieve the subgoal of…

Reviews and evaluative comments concerning the 11 papers read during the April 1976 portion of the Pittsburgh conference on the theory and practice of beginning reading are included in this document. Before the papers are reviewed, information is presented on some questions posed at the conference within the context of two issues that were raised…

The second Pittsburgh conference on the theory and practice of beginning reading, held in May 1976, is evalauted in this paper by pointing out some of the "critical incidents" that occurred at the conference and that indicated the types of interactions that must take place between reading theory and practice in the future. The paper…

A framework for a comprehensive theory of reading is presented in this paper. The framework consists of perceptual, semantic, and control systems. The perceptual and semantic spaces of the theory should not be confused with the terms "decoding" and "comprehension"; decoding and comprehension refer to ways in which those spaces…

In this paper, it is suggested that reading instruction can be improved by studying the interactions of students and teachers in beginning reading classes. Such research could identify effective environments for learning to read, providing teachers with alternative and effective ways of adapting reading instruction to the students' needs. The…

The Computer Animated Reading Instruction System (CARIS) was developed to introduce reading to children with varied sensory, cognitive, and physical handicaps. CARIS employs an exploratory learning approach which encourages children to experiment with the reading and writing of words and sentences. Brief computer-animated cartoons provide the…

A study was designed to determine whether scores for general knowledge, specific knowledge, and general interest on a topic could be used as predictors of children's listening comprehension. Baseball and dolls were chosen as the topics because their stereotypic nature would allow the data to be generalized across the subject population. Data were…

In 1981, a scale, the Emergent Reading Ability Judgments for Dictated and Handwritten Stories, was developed for use in assessing how close a child was to reading independently based upon the nature of the child's attempts to read from dictated and handwritten stories. A study was conducted to apply the scale to stories from a new sample of…

Studies of successful beginning readers have suggested two factors--a responsive communication environment and the awareness of reading as communication--that contribute to early success in reading. In light of this, a study was conducted to identify and differentiate high communication and low communication classrooms and to explore the…

In practically all countries, the governing bodies seem to be conscious of the important role the ability to read well plays in all educational activities. But the tremendous demand for education has far outpaced the supply. Since World War II, many new self-governing countries have been established of which most are illiterate. Since democracy in…

Noting that the lack of prosodic information in printed text may be a source of difficulty for children who are learning to read, this paper explores the features of language underlying the acoustic and perceptual segmentation of sentences into meaningful units. Using evidence from studies in speech production and perception, the paper addresses…

Instructional methods and teaching resources are discussed in this document for the kindergarten teacher of bilingual beginning readers. The instructional program presented suggests, for instance, enlisting the aid of children's librarians to identify books of universal appeal; parental involvement is sought in selecting books for individual…

Ten second grade students in a slow reading group were studied to compare the effects of basal and language experience instruction on word recognition skills. For four weeks, all the students received 90 minutes of basal instruction each morning. During the afternoon sessions, the five language experience students dictated and read stories related…

A rationale for teaching beginning reading from a learning theory perspective that is compatible with Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development is presented in this paper. The model offered is based on a linguistic analysis and on current research. The logical thinking skills characteristic of each stage of development proposed by Piagetian…

A research team approach was selected for an ethnographic project to identify those variables that influenced the adult beginning readers' acquisition of reading strategies and their effect on reading achievement. Weekly staff meetings focused on (1) identifying initial conceptualization and emerging foci reflected in the data, and (2) continually…