Explores the approach to reading which emphasizes reading within a total language context and concludes that teacher training should stress awareness of the child's general language situation and should discourage reliance on word-skill material. (JM)

Discusses the relationship of cognitive development or thinking skills to language development and beginning reading. (MKM)

In this article the stages of learning how to read are outlined, and successful methods of teaching reading are described. (JD)

Data from the application of word reading, letter recognition, memory and classification tasks to preschool children suggest that word learning ability is more closely tied to cognitive development than is alphabet knowledge and that reading readiness assessment might profit from applying a word learning task. (MB)

Reports on a study investigating the contributions of visual factors dependent upon the use of symbols as intermediary units and concludes that perceptual factors may play an important role in the use of Chinese characters as intermediaries in introducing reading. (JM)

Results of a study of early reading responses of young children in a Finnish preschool challenge the belief that grapheme-phoneme regularity is a critical factor in beginning reading. (JM)

Reports research which shows that a wide gap exists between basal reader language and children's level of oral language development. (JM)

Examines how the child approaches reading and spelling in the light of the developmental sequence of phonological awareness skills, by looking at the growth of these skills from the initial formation of each skill through the early stages of their development. (RS)

Reviews research on the possible roles that errors might play in learning to read. Contrasts a productive view of errors with the view that errors are problematic to instruction, stating that the two are compatible. Concludes that errors can have both a generative and an inhibiting function depending upon instructional conditions. (GEA)

Five subskills in learning to read are identified, and their place in the methods of teaching reading and their relations to each other are discussed. It is concluded that phonemic segmentation must be the most important and the most difficult task in learning to read. (Author/LMO)

Examines the nature of listening assessment and recent developments of appropriate tests. Shows listenability to be a function of orality in language and offers a summary of discourse characteristics for selecting materials appropriate to listening instruction. (FL)

Reviews the environmental and functional print reading research and discusses its significance in relation to children's emerging literacy. (BB)

The authors explore ways in which beginning reading books present cultural perspectives to young children. They examine certain modes of thought, experience, and interaction prevalent in the child's preschool life in contrast to other types of experiences characteristic of the culture of formal and literate schooling. (Author/CT)

Discusses techniques to use with adult beginning readers in the areas of (1) assessment (i.e., interviewing, voice pointing); (2) discussion (i.e., explaining approaches, incorporating interests); and (3) instruction (i.e., assisted reading, progress tracking). (CH)

Examines preschool children's understanding of the reading process. Results indicate that children's immediate experiences and their developmental characteristics had an impact on their conception of reading. (Author/AS)