Discusses the use of linguistic resources the child has already acquired when he comes to school in helping him learn to read and communicate effectively. (Author/RB)

Offers guidelines for helping children produce their own alphabet books. (FL)

Argues that Piaget's cognitive stage theory complements psycholinguistic theories of fluent reading by clarifying how readers acquire and then use prior knowledge. Suggests that, in this light, teachers may want to rearrange the order and manner in which they present units from basal readers. (FL)

A method of teaching phonics to primary grade disabled readers which combines analytic, synthetic, and linguistic methods is described. The method involves starting with sight words, starting phonics synthetically with consonants, teaching other consonants analytically, adapting linguistic methods for vowels, and encouraging the use of context.…

Identifies several reasons why children do not enjoy reading, including rote learning, unjustified reduction in number of words contained in primers, patronizing of the reader, unnatural sentence structure, and teacher dominance. Describes a Swiss reading program as an example of a better alternative to American primers. (DC)

Cites a number of references from linguists and other researchers about the relative unimportance of knowing where to divide words according to rules. Offers alternative ideas for teaching syllabication. (FL)

Describes a method for using children's own dictated stories for assessment purposes. (FL)

Reviews two orientations, skill orientation and ideational orientation, of teaching practices in beginning reading. Describes in detail child behaviors linked with teaching tactics for each of these modes of instruction. (Author/SS)

Twenty-four good beginning readers and 24 poor readers from 12 suburban first grades were tested on three measures of grammatical morpheme use: sentence recall, speech production, and language compehension. The two groups did not differ in sentence recall. Good readers produced more correct grammatical morphemes than poor readers, but the…

Discusses the language experience approach (LEA) to teaching adults to read. LEA capitalizes on the adult's rich experience and advanced learning and speaking skills. (JOW)

Summarizes a study in which third-grade students were asked to read a book passage aloud, then recount as much as they could remember. Results show that overemphasizing accuracy of word pronunciation can actually retard comprehension of material by student. (HTH)