IN A THREE-STAGE STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF THE PHONIC AND LOOK-SAY METHODS OF READING ON THE TRANSFER OF READING SKILLS, 60 KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN WERE DIVIDED INTO A LETTER GROUP, A WORD GROUP, AND A CONTROL GROUP. MATERIALS USED WERE SIX GRAPHEMES DESIGNED DIFFERENTLY FROM ENGLISH LETTERS AND ASSIGNED TO SIX SINGLE ENGLISH PHONEMES. DURING STAGE ONE, ALL GROUPS WERE TRAINED ON LEFT TO RIGHT READING AND PHONIC BLENDING. DURING STAGE TWO, TRAINING WAS GIVEN ON VERBAL RESPONSE TO PRINTED SYMBOL WHICH VARIED IN TREATMENT AMONG THE GROUPS. TESTING FOR TRANSFER AND FOR GRAPHEME-PHONEME ASSOCIATIONS WAS DONE DURING STAGE THREE. NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE WAS FOUND BETWEEN THE PERFORMANCE OF THE LETTER GROUP AND THE WORD GROUP DURING INITIAL TRAINING, BUT THE LETTER GROUP WAS SUPERIOR TO THE OTHER TWO GROUPS IN THE AMOUNT OF TRANSFER. WHILE MOST OF THE LETTER GROUP SUBJECTS RESPONDED CORRECTLY TO GRAPHEME-PHONEME ASSOCIATIONS, FEW OF THE WORD GROUP AND FEW OF THE CONTROL GROUP SUBJECTS DID. SEX AND INTELLIGENCE WERE NOT SIGNIFICANT VARIABLES IN INITIAL TRAINING, BUT INTELLIGENCE WAS SIGNIFICANT IN TRANSFER. THESE FINDINGS INDICATE THAT THE PHONIC METHOD WAS SUPERIOR TO THE LOOK-SAY METHOD. HOWEVER, THE PHONIC METHOD ALONE WOULD PROBABLY NOT HAVE BEEN AS EFFECTIVE IF IT WERE NOT SUPPLEMENTED BY PHONIC BLENDING. THIS ARTICLE IS A REPRINT FROM "JOURNAL OF VERBAL LEARNING AND VERBAL BEHAVIOR," VOLUME 6, NUMBER 3, JUNE 1967. (NS)