Productive application of linguistics to the field of reading has made necessary the formulation, revision, and expansion of theories and models of reading to incorporate relationships among stimulus characteristics of writing systems and response components of phonological, morphological, syntactical, lexical, and affective systems. These variables are mobilized and organized according to the purposes of the reader in order to process and transform surface characteristics of oral or printed stimuli into a structural form and level that could result in a semantic interpretation. Reviewed herein are selections from the voluminous research evidence leading to these changes in theories and models of reading and implications of this evidence for reading theory and practice are discussed. (A 121-item bibliography is appended.) (Author/RD)