As a contribution to research on the reading behavior of adult beginning readers, two experiments were performed with adults reading on the first, second, and third grade levels. The experiments sought to determine whether the pattern of developing strategies in these adults differed from evolving patterns in children learning to read; differences would indicate recommended differences in teaching strategies for these two groups. The subjects, 30 adult basic education students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, read the Woodcock Reading Test word recognition list as well as a paragraph paralleling their achievement on that list, and were then asked to retell the story read. It was found that level one readers were highly conscious of words, level two readers made extensive use of syntax, and level three readers correctly stated but misapplied the rules for word recognition. In the second study the following three strategies for facilitating the integrated use of subskills in word recognition were compared: promoting the use of the students' own procedures, providing students with a set of procedures, and combining the two approaches. The third strategy was found to be the most effective. (DF)