Although many educators believe that learning to read and write Mandarin Chinese is not easy (because of the complexities of its characters and grammar), it is common to find voracious and expert young readers in the early elementary school levels in Taiwan. The Chinese educational system is governed by a uniform curriculum and nationalized…

The 38 essays in this book look back at language experience as an educational approach, provide practical classroom applications, and reconceptualize language experience as an overarching education process. Classroom teachers and reading specialists describe strategies in use in a variety of classroom settings and describe ways to integrate…

Reviews of research, studies of early readers, and investigations of emergent literacy uniformly conclude that parents' beliefs, aspirations, and actions affect their children's growth into and embracing of literacy. However, conflicting results call into question the utility of simply correlating race or various socioeconomic factors, such as…

A practicum developed a whole language kindergarten at-home reading program. The target group was 27 sets of parents of children in a kindergarten classroom who volunteered to participate. The objectives were to increase the parents' knowledge of whole language techniques; increase their level of comfort in using whole language techniques at home…

A study examined the sources of motivation of adults participating in the adult literacy program at the Bob Steele Reading Center (BSRC) in Hartford, Connecticut. The "life cycle" approach used to explore motivation throughout the stages of the literacy learning process included brief case studies focusing on the importance of socioemotional…

One of a series of quarterly reports, this publication contains 14 articles which report the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instruments for its investigation, and practical applications. Articles in the publication are: "Some Assumptions about Speech and How They Changed" (Alvin M. Liberman); "On the…

A teacher's manual is presented for "The Working Experience," a series of three texts for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students. The series builds on oral skills to develop reading and writing ability while still expanding oral English-language proficiency. Because one of the basic principles underlying the series is the idea that students…

Books 1, 2, and 3 of "The Working Experience," a series of texts for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students, are contained in this document. The series builds on oral skills to develop reading and writing ability while still expanding oral English-language proficiency. Since one of the basic principles underlying the series is the idea that…

A study examined the pilot year of the Computers in Early Literacy (CIEL) program, a multi-year project aimed at developing and assessing various strategies for improving the literacy development of children in kindergarten and the first grade. Subjects, 25 kindergarten and 22 first-grade students in a midwestern primary school, received three…

A practicum addressed the emergent literacy needs of preschoolers at a daycare center. Goals were to increase: (1) the amount of time parents read aloud to their children to 15 minutes a day; (2) the number of library books at the daycare center from 40 to 200; and (3) the number of volunteers at the center from none to 4 who would read aloud to…

Part of a series designed to provide practical ideas parents can use to help children become readers, this booklet focuses on how parents can encourage their children to read and write. The booklet describes how individuals learn to use language; discusses how to encourage the use of language; urges parents to build positive attitudes toward…

A practicum was implemented to improve the sight-word vocabulary and attitudes toward reading among 22 second-grade students reading below grade level. The program took approximately 45 minutes a day, 2 days a week. The language experience approach was used in conjunction with word processors. The different types of activities included dictated…

A study demonstrated that young children who have difficulty with phonics can be taught to read through other methods, that phonics is only one of the many useful strategies that a child can employ, and that many contextual strategies are easier to learn and more reliable than phonics. A case study was conducted during an intervention with a young…

A study explored the development of emergent literacy among inner-city kindergarten children participating in a "read-at-home" program. The program focused on the enjoyment of reading, required minimal involvement from the classroom teacher, and encouraged parents to become involved in any way they wanted. Twenty-eight children, enrolled…

A child's success in learning to read in the first grade appears to be the best predictor of his or her ultimate success in schooling as well as all of the events and outcomes that correlate with that. Yet, across the research literature reviewed for a recent book, "Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print," children's…