Three hundred children from two metropolitan areas were studied for 1 year to determine (1) the relationship between letter-name knowledge and reading success, (2) the relationship between letter-name learning and phonic learning, and (3) the ease and efficiency of vowel identification. The study concluded that the sooner a child learns the letter…

When 23 commonly taught phonics rules were analyzed in terms of consistency and complexity, it was determined that only nine appeared to be useful. (Includes a table showing the consistency of the generalizations.) (HOD)

Rebuttal to an article by Montare, Elman, and Cohen (in a previous issue of this journal) which the author claims used an incorrect model of learning to analyze his research. (HOD)

Suggests that children should be taught to blend isolated sounds into words as an aid to reading. (MKM)

Having students draw pictures about what they have read is a way to check their reading comprehension. (MKM)

The article replies to H. Stevenson (EC 162 649), who has interpreted his cross-linguistic studies as showing that differences in orthographies do not materially affect the reading-acquisition process or the prognosis for successful learning. The reply asserts that Stevenson's results derive from a faulty interpretation of comparisons among…

Analysis of eight leading basal reading programs indicated that the majority of selections were narrative materials, that poems accounted for 25 percent of the total selections, and that exposition accounted for 15 percent. Teacher's Manuals provided instruction on how to read various types of writing. Narrative materials were most often used for…

The article describes ways to tell fairy stories and nursery rhymes to increase deaf students' prereading skills. Teachers are advised to repeat lines and phrases, repeat lines visually, identify linguistic structures, find recurring themes, express a moral view, build cognitive skills, recognize linguistic rituals, and provide opportunities for…

The author highlights key issues raised in a seminar on learning to read and suggests the need for formulating a theory of reading development as well as further understanding of the linguistic processes underlying reading ability and disability. (CL)

Contrast is one of the great principles of any art--two things that are different are put side-by-side so that both can be seen for comparison. This paper considers initially two kinds of contrast in phonics: the sounds of the five short vowels (a e i o u); and the sequence from left-to-right in sounding out the letters. The paper states that…

This paper contends that there is a range of converging evidence that beginning readers use the implicit lexicalized form of phonological recoding, as claimed by the knowledge sources theory. To reinforce the contention, the paper first discusses the alphabetic principle and theories of beginning reading and then considers lexicalized phonological…

Using made-up words to teach sound-symbol relationships eliminates student guessing at familiar words. (Author/SP)

Compares British and Finnish reading instruction in the primary grades. (RB)