Drawing from the literature on reading research and theories, this paper discusses the problems of community college students with severe reading/writing deficits, reviews the advantages and limitations of various approaches to reading instruction, and suggests a new method of word decoding. First, the paper explores the difficulties facing the student who does not overcome his/her reading/writing disabilities in college, including problems in finding and training for a job, a tendency to drop out of school, and a lack of self-esteem. The next section discusses the skills involved in the ability to read, noting that disabled readers have many of the abilities of skilled readers, but cannot communicate these abilities through the medium of print. Like skilled readers, disabled readers can understand the meaning of a passage, predict outcomes, understand social rules and expectations, separate fact from opinion, and draw conclusions, but not in relation to a printed text. Next, the paper addresses various problems and theories related to reading disabilities. This section considers the relationship between motivation, frustration, and stress; outlines the symptoms of several learning disabilities; and reviews relevant literature on word-identification strategies, vocabulary development, the significance of cues in learning, attitudinal problems such as distractibility and impulsivity, learning style, phonics, and memory. After outlining several learning theories concerning word analysis and reading, the paper underscores the need for innovations in reading instruction and recommends methods of coordinating interrelated skills and sources of information to improve student motivation and involvement. Several weaknesses in traditional methods of word decoding are examined, and a remedy based on the cue of syllabication is suggested. A dialogue illustrating the use of this instructional strategy is provided. Finally, the paper reviews learning theories related to reading instruction, highlighting stimulus-response and cognition theories. Includes 43 references. (VVC)