Reports the results of a survey of Brent primary school headteachers concerning home-based reading programs. Finds considerable parental involvement in children's reading, as well as heightened institutional interest in developing parental-involvement programs. (NH)

Outlines findings from a pilot project by the Centre for Research on Literacy and the Media (England) in which primary school pupils adapted a text from a print into a moving image medium (animation). Examines the impact of this translation on pupils' print literacy. Suggests that informed practical use of media can have benefits for the pupils'…

British trainee teachers identified, from their perspective, the strengths and weaknesses of the National Literacy Strategy, and indicated their concerns for the teaching of literacy in the future. While the teachers generally supported the aims and objectives of the program, they identified areas of concern, including pace of instruction,…

The paper argues that the term "literacy" has become attached to too many disparate practices, and that renewed attention needs to be paid to how the acquisition and use of skills of written communication are conditioned by the core structures of the home, the classroom, and the state. It reviews the current usages of literacy and…

Describes an applied training study investigating the differential effect of two instructional methods on the reading performance of British primary school children with reading difficulties. Explains that children ages 7 to 10 (n=65) were separated into two groups: (1) based on different types of phonological awareness instruction, and (2) a…

Many educational psychologists now conduct assessments of children's phonological skills. In the context of an outline of some of the issues relating to memory and phonological awareness, this paper explores an assumption underlying a method of assessing phonological awareness. It was assumed by Maclean, Bryant and Bradley (1987) that the presence…

This material provides an initial assessment procedure to help identify the level of basic skills competence of people entering education or training. It is based on Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit Standards that describe how and to what level of performance adults should be able to use communication and number skills. The material can be…

This paper describes trends in the teaching of reading to young children in British infant and primary schools. Initial sections outline background features, organization, and procedures in infant education, pointing out that great variations exist among schools. A section on reading practices notes that, although basal reading schemes, which are…

Using Vygotsky's theory of development, explores the significance of storytelling and dramatization activities on the intellectual and emotional development of preschool children. Results indicate that dramatizing of children's stories enhances the storytelling of preschool children and, thus, influences their literacy development. (DST)

This experiment explored relationships between seven to eight-year-old children's reading comprehension skills and inferential and constructive processing, and between verbatim text recall and ability to make inferences. Skilled readers were more successful at answering questions from memory, but less skilled readers' performance on literal…

The study described in this book was designed to create an overall picture of the type of student found at a school for educationally substandard army recruits in England, to establish the causes of the student's educational backwardness and relate these to linguistic performance, and to compare the effectiveness of the approaches and methods used…

These foundation units are aimed at pupils working within Level 2 entry to Year 7. They are designed to remind pupils what they know and take them forward. The units also will teach phonics knowledge from consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words to long vowel phonemes. The writing units focus on developing the following skills: understanding what a…

An auditory perceptual training program for students, aged seven through nine, with auditory or reading problems, was evaluated. Although short-term auditory improvements were observed, there was no impact on reading achievement. (Author/MH)

Presents a summary of the deliberations of a primary school teacher concerning her use of an "apprenticeship approach" to beginning reading instruction. States that it is the teacher's role to use a child's pleasure in a book as a key to the development of reading skills. (RS)

Current needs in English-as-a-mother-tongue teaching, especially in England and Wales, are surveyed. It is argued that the feeling of stagnation among students in many university English departments results at least partly from the failure to respond to new ideas about the teaching of English language and literature. (JL)