The article provides a brief review of the literature regarding current practices for teaching reading to adults and children. Much of the methodology that has proven effective with school-aged poor readers, such as the teaching of phonics in a direct instruction manner, may be quite appropriate for use at the adult level. (Author/DB)

Research has shown that students can be taught to comprehend the material better while they are reading. Successful instruction of this type has usually focused on the teaching of comprehension strategies--that is, intentional actions students can use during reading to guide their thinking. Such strategies improve both understanding and memory.…

Most educators agree that an approach balanced between phonics and whole language is the best method of teaching beginning readers. Marie Carbo (1996) discusses the importance of focusing on a balanced approach to reading, because different students have different learning styles. Children who learn best with phonics instruction have analytic and…

This paper summarizes some of the most important findings from research that evaluated the hypothesized causes of specific reading disability (dyslexia). It first discusses the immediate causes of reading difficulties in terms of deficiencies in component reading skills that might cause such difficulties and concludes that inadequate facility in…

This book, intended as a resource for educators, administrators, policymakers, and parents concerned about how to successfully teach children to read, points the way to implementing the best research-based practices in adopting reading materials, training teachers, and providing the necessary school leadership. Studies of effective teaching…

Discusses experiments that provide information about the reading processes involved in mapping phonemes onto alphabetic symbols; suggests several techniques for helping children both to differentiate among the short vowel sounds and to associate sound and symbol. Focuses on the needs of beginning readers who are experiencing reading difficulties.…

Discusses whether or not beginning readers learn phonics best through instructional approaches that teach students to sound out letters, spell words, or combine the two. Concludes that caution is in order as experimental research assessing the effectiveness of each approach has yet to be conducted. Suggests, in the interim, instruction should be…

Outlines a strategy for resolving disputes between the whole language and phonics camps in reading instruction. Reviews research on the role of context in word recognition, the process of reading acquisition, and analytic versus holistic approaches to reading acquisition. Suggests that the way is clear for whole language advocates to reconstitute…

The best evidence available today shows that children who are taught phonics get off to a better start than those who are not taught phonics. Research indicates that children should learn phonics early, that children should be taught only the most important and regular of letter-to-sound relationships, and that children should read words within…

Updates T. Clymer's 1963 phonic generalization study by largely rewriting consonant generalizations. Consonants in 17,211 words from the Stanford Spelling Word List were analyzed and Clymer's 45 rules reduced to three, which predict consonant situations with 99 percent accuracy. (SRT).

Presents the ideas of three people highly visible in the field of reading, each of whom holds different views about reading and reading instruction, in an effort to help teachers clarify their own thoughts. (FL)

Examines three misconceptions teachers and parents make about children and learning to spell: (1) learning to spell is based primarily on a child's knowledge of phonics, (2) learning to spell is a memorization process, and (3) children should not write if they cannot spell words correctly. (HTH)

Contains contributions from five educators concerning the following topics: (1) the "Super Sounder" system of presenting phonics instruction to beginning readers, (2) teaching vocabulary in a multigrade classroom, (3) language experience and basal readers, (4) pacing as a key to successful drill work, and (5) creative ways to encourage reading.…

Examines the influence that oral language deficits exert on children's ability to learn to read and to develop reading skills. Discusses evidence that points to deficient phonological awareness as the variable that best discriminates children with reading delay. The effects of deficit phonological awareness are described. (Author/CR)

Proper application of the alphabetic principle rests on an awareness of the internal phonological (and morphophonological) structure of words that the alphabet represents. Unfortunately for the would-be reader-writer, such awareness is not an automatic consequence of speaking a language, because the biological specialization for speech manages the…