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)

Tests the hypothesis that the ability to decode words is facilitated if the beginning reader is taught only one sound per letter, the one sound associated with the letter being treated as an overgeneralization. Subjects were five pairs of four-year-old monozygotic twins. (Author/RH)

Concludes that intensive phonics teaching produces greater beginning reading achievement than do reading programs that deemphasize phonics teaching. (FL)

Argues that problems identified with using phonics do not attack the skill, per se, which phonics provides--being able to independently unlock words. (HOD)

Examined the findings of the "Teaching Children To Read" study of the National Reading Panel and the procedures of the study. Meta-analytic techniques found that the methodology and procedures were not adequate. Findings suggest that phonics, as an aspect of the complex reading process, should not be over-emphasized. (SLD)

Teaching students how to read is one of the most important tasks in elementary schools. The majority of schools use published basal programs to teach students to read. Several published reviews have indicated that past editions of basal readers did not align with appropriate instruction for beginning level readers. In this study I reviewed five of…

Proposes a diacritical marking system for occasional use in initial reading instruction. (RB)

Various reference sources were examined in an attempt to delineate and analyze the historical development of the controversy regarding the use of phonics in teaching reading during the period from 1930 through 1964. Information was examined in 10-year spans, which indicates the number of articles written during those periods. The analysis…

Laments the past misuse and misunderstanding of phonics. Introduces the term "new phonics" to describe the sophisticated, research-based phonics being used in the basal reading scheme, "Language in Action." (JL)

A phonics advocate maintains that claims for results with the method called "assisted reading" or sentence reading are higher than can be expected. (MKM)

An extensive research base on beginning reading acquisition and reading difficulties, developed over the past few decades, has important implications for the teaching of reading. Unfortunately, much of this research does not appear to be reaching teachers, whose knowledge is essential for scientific findings about reading to benefit children. This…

Based on the idea that word identification is a group of strategies that children develop as they learn to read, not a single letter-sound by letter-sound pathway to pronunciation, this book invites teachers to support readers as they develop and use many different world identification strategies. Chapters in the book are: (1) Using the Alphabetic…

Compares two major methods for teaching phonics. (RB)