Educators often lack the proper tools and time to teach each child to read fluently, which requires distinct and interrelated word recognition and language comprehension processes. The lack of reading proficiency strongly correlates to academic struggles throughout elementary school and beyond, creating academic performance gaps between readers…

Research has shown that preschoolers monitor others' prior accuracy and prefer to learn from individuals who have the best track record. We investigated the scope of preschoolers' attributions based on an individual's prior accuracy. Experiment 1 revealed that 5-year-olds (but not 4-year-olds) used an individual's prior accuracy at labelling to…

The utility value of the final vowel-consonant-e phonic generalization was examined using 2,715 common English words. When the vowel was defined as a single-vowel, the consonant as a single-consonant, and the final e as a single-e the generalization was found to be highly useful, contrary to other recent findings. Using the total sample of 2,715…

The strategies used by children in word recognition are examined. A critical review of some of the classical research which has influenced current thinking about how words are recognized is presented along with a discussion of some of the errors which can be found in these studies. A five-stage model of how beginning readers learn to recognize…

Cites a number of references from linguists and other researchers about the relative unimportance of knowing where to divide words according to rules. Offers alternative ideas for teaching syllabication. (FL)

Reports three studies about young children's knowledge of word structure and its relation to reading. Study I examined children's knowledge of the characteristics of printed words. Study II investigated aspects of word structure used by beginning readers. Study III investigated aspects of word structure used by readers at varying levels of reading…

Discusses the effectiveness of two techniques of teaching vowel knowledge--the vowel-in-isolation approach and the phonogram approach. (FL)

Describes a simple, practical strategy for reaching into the inner world of children to strengthen their reading vocabularies. (FL)

Introduces the use of word sorts as a way of helping children categorize words in helpful ways. (TJ)

This teacher's guide for teaching decoding contains suggestions for teaching letter sounds and short vowel trigrams; words and syllables with long vowels; consonant blends and some digraphs; some common prefixes, suffixes, and irregular word parts; and dipthongs and vowel digraphs. Each of the five chapters contains several skills to be taught.…

A limited analysis of alternative approaches to phonemic-level word attack instruction is provided in this document. The instruction segment begins with training in letter-sound correspondences for which mastery of certain skills is assumed. Instruction ends with the decoding of novel items having a consonant-vowel-consonant construction. Contents…

Training tasks that comprise the word attack component of phonics reading programs are discussed. Tasks that reflect phonics subskills are drawn from the literature, and variables that appear crucial in distinguishing these tasks are discussed. The analysis is viewed as necessary to generating research questions in a program attempting to assess…

The purposes of the study were to determine whether phonic analysis training could be used to prepare children to be successful on the Auditory Analysis Test (AAT) of phonic skills and to then relate phonic knowledge to reading performance. Subjects were 40 first graders in suburban Pittsburgh who had attended kindergarten together. A group of 16…

Skill in word analysis and synthesis (WASS) and the reading approach of phonics versus whole word instruction were the test variables of achievement related to prereaders' emotions in dimensions of hyperactive/distractible, hostile/aggressive, and anxious/fearful. The two instructional approaches in reading lessons were differentially effective…