The prevailing assumption underlying practice in the classroom is that children acquire most of their new words from context during silent reading. The trouble with learning from silent reading is that many pupils do not read widely or quickly enough. Reading aloud to children will, however, allow them to participate in activity that they all can…

Focuses on the issues of skills in reading instruction in New Zealand. Feels that instruction can maintain a reciprocal and mutually supportive relationship between teaching word-level strategies and comprehension strategies. (MG)