Reports on a study of preferred reading instruction approaches among 121 British reading teachers. Finds that most do not use a single approach, but a blend of approaches determined by individual differences. Maintains that most perceive their role as encouraging students to enjoy reading. (CFR)

Various word-recognition tasks were completed by 54 second-grade students from classrooms where reading instruction followed the whole-language approach or the phonics/skill-based approach. A task involving a cloze procedure favored the whole-language approach, but there were no other significant differences between groups. Contains 30 references.…

This study evaluated the impact of Reading Recovery early literacy intervention on children and classes in London schools. The progress in the 2005-6 school year was compared for 234 of the lowest achieving children in 42 schools serving disadvantaged areas. The children, aged around 6, who received Reading Recovery during the year, were compared…

A study examined the importance of two phonological encoding procedures (addressed phonology and assembled phonology) in children who are learning to read and how the relative importance of these two procedures might change over the age range from six to eight. Subjects, 72 fifth, fourth, and third grade students from two inner London (England)…

Contends that children need to learn phonic skills, not necessarily through early direct teaching, but through reading experience. Suggests using Paired Reading, which is validated by psycholinguistic reading theory and provides opportunities to learn to read from context and use innate syntactic and semantic knowledge. (SKC)

Increasingly, foreign nationals living in Japan are sending their children to Japanese elementary schools. This requires that the children's native language be taught outside of school, most often at home. While teaching oral language is not difficult for parents, teaching reading requires different skills. Some difficulties in this process are…

This thesis examined variations in the word decoding skills of children with reading disabilities. These variations were related to possible cognitive, developmental, and environmental causes of reading disability. Possible implications for educational interventions were also analyzed in the five studies. The thesis critically examines the…

Reports on a study of the relationship of both phonemic and musical sound discrimination to reading ability among 18 British first graders. Finds that discrimination of musical sounds is related to music performance but that the influential factor is a specific awareness of pitch changes. (CFR)

After a brief introduction to the development of New Phonics, an innovative course designed for Japanese English-as-a-foreign-language learners, this article describes the contents of the course for beginners, i.e., the techniques, exercises, and teaching materials for grade 7.(Author/VWL)

Toronto Catholic District School Board implemented an early literacy program designed to ensure that all students can read and write to their full potential by the end of Grade 3. Instruction and assessment are integrated in four daily 30-minute blocks: word study, writing, guided reading, and self-selected reading. Students improved on seven of…

This research analyses possible advantages of using schematic drawings with dyslexic readers in a transparent orthography (i.e. Spanish language). To assess the usefulness of such drawings, the procedure consisted of comparing latency times (LT) for familiar words and pseudo words in a naming task. The experimental group was formed by dyslexic…

Providing an international perspective on how children learn to read, this first of 2 volumes presents research studies and classroom experiences from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Jamaica, and Israel, drawing on evidence from 18 countries. Essays in the volumes highlight implications for design, implementation, and…

In response to a position paper that called upon the ministry of education in each Canadian province to provide a balanced selection to offerings on the province's authorized list of language arts textbooks, several ministries claimed that a balanced approach to teaching reading was being followed. A letter received from Alberta Education even…

This document consists of the two issues published during 1998 of the newsletter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) national special interest group (N-SIG) on foreign language literacy. Major articles in these issues are: "Academic Protocol and Targeted Rhetoric" (Denise D. Brown); "Key Concepts in FL Literacy:…

This practical guide to teaching reading offers activities to teach reading readiness and mathematics. It also discusses the reasons for reading to children, teaching phonics, and using the basal reader. The section on reading readiness focuses on the importance of such skills, and specific reading readiness skills such as visual discrimination,…