Few previous studies have directly linked the contribution of phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) to the development of phonological processing and orthographic processing in reading. These studies are predominantly cross-sectional and focus on reading development predictors, with relatively little emphasis on spelling…

Learning irregular words involves mental marking of irregular letters in the spelling, a process not fully understood. In a within-subjects experiment, we manipulated the type of scaffolding given to beginning readers to evoke mental marking. We pretested to sort 103 kindergarten and first-grade participants into sequential decoders, who decode…

In a test-driven educational environment, teachers see a great need for more engaging resources that produce the literacy results needed for students to thrive academically. In 2015, The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that only 36% of fourth graders scored at or above the Proficient level of reading. This statistic was…

Several decades of research have established the critical role of phonemic awareness in the development of beginning reading. In particular, phonemic awareness makes early phonics instruction useful for children and facilitates their ability to blend letter sounds while decoding words, to learn sight words reliably, and to spell phonetically. A…

Sight word learning and memory were studied to clarify how early during development readers process visual letter patterns that are not dictated by phonology, and whether their word learning is influenced by the legality of letter patterns. Forty kindergartners and first graders were taught to read 12 words containing either single consonants…

First grade children were the subjects for this investigation which focused on the role of meaning in the learning of sight vocabulary. (HOD)

A first grade teacher relates various techniques, based on her knowledge of linguistics, which she uses to teach reading and language awareness; illustrated. (RD)

Reports that primary school children learned high imagery nouns in fewer trials than low imagery nouns and that second-grade children learned the nouns in fewer trials than did first-grade children. (FL)

For this practicum three methods for improving sight vocabulary for first graders were developed and implemented. Goals were to increase vocabulary recognition, improve students' attitudes toward reading, and raise critical thinking levels using parental support. The program, which involved 10 students, took place in 3 phases allowing 4 weeks per…

This study investigated the use of word games to teach beginning reading to first grade students. The study was designed with a three fold emphasis in respect to beginning reading students: (1) to develop criteria for word games, (2) to create seven word games according to these criteria (3) to investigate how these games might expand sight…

Concludes that when children learned confusable words, their subsequent learning of words was at a faster rate than those children who learned nonconfusable words first, and that high imagery words were learned more quickly than low imagery ones. (FL)

Nineteen first grade children were randomly assigned to two experimental reading instruction conditions lasting 12 weeks. Both conditions used the language experience approach to teaching beginning language. In the experimental stage, the language experience approach was augmented by a total of six hours of individualized word-bank activities.…

The effectiveness of providing tactile-kinesthetic sensory input during reading instruction was investigated in a sample of 60 kinesthetic-preferring first-grade pupils. Children were randomly assigned to a method which was predominantly visual, predominantly auditory, or predominantly kinesthetic. Each child received three 20-minute, individual…

Within the context of an ongoing classwide peer tutoring system for sight words, a training program was conducted to teach first-grade peer tutors to provide verbal praise for correct responses on an intermittent schedule. After training, the four observed tutors successfully delivered praise on the desired schedule. (Author/JDD)

Concludes that the level of categorization from which a word is drawn affects its learnability as a sight word. (FL)