At the start of the 21st century, literacy teaching in state primary schools was conducted under a framework guided by a National Literacy Strategy, which recommended a model of reading called 'The Searchlights Model'. Early on it became clear that rises in performance predicted from adoption of this strategy were not happening. This led to a…

We report a study where we investigated the effect of low or high phonically-decodable texts on young children learning to read. Two parallel series of 12 instructional reading books were used with 36 children in three schools. These books were purposely created so that each parallel book, in sequence, introduced the same number of new words.…

Stagnant standardized test scores keep literacy achievement at the forefront of national education discussions. Increased conversations about the science of reading have propelled investigations into different types of phonics instruction. However, questions still linger such as "Which strategies are most effective for which students?",…

This article is a rejoinder to J.S. Bowers (2020), 'Reconsidering the evidence that systematic phonics is more effective than alternative methods of reading instruction', "Educational Psychology Review" (https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2102/10.1007/s10648-019-09515-y). There is strong agreement among reading scientists that learning the phonological…

This article explores the 'reading wars' from the perspective of instructional psychology, which focuses on the environmental and instructional factors that facilitate students' progress in learning to read. It draws on research (computational analysis and classroom-based experimental studies) to inform a novel intervention that teaches reading…

This paper describes a problem of practice that arose from a lack of consistent, systematic phonics instruction within a small rural school with a large percentage of students not mastering skills in a way that builds the needed foundation for reading. To address this problem, action research was conducted through a mixed methods approach to…

This study examined how teachers in Tanzania understand and implement Phonics Instructional Approach (PIA) in the teaching of reading among early graders. Specifically, the study assessed teachers' pedagogical knowledge of the use of PIA and explored effective PIA practices used by teachers in literacy skills learning. The study employed…

Learning new words is fundamental in both first and second-language reading. There are, however, divided opinions on the best instructional approaches. Two widely used approaches across languages are whole-word focus and word-constituent focus. The appropriateness of each approach has varied historically, even within a single language (e.g., the…

Application of psycholinguistic insights initiated a long career researching how children learn to read words. A theory was proposed claiming that spellings of individual words are stored in memory when their graphemes become bonded to phonemes in their pronunciations along with meanings, and this enables readers to read stored words automatically…

Reading is one of the most significant academic skills and numerous students have difficulties with reading including students who are deaf and hard of hearing. An average student with hearing impairments graduates from a high school with a fourth-grade reading comprehension level that is alarmingly poor. Several reasons may cause this low reading…

The study investigated the effects of children-generated illustrations and gender on pupils' achievement in phonics in the Udenu Local Government Area of Nigeria. The study employed a non-equivalent quasi-experimental 2 x 2 factorial research design. Some 172 primary two pupils from 4 schools were used for the study. The English Achievement Test…

The purpose of this quantitative, comparative study was to examine if and to what extent, there are statistically significant differences in decoding and oral reading fluency scores between at-risk Title I students who receive multisensory phonics-based instruction in first grade and those who do not in the Western United States. Paivio's dual…

Substantial evidence exists suggesting that access to articulatory gestures during instruction improves students' phonological awareness skills, but researchers have yet to explore the role of articulatory gestures in initial phonics instruction. The purpose of this study was to examine if visual access to articulatory gestures (i.e., mouth cues)…

Most private schools in India follow the Alphabet-Spelling method to teach reading in English. This approach bypasses letter-sound correspondences and focuses on rote memorization and sight-word recognition. In an effort to provide students with more recent evidence-based practices in reading instruction, this study examined how phonics-based…

The purpose of the Teacher Prep Review is to guarantee teachers have expertise in reading instruction (as well as other essential areas NCTQ assesses) before being trusted to teach children to read. By regularly reviewing the reading coursework provided by nearly 700 elementary teacher preparation programs, the National Council on Teacher Quality…