Interviews 1124 Danish adults about reading habits/skills, and tests 445 individually at home using six common texts covering types of everyday reading. Finds that 3% of participants have severe functional reading difficulties; another 9% have moderate difficulties. Pinpoints several predictors of reading difficulties: age, limited basic…

The aim of this monograph is to place reading in an ecological connection (i.e., systems reaching far beyond mere classroom reading) and to illustrate the relations between some of the many factors influencing today's reading material, reading education, and reading research. Reading is examined in connection with different societies, in an…

Compares Danish reading instruction methods to U.S. methods within a cultural context and suggests that U.S. children might benefit from the more relaxed attitude of the Danish approach. (JC)

Four cities in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark have been engaged since 1977 in a joint study of the junior level of elementary school. (More than 5,000 pupils are involved in the study.) The Department of Education at the University of Turku joined the project in the autumn term of 1979. The purpose of the Swedish project, reported here, was to…

Examines a program in Denmark that uses metalinguistic games and exercises to stimulate preschool children's discovery of the phonological structure of language. Concludes that phonological awareness can be developed outside the context of the acquisition of an alphabetic writing system, and that this awareness facilitates subsequent reading and…