Sight word lists have been used since prior to 20 B.C. and have changed forms many times. Today sight word lists are numerous and are widely and variously used. They differ in source, intended purpose and/or audience, and criteria for including specific words. Despite the differences, there is much agreement that they do reflect the most basic…

This study was designed to rank the first 100 words of the "Great Atlantic and Pacific Sight Word List" according to learnability. The differences in the learnability rankings of the words due to the sex of the subject and the relationship between the learnability and frequency rankings of the words were also examined. Subjects in the study were…

Discusses the construction and testing of The Extended Basic Sight Vocabulary word list. Concludes that it provides educators with a unique instrument for the teaching and testing of words and for the preparation of instructional materials. Includes the word list. (FL)

A study investigated whether trade books labeled "easy reader" consistently conform to specific sight word lists and to what degree the vocabulary in those books matches that in K-2 basals. Ten "easy reader" books were chosen at random from each of three publishers. Three popular sight word lists were matched separately to…

The purpose of this study was to compare student's tested recognition of the Dolch 220 words with their responses to the 220 highest frequency words found by Kucera and Francis in their "Computational Analysis of Present-Day American English." Subjects consisted of 155 second graders and 179 third graders from classrooms in four schools…

Reports a study identifying the most commonly used words in 110 highly recommended trade books for children in grades one and two. (TO)

This investigation was undertaken to identify the graphonemes inherent within the structure of those English words most likely making up the reading vocabulary of elementary school children. Such knowledge was deemed to be important in determining which words should be included in the content of reading materials designed for initial reading…

This study replicated and validated the Dolch basic sight vocabulary investigation. Dolch's method of compiling his list of 95 nouns was also replicated. Some discrepancies were found between the replication study and Dolch's investigations--a few words were left off the lists, although they apparently met all the criteria for inclusion, and a…

This paper compares a recent revision of the Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary with four recently published word lists to find words common to at least three of the four word lists which were not on the Dolch list. These lists were consisted of the 500 most frequent words from the American Heritage Intermediate corpus, the 188 high frequency words from…

Focuses on the examination of pupil responses for grades two through four in a study that provides more recent information about the performance of pupils on the Dolch Test. Provides some observations to assist teachers in interpreting the result of pupil responses to these words. (MG)

Some of the basic sight word lists which are being used or which might be extensively implemented in the future are described in this paper. The basic criterion used to define a good sight word list is that it contains words which appear with high frequency in children's materials at the beginning reading levels as well as at higher levels. In…

Reports a study of fourteen word lists and proposes a basic list of 240 starter words. (TO)