Reflects that the term "whole language" involves instilling a love of literature, problem-solving and critical thinking, collaboration, authenticity, personalized learning, and much more. Examines some recent research dealing with two fundamental points of contention between the two sides of the phonics and whole language debate. Finds evidence…

A study evaluated reaching achievement for three groups of first-grade students: (1) those receiving phonics instruction utilizing the "Open Court" phonics materials integrated with the District's language arts curriculum; (2) those receiving phonics instruction in the context of guided and shared reading activities ("Phonics in…

A study investigated the effectiveness of Emergent Reader Literacy Instruction (ERLI), an eclectic approach to teaching reading which incorporates phonics, basal texts, quality literature, and writing instruction through daily inclusion of guided reading, word wall/making words, self-directed reading, and writing. A preliminary investigation,…

A study compared the effects of a modified whole language approach with those obtained from a pure whole language approach on the decoding abilities of 20 kindergartners, assessed using Darrell Morris's Early Reading Screening Instrument. Subjects were selected from two similarly composed schools located in Albemarle County, Virginia. Ten students…

A study examined whether children learn phonic decoding skills by reading without direct phonic instruction; compared the effects of a whole language first grade reading program with the effects of a traditional basal reading program; and determined whether there was a difference in decoding and comprehending abilities across levels of ability.…

Results of the examination of teacher's manuals, grades one through four, that accompany a number of basal reading series used in schools in Staten Island, New York, indicated that although teacher's manuals included many phonic rules, none of the examined texts gave any utility or frequency data or cited any research studies to support the…

A combination of case study observation and mini-experimentation techniques were used to examine a number of issues of relevance in the study of the acquisition of beginning reading skills. Six children were divided equally among three instructional modes: phonics, whole word, and mixed. They were asked to decode and encode words, and their…

The history of teaching people to read is explored from the introduction of the Greek alphabet about 3,000 years ago to the present renewed interest in sound symbol relationships. Greek schoolboys were required to learn first the alphabet in order, next commonly used syllables, and then words. English was first written in the Latin alphabet using…

This paper reports the consistency of phonic generalization employing two kinds of frequency determined from a corpus of the 18,000 most frequently occurring words in the English language. Twenty-two commonly taught phonic generalizations were analyzed using a computer. It was concluded that consistency alone is not a sufficient criterion on which…

Two experiments aimed at extending the principles of paired-associates learning transfer to the acquisition of reading skills are reported. Approximately 15 first graders were randomly assigned to each of the 10 treatment conditions. In the first experiment, four types of letter training were compared to two control conditions. The experimental…

This study reports the findings of a 1971 assessment of the reading achievement of 22,000 sixth grade students in Texas. The study used the Prescriptive Reading Test (PRT) and a Pupil Identification Form (PID). Results from the PRT are reported in terms of the percentage of pupils who achieved each of 48 reading objectives. Nineteen objectives…

This study examined the differences in total number of eye movements, direction of the reading scan, and total scanning time of good and poor second-grade readers who were being taught reading by either the phonics or sight-recognition method. (HOD)

Updates T. Clymer's 1963 phonic generalization study by largely rewriting consonant generalizations. Consonants in 17,211 words from the Stanford Spelling Word List were analyzed and Clymer's 45 rules reduced to three, which predict consonant situations with 99 percent accuracy. (SRT).

As education professionals work to incorporate scientific, evidence-based practices into reading instruction, one thing is clear: sound decisions depend on a solid understanding of what the research says. This book brings together all the information readers need in a single volume. A masterful synthesis of information from leading experts in the…

Reading aloud and training in phonemic awareness have been promoted as two ways to increase children's reading ability. Reading aloud encourages children to find pleasure in reading and use literature to aid in learning. Children with early awareness of individual sounds in words, called phonemes, and the ability to manipulate them are more likely…