The primary purpose of this paper on reading instruction is to inform teachers and parents of the superiority of phonics or code-based approaches over the whole-word method (still the dominant method in the United States). The first section deals with the nature of reading skills, the second section covers the history and present status of the…

A review of (1) the Tutor-Student-System, (2) Initial Teaching Alphabet, (3) Words in Color, and (4) the Michigan Successive Discrimination Program (MSDP) is presented in this paper. (WR)

THE NATURE, FUNCTIONS, AND TRANSITIONAL STAGE OF THE INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET (I.T.A.) IN BEGINNING READING IN THE UNITED STATES ARE DISCUSSED. THE MEDIUM, I.T.A., WAS ORIGINALLY CONCEIVED AS A TRANSITIONAL ALPHABET, OF WHICH SPELLING IS AN INTEGRAL PART. THE MEDIUM IS DESIGNED TO RATIONALIZE THE DECODING PROCESS AND AT THE SAME TIME PROVIDE A…

The British experiment with the Initial Teaching Alphabet was in its third year at the time of this report on the effectiveness of i.t.a. as a beginning reading program. Two groups of students were compared; one that started learning to read with i.t.a. and one that started with t.o. (traditional orthography). Reading and spelling tests were…

Phonics teaches learners how to match the letters of the alphabet to the speech sounds they already know. At age five, children who are ready to learn to read have a vocabulary of some 5,000 words and understand far more than that when they hear them. The problem is that there are 44 sounds in English and only 26 letters in the alphabet. Phonics…

Study investigates whether the i.t.a., as well as two other revised orthographies, facilitate the perception of linguistic structure. (Authors)

In assessing the effectiveness of the initial teaching alphabet, a survey included the professional opinions of British teachers who have used i.t.a. and a searching critical analysis of the published experimental research on i.t.a. (Author/RK)

The purpose of this project was to test the effectiveness of i.t.a. in teaching reading to first grade students in the Portland Public Schools. Some of the elements of the experimental design included the following: one experimental--i.t.a.--and one control--traditional orthography (TO)--class was formed in each of ten schools; teachers and…

AN EVALUATION OF THE I/T/A READING PROGRAM AT THE LAKEWOOD PUBLIC SCHOOLS CALLED FOR AN INVESTIGATION OF THE IMMEDIATE AND LONG TERM EFFECTS OF I/T/A INSTRUCTION IN READING AND VARIOUS AREAS OF LANGUAGE ARTS. AN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP OF 93 PUPILS WAS DIVIDED INTO TWO GROUPS, DEPENDING ON THE AMOUNT OF I/T/A INSTRUCTION GIVEN. ONE GROUP HAD 1 1/2…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of two methods of reading instruction on children's ability to write original compositions. The subjects for this study were 684 first and second graders. Of the 293 first grade children, 130 were receiving their reading instruction in i.t.a., while the remaining 163 children were working in…

A 2-YEAR LONGITUDINAL STUDY WAS CONDUCTED TO EVALUATE THE "EARLY-TO-READ I/T/A PROGRAM." THIRTY-FOUR PUPILS RAMDOMLY ASSIGNED TO ONE FIRST GRADE WERE TAUGHT USING THE "EARLY-TO-READ I/T/A SERIES," AND 26 PUPILS RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO ANOTHER FIRST GRADE WERE TAUGHT USING THE "GINN BASIC READERS" AND TRADITIONAL…

This study compared the relative effectiveness of the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i. t. a.) program for teaching beginning reading with a matched program using traditional orthography (T. O.). Three waves of first grade students in ten predominately white elementary schools were randomly assigned to i. t. a. and T. O. classrooms. Summary evaluation…

The papers included this volume focus upon the reading problems faced by the child living in urban America. The scope of the papers encompasses such basic issues as "Social Variation in Language: Implications for Teaching Reading to Black Ghetto Children" and "The Training of Reading Teachers for the Disadvantaged." Other articles in this volume…

A study conducted in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, elementary schools, the first schools to adopt the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) approach to teaching basic reading in this country, revealed that children who started with i.t.a. had significantly less reading failure than children with traditional orthography (T.O.) training. Although the i.t.a.…