Provides, and discusses, five possible answers to the question: Why consider language difficulties in science? (PEB)

This paper describes two studies to determine the effectiveness of a technique for teaching graphemic bases in linguistic patterns and for teaching the combining of these graphemic bases with beginning sounds. Designed to complement the Hawaii English Program, the teaching procedure used both group instruction and peer interaction-it was brief,…

To devise a list of functional sight vocabulary words, a search was made of numerous curriculum guides and books, school district curricula, and several commercial materials purporting to teach such words. This search provided 16 word lists with a total of 466 different words and symbols. The word lists ranged from as few as five words to as many…

The word sort is a technique which capitalizes upon a child's natural feature analysis abilities. In a word sort the learner physically arranges words printed on small cards into groups. This technique can be used in many ways to help children draw conclusions about how words are related. There are two types of sorts: in "closed sorts"…

Controversies over the best way to teach word recognition in beginning reading instruction have raged for generations. The goal has been to acquire automatic skills for recoding written language into speech. At this time, a popular theory suggests that phonics is better than the look-and-say method; however the evidence does not support this…

One of the programs included in "Effective Reading Programs....," is this program begun in 1969 which uses a language experience approach during the first three years of the children's education, kindergarten through second grade. The primary objective is to develop an initial sight vocabulary and word recognition skills in each child by…

The topic of illiteracy in the United States is discussed by five people in this transcript of "Options on Education." These five, each of whom approaches illiteracy in a different way, are George Weber, Associate Director of the Council for Basic Education; Mike Smith, Director for Essential Skills of the National Institute of…

This bulletin is the first of three designed to give detailed help on fostering language competence in 4- to 6-year-old school children. The bulletin introduces the teacher to a group of prepositions and conjunctions (chosen from the Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary List of 220 Words) which are important to the meaning of sentences. The list was…

This report is concerned with the formulation of a sequence for the spelling-to-sound correspondence rules that cover the 1- and 2-syllable words in the speech comprehension vocabularies of 6- and 9-year-olds. One major function of the rule sequence is to serve as a basis for developing reading instruction materials for the sequence and content of…

This study investigated the use of word games to teach beginning reading to first grade students. The study was designed with a three fold emphasis in respect to beginning reading students: (1) to develop criteria for word games, (2) to create seven word games according to these criteria (3) to investigate how these games might expand sight…

Vocabulary level of 10 special students was determined and compared to their supposed level of proficiency on the Functional Basic Word List for Special Pupils (Tudyman and Groelle, 1958). Ss were five educable mentally retarded (EMR) students (CA 9-6 to 12-0, IQ 64-77, MA 6-6 to 9-7) and five matched emotionally disturbed students. Word sampling…

Suggests a variety of class activities using word banks. (MKM)

Describes "Easy Steps to Reading Independence" (ESTRI), a new phonics-linguistics approach. Provides field study data that show statistically significant advantages for ESTRI in eight out of fourteen cases. (RL)

Five moderately mentally retarded peer tutors (ages 9-11) were taught sight words using a time delay procedure, and then were taught to use this procedure to teach the words to six younger, moderately mentally retarded children (ages 6-9). Younger children learned all five sight words in one to four sessions. (Author/JW)