A study examined the effectiveness of an integrated language arts instructional format for teaching reading compared with the effectiveness of the typical traditional reading program. The study investigated the effectiveness of approaches that are representative of both viewpoints of the reading process (i.e., word recognition and the construction…

This guide to reading instruction for elementary and middle school students with learning difficulties covers a wide variety of practical instructional strategies founded in research and proven effective in classrooms. An introductory chapter notes the growing national emphasis on reading skills, especially research-based reading programs and the…

The 50 most frequently occurring words found in primary level reading materials were taught to kindergarten pupils using three different teaching methods. Neither methodology nor frequency of occurrence affected the relative learning difficulty of sight words. The study is the second investigation in a series. (SB)

This study found that constant time delay was effective in teaching word reading to four students (ages seven to eight) with mild handicaps. Individual attentional response was more effective and efficient in learning to spell words than in choral attentional response. Observational and incidental learning occurred for all students. (Author/JDD)

Investigated the independent and interactive effects of contextual and definitional information on vocabulary learning. German students of English received either a text with unfamiliar English words or their monolingual English dictionary entries. A third group received both. Information about word context is crucial to understanding meaning. (44…

This is the story of Lily, a 12-year-old girl with Williams Syndrome (WS). A reading program was developed to meet Lily's specific reading needs while addressing her individual learning style; this includes attending to the unique characteristics of Williams Syndrome. During this school year, Lily showed significant gains in sight word recognition…

A commonly held belief about reading instruction in the elementary grades is that students must first learn to read so that they will then utilize their reading skill to learn from written language and to acquire new ideas. Consequently most of the instructional time in the primary grades is spent in teaching students how to recognize words and…

This study was undertaken to identify the reading strategies which facilitated or inhibited the progress of adult beginning readers (ABRs). An ethnographic approach was used so that factors influencing the ABRs' acquisition of these reading strategies could be identified. Using an adapted form of the Goodman and Burke taxonomy of oral reading…

The instructional concept guide is part of a system developed for tutor training and support. It is primarily designed for volunteers, but it can also be adapted to the training of paraprofessional tutors for any type of adult literacy program. A key component in the system is the Tutor Support Library, consisting of Instructional Concept Guides…

An experimental first-year German program at the University of Texas is described. The course builds on and extends psychologist James Asher's Total Physical Response strategy and is based on five principles: (1) presenting language as communication in context; (2) teaching recognition before production; (3) postponing demands for error-free…

Approximately 100 national spelling bee finalists and their parents were surveyed concerning their early literacy experiences and spelling practices. The fourth-eighth grade spellers showed an early interest in language activities; passed through developmental spelling stages earlier than average; and mastered words via visual memory strategies,…

Reports on a project in the United Kingdom identifying strategies to manage classroom discourse in ways designed to give words and their meanings particular kinds of attention in order to foster vocabulary development in children studying English as an additional language. Notes that in this project, target word-meanings related to learning…

Discusses four critical areas of instruction (decoding skills, language development/competence, concept/context building, and critical thinking skills/strategies) which can help limited English proficient (LEP) students improve their reading competence. (MM)

This study examined the word-structure knowledge of novice teachers and the progress of children tutored by a subgroup of the teachers. Teachers' word-structure knowledge was assessed using three tasks: graphophonemic segmentation, classification of pseudowords by syllable type, and classification of real words as phonetically regular or…

Dimensions of instruction and assessment were manipulated within a tertiary prevention to examine their effects on word and text reading development. In this article case studies of two children who demonstrated significant and sustained lack of adequate response to treatment are profiled. Results indicated that reducing group size, using…