The need for phoneme awareness and methods of fostering phoneme awareness are discussed, along with available assessment measures, research findings, and phonological awareness training programs. Educators are urged to use phoneme awareness techniques for assessment and remediation when appropriate. (CR)

Reports on a single subject research study conducted by a speech clinician in a public school setting and describes the experience of the dual role of clinician and investigator. Although the two students' correct articulation efforts in the regular classroom dramatically improved during the intervention, the rate at follow-up was similar to that…

Reviews the relationship between phonological awareness and early reading. Follow-up data from a group of 38 first-grade children who had low letter-sound knowledge in kindergarten found that those who received phonological awareness intervention in kindergarten performed better than their first-grade peers on word recognition and reading decoding…

This article provides an overview of the critical elements of emergent literacy, discusses specific strategies for using storybooks with preschoolers to facilitate language development and emergent literacy skills, and provides specific strategies for children learning English as a second language. Sample phonological awareness activities are also…

Argues there is ample evidence of the prime significance and hierarchical character of the print medium, and of an absolute need for individual letter recognition from the outset of instruction. Discusses the role of the alphabet and its relationship to its precursor speech sounds for the developing learner. (RS)

The effectiveness of the "Laubach Way to Reading" program was examined with four adolescents with learning disabilities who were reading below the fifth-grade level. Students made significant gains on basic reading skills and comprehension. Students' success depended on being provided with supplemental lists of more challenging words…

Reports on a study of the relationship of both phonemic and musical sound discrimination to reading ability among 18 British first graders. Finds that discrimination of musical sounds is related to music performance but that the influential factor is a specific awareness of pitch changes. (CFR)

Two experiments examined the role of phonemic processing in disabled readers. The first involved disabled and nondisabled second and fourth grade readers' ability to identify and discriminate phonemes. The second examined the effect of phonemic stimuli training on disabled readers who performed poorly in the first experiment. Training…

Describes how primary teachers can use decoding strategies within a literature-based, whole-language setting. A three-stage approach involves the book stage (real reading), the word stage (learning words), and the letter-sound stage (learning sounds). The article provides sample activities. (SM)

At 30 months, children who were later considered dyslexic were deficient in length, sytactic complexity, and pronunciation of spoken language. At three years, children were deficit in receptive vocabulary and object-naming, and at five years, in phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge. These deficits were not found in normal reading children…

Study examined transfer of learners' first language (L1) orthographic processing strategies to second language processing. Two groups learning Japanese, differing by L1 writing system (phonographic vs. morphographic), were tested on ability to represent novel kanji characters in short-term memory. Results indicate learners with a morphographic L1…

Notes the California's Reading Task Force's heavy emphasis on phonemic awareness (PA) evaluation and training. Argues that although evidence shows that phonemic awareness will emerge by simply reading, California's school libraries--ranked near last in the nation--would require a massive commitment to rise to the task. Argues (in an ironic tone)…

Looks at how speech-interactive computer-assisted language learning can help the classroom teacher carry out recommendations from immersion-based approaches to language instruction. Emerging methods for pronunciation tutoring are demonstrated from Carnegie Mellon University's FLUENCY project, addressing not only phone articulation but also speech…

This article addresses two sets of organizing principles to guide prevention and intervention in beginning reading: (1) the complexity in our alphabetic writing system, and (2) the complexity in our schools. The first set is related to instructional design, while the second set is related to a schoolwide model. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Analyzes word recognition instruction in four first-grade classrooms. Finds that: differential instruction may be helpful in first grade; children who enter first grade with low literacy benefit from early and heavy exposure to phonics; and a structured phonics curriculum that includes both onsets and rimes and sounding and blending phonemes…