THE PRINCIPLES OF STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS, THE DEVELOPMENT OF JAPANESE ORTHOGRAPHY, AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING ARE USED AS A BASIS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF A LINGUISTICALLY ORIENTED COURSE IN JAPANESE READING. THE FIRST PART OF THE TEXT IS DEVOTED TO THE RELATION BETWEEN READING AND LINGUISTICS. THE SECOND PART GIVES BACKGROUND MATERIAL ON JAPANESE ORTHOGRAPHY AND JAPANESE READING PEDAGOGY. THE THIRD PART IS A READING TEXT IN JAPANESE. THE TEXT CONTAINS 46 SMALL EXERCISES. EACH EXERCISE IS ACCOMPANIED BY A ROMANIZED TRANSCRIPTION. (KL)