A no-cost, easy to use technique for increasing the reading vocabulary of beginning readers is described in this report. A large number of common words can be elicited from children in a word-association game, to which children respond with words that are highly meaningful to them, and often to their culture. The children then use these words to create sentences. Every associative response is greeted by the teacher with a verbal reward, maintaining interest and enthusiasm. Learning takes place because (1) following a cognitive model, reinforcement of the child's own creation produces high interest and attention and builds a sense of competency; (2) a large number of readily available associations strengthens meaningfulness, thus aiding recognition and enhancing comprehension; and (3) the recognition of a word increases the chances of recognition of its associates. The difficult function words, low in meaningfulness, are taught as connecting words, embedded in meaningful phrases created by the children. In pilot studies, children have read fluently words and sentences they created weeks earlier. (Author/TO)