This study investigated the effects on oral reading reversals of various contextual conditions ranging from no context to highly predictable contexts among white, middle-class, male first graders. The study was designed to demonstrate the relationship between language redundancy and reversals in a beginning reading population in order to suggest an alternate to the organismic view posited by Orton (1937). Four conditions ranging from low redundancy to high redundancy were established: reversible word-in-isolation; reversible word in a semantically ambiguous sentence; reversible word in a semantically ambiguous sentence embedded in a paragraph; and reversible word in a semantically unambiguous sentence. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. The results demonstrated that as redundancy increased, reversal frequencies declined in the average reading population used for the study. It was concluded that the manipulation of contexts with varying amounts of redundancy would have an effect on reversal tendencies among beginning readers, within the limitations of the study, as a remedial as well as a preventative procedure. (Author/TS)