The complete texts of 250 trade books for children in the primary grades were analyzed by computer in order to identify recurring two- and three-word strings. Of the 202,763-word sample that resulted, 89 two-word strings occurred 100 times or more, and only two three-word strings occurred more than 100 times. These frequencies represent,…

A total of 158 children from seven kindergarten classes participated in a study that compared the effectiveness of a context emphasis approach for teaching sight words with an approach that emphasized the distinctive features of the words presented alone. Within classes, the students were assigned in equal numbers to the treatment conditions:…

A case study was conducted in which two subjects (a ten-year-old boy and an eleven-year-old girl) classified as neurologically impaired received instruction in identifying familiar syllables within words. The object of this approach was to direct the subjects' attention to familiar letter clusters, thus facilitating word identification. Individual…

Five hundred second-grade pupils participated in a study of the effect of the Allain Color Pack reading system on reading achievement. Subjects were divided into equal treatment and control groups; each group was stratified according to low, average, and high reading ability determined on the basis of pretests of vocabulary and comprehension. The…

A PROGRAM IN BEGINNING READING AND LISTENING SKILLS, INCLUDING COMPREHENSION OF WRITTEN AND SPOKEN LANGUAGE, IS DESCRIBED. THE PROGRAM IS DESIGNED TO ACCOMPLISH CLEARLY DEFINED INSTRUCTIONAL GOALS AND IS CONSTANTLY EVALUATED AND REVISED IN LIGHT OF ACTUAL CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE. INDIVIDUALS FROM REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES, UNIVERSITIES, AND…

TWO FEASIBILITY STUDIES WERE CONDUCTED TO OBTAIN EVIDENCE OF THE VALUE OF INSTRUCTING CHILDREN WITH THE TALKING BOOK SYSTEM. SUBJECTS WERE TWO GROUPS OF CHILDREN RANGING IN AGE FROM 5-0 TO 6-1 YEARS. THE CHILDREN MANIPULATED THE EQUIPMENT AND DIRECTED THE MAGNETIC READER IN ORDER TO LEARN TO READ SIX SIGHT WORDS AND THE TWO-WORD SENTENCES…

Four possible alternative approaches for developing word recognition skills (including sample lesson plans for both primary and intermediate grades) were presented. The first emphasized the importance of the relative order of difficulty of word analysis skills involving phonic abilities and auditory and visual discrimination in both primary and…

The extent to which intralist similarity affects kindergarten pupils' rate of acquisition, word recognition skills, and tendency to generalize responses to similar words was investigated. The subjects were 54 children from a semirural elementary school who had had no formal training in letter recognition. Three acquisition lists were used to…

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…

The building of a repertoire of written words recognized on sight is an important prerequisite for complex reading skills. Coordination of certain sense modalities, when present in the learning of a new written word, increases the probability that this word will be retained over a period of time. This coordination involves specific intersensory…

Shows that subjects receiving the most "overlearning" (repetitive instruction) remembered the most words, suggesting a linear relationship between overlearning and retention. (RL)

Within the context of an ongoing classwide peer tutoring system for sight words, a training program was conducted to teach first-grade peer tutors to provide verbal praise for correct responses on an intermittent schedule. After training, the four observed tutors successfully delivered praise on the desired schedule. (Author/JDD)

Concludes that the level of categorization from which a word is drawn affects its learnability as a sight word. (FL)

Discusses techniques for testing reading of "sight" passages. (HW)

Four components of reading speed were identified, and a measure of the first component, reading speed of known vocabulary, was investigated on a mixed sample of 84 boys (6 to 14 years old), which included a high proportion of retarded readers. (Author/GW)