The science of reading refers to the extensive body of research on how we learn to read and the most effective methods for teaching reading. Our knowledge of what works in reading instruction is based on decades of rigorous, scientifically based research in the fields of education, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. This research digest…

This article conveys one practitioner's career-long journey related to teaching reading. The author gained valuable information from relevant research reports regarding the keys to effective reading instruction and has learned even more while implementing a systematic approach to teaching reading as a volunteer tutor.

Hu and Nation's (2000) study, which stipulated that second language (L2) readers need to be familiar with 98% of lexical items for adequate text comprehension, has become highly influential in L2 vocabulary research and pedagogy. However, the 98% critical threshold figure is based on findings from a research project in which a regression analysis…