Purpose: It is often assumed that phonological awareness only reflects children's phonological skill. However, orthographic representations have been found to be automatically involved during phonological awareness tasks, which we refer to as automatic orthographic activation. Although previous longitudinal neural studies have addressed how…

Many South African children struggle in acquiring literacy and reading skills. It seems as if caregivers may be missing an important aspect in guiding children's emergent reading development. The question is whether there are underlying concepts needed for emergent literacy and the acquisition of reading skills. The nature of the reading process…

Ninety kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade students participated in this study of ability to segment oral language into words and word units. Each child completed two individually administered oral segmentation tests and the Metropolitan Achievement Test. Results indicated that the ability to segment orally presented sentences developed…

Argues that the teaching of initial reading should focus upon the beginning reader rather than on teaching procedures and that factors in the individual child such as motivation, experience, oral language, cognitive development, and pace of learning should be considered. (FL)

The reading comprehension assessment tool is a product developed for the Regional Educational Laboratory's (REL) initiative, Pacific Communities with High performance In Literacy Development, herein named the Pacific CHILD. This research project is focused on school improvement, especially as it relates to the teaching and learning of early…

Considers the role of oral language in reading and its implications for the primary grades teacher. Provides a number of activities that integrate reading, speaking, listening, and writing. (FL)

Examines the differences between oral and written languages, including differences in register, style, and syntax. Asserts that reading aloud and giving instructions are two ways to focus on the connection between oral and written language and the processes of reading and writing. (MM)

Since the time of E. B. Huey (1908), there have been clear indicators that oral language as a reflection of a child's linguistic ability has been clearly related to his or her reading achievement or comprehension. P. McKee (1937) and W. S. Gray (1937) both speculated that reading difficulties might parallel language deficiencies. G. Hildreth…

Argues that "kid watching," the model of the successful reader, story schema, predictable materials, language experience, and supportive writing are all indicators of the return to common sense in reading education. (FL)

Children will meet one less obstacle to making the transition from spoken to written fluency in language if, during the transition period, they experience written language that corresponds structurally to their spoken language patterns. Familiar children's folksongs, because they contain some of the structure of children's oral language, provide…

Oral language is used before written language, according to this paper, which contends that the acquisition of literacy is merely an extension of natural language learning for all children. This view of literacy development as natural is distinguished from the views of those that think language is innate; the naturalness of children learning to…

Argues that structured reading programs, workbook pages, and drills do not alone provide an adequate basis for beginning reading instruction and suggests that experiences, knowledge, and other environmental factors ensure success in reading. (HOD)

Reflecting the work of Yetta Goodman on child language development, this paper examines Goodman's five "roots of literacy" and offers suggestions on classroom techniques for nurturing these roots. The first half of the paper explains how Goodman identified the roots of literacy and describes each of them, including (1) print awareness in…

Strategies for the development of comprehension during the beginning reading stages are discussed in this paper. Among the topics dealt with are relationships between developmental stages of speech production and reading comprehension; ways of creating a reading climate that promotes experiences with literature; specific techniques for using…

The approximately 500 entries in this third edition of an annotated bibliography were drawn from the professional literature relating to linguistics, psycholinguistics, and reading. Entries are arranged ln the following categories: (1) beginning reading; (2) comprehension, semantics, and meaning; (3) curriculum; (4) language differences such as…