Investigates the process involved in acquiring word knowledge from written context in prereading kindergarten children. Analyzes children's readings of picture books to identify patterns of vocabulary growth. Concludes that children learned lexicogrammatical information incidentally through exposure to written context. (MM)

Reading teachers vary in their teaching methods for reading instruction, usually emphasizing either the meaningful functions (meaning) or the technical features (coding) of written language. This paper reviews literature on the meaning/coding dichotomy and focuses on a "cognitive clarity theory" that stresses linguistic awareness and…

Children's well-developed oral language skills obviously facilitate their reading and learning to read. In contrast to a traditional position which contends that reading comprehension equals oral comprehension skills plus decoding, this paper claims that a child must learn (and, perhaps, unlearn) many more skills in the transition from oral…

The history of three non-Latin based orthographies--Chinese, Japanese, and Korean--is reviewed in this paper. The characteristics of the three orthographies are examined regarding the ease of learning to read with these varied symbol systems. Attention is given to the incidence of reading disability in different orthographies, and research is…

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)

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…

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…

Noting that children's perceptions of literacy and of themselves as learners differ from those of adults, this book documents how Sarah, from the ages of 2 to 5 years, understood literacy and invented reading and writing for herself. Numerous reading and writing samples in the book, organized around broad research questions, present Sarah as an…

The primary thesis of the "audread" model of language development is that children in a literate society first learn to think, then they learn to communicate and receive thoughts through oral language, and then they learn to communicate through written language (graphic representations). Four projects based on concepts from the audread…

Addresses attitudes toward reading resulting in beginning reading instruction in the kindergarten and preschool curriculum. Argues that previously accepted notions of the necessity of reading readiness are no longer viable and encourages home and classroom support for the acquisition of reading abilities through written and oral language. (DST)

The "cognitive clarity theory of reading" represents a resolution of the controversies about the relation between speech, writing, and reading. The work of M.A.K. Halliday suggests that learning to read and write is a natural extension of the "mathetic" speech functions, which consist of speech related to children's attempts to understand…

Intended to discourage classroom reading teachers from relying on "phonics instruction" as a remedy for students' inadequate reading performance, this pamphlet presents reasons why phonics drills should not be taught at all in the classroom and offers a set of practical phonic awareness activities to help poor readers overcome reading…

Intended for parents and based on the premise that parents are their children's first and most important teachers, this booklet is a distillation of findings from the 1984 report of the Commission on Reading, "Becoming a Nation of Readers." The introduction reiterates the commission's conclusions (1) that a parent is a child's first…

The two chapters of this monograph deal with the issue of the existence of a perceptual grammar that influences reading proficiency, particularly initial reading proficiency. The first chapter indicates the importance of studying reading and writing in terms of readers' and writers' knowledge of visuo-spatial processing rules. It discusses…