In the early heyday of ITA education, English as a second language (ESL) educators played a key role in defining three basic learning needs for ITAs: Language, teaching, and culture. Of this model, culture is the most broadly defined and least developed component. It was predicted by some, apparently on the basis of nationality, that ITAs would…

Examines the notion that words are sometimes perceived with greater ease than letters and that word shape sometimes plays a role in the perception of words. The data collected from 40 Israeli kindergarteners revealed that beginning readers found it easier to identify single letters than whole words, thus refuting the above notion. (Author/AS)

BRITISH EXPERIMENTAL USAGE OF INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET (ITA) MATERIALS AND PROCEDURES FOR INSTRUCTION OF READING DISABILITY CASES WAS STUDIED TO DETERMINE IF ITA METHODS AND MATERIALS COULD BE SIMILARLY USED IN A SAN JOSE READING CLINIC. THE INVESTIGATOR MADE OBSERVATIONS IN ENGLAND OF QUALITY, FORMAT, CONCEPTS, AND USE OF LANGUAGE IN THE ITA…

Discusses the hazards that the English language contains for children learning to read, reports the Bullock Report's recommendation to judge I.T.A. on its merits, and describes research findings suggesting that the probability of reading failure is considerably greater when T.O. is used than when I.T.A. is used. (GT)

A phonemic orthography poses serious problems for students from oral cultures, in part due to the very structure of such orthographies and in part due to negative transference from English spelling habits. A syllabic orthography minimizes the structural problems at the level of decoding, but is an obstacle to morpheme recognition and grammatical…

Cites the case of Hebrew learning in Israel to show that, contrary to popular belief, the complexity of grapho-phonetic relationships is a minor or nonexistent factor in learning difficulties. (FL)