Notes that the Soviet Union has seen its own great debate about reading methods and that, in its most recent stage, linguistics and research have played a role. Reviews the development of reading instruction in that nation. (FL)

Reviews the evidence for alternative explanations of the underlying system of English orthography and discusses their feasibility as a basis for teaching young beginners. (HOD)

An educational psychologist discusses the problems children encounter in comprehending the written word. (JD)

Lecture given before the Annual Conference and Course on Reading (23d, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa., July 10-21, 1967).

This paper reports on a Comparative Reading project that was conducted in 14 countries. The 14 countries included India, Germany, U.S.S.R., Great Britain, Israel, U.S.A., Finland, Japan, Hong Kong, France, Denmark, Argentina, Norway, and Sweden. The contents include: "The Significance of Culture," which discusses the value which various cultures…

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…

The symposium theme of "Today's Child and Learning to Read" provides the focal point for the 12 papers included in this volume. Each is concerned with an individual area of reading and the relevance of that area to the needs of today's students. Nearly half the articles deal with specific current approaches to reading instruction and their…