Research has shown that, although phonics and phonemic awareness predict reading success, a majority of early learners still lack these skills. Research also showed that a majority of preservice teachers (PSTs) in early childhood education teacher (ECTE) may not have gained adequate pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in phonics and phonemic…

Parents of young children often wonder how they can prepare their preschoolers to read. Many understand the importance of reading to their children and teaching the alphabet but they are unaware of another critical literacy skill needed for children to comprehend the reading process, phoneme awareness. In this study 34 preschool children, 3 to 5…

All over the World most effective methods for teaching reading to beginning-level adults have been applied. My continuing challenge has been to determine how reading acquisition research can be applied to teaching reading to adults. In this article, I describe the techniques I have found most useful; I hope other teachers working with beginning…

Although the research base is small on adult English language learners (ELLs) who are learning English while also acquiring basic literacy, this research can still guide instructional practices. The essential components of reading skills suggests that the Language Experience Approach has the potential to integrate relevant meaning-focused reading…

We statistically examined the oral reading fluency of 295 adults with low literacy by analyzing total words read per minute and word error rates. We identified four fluency-ability groupings based on standardized assessments of reading-related skills (phonemic awareness, word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension, and general ability). Our…

Teachers of adult learners of English as a second language (ESL) have increasingly encountered students with limited literacy skills in their native language and/or in English. Yet, many of these practitioners are not adequately equipped to meet the challenge of teaching reading, especially beginning reading skills. Although there is a paucity of…

We investigated whether adult learners' knowledge of phonotactic restrictions on word forms from their first language impacts their ability to use statistical information to segment words in a novel language. Adults were exposed to a speech stream where English phonotactics and phoneme co-occurrence information conflicted. A control where these…

In this quasi-experimental study, the researcher examined teachers' awareness of the five essential components of reading instruction, teachers' knowledge of the five essential components, teachers' use of professional journals, and teachers' implementation of best practices in the context of a professional development intervention model called…

Literacy expectations for persons with cognitive impairments, including impairments caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI), have remained quite low. Some researchers have suggested that educators move from a focus on teaching functional skills to teaching basic reading skills in a manner similar to instruction for nondisabled learners. The purpose…

Despite the importance of phonemic awareness in beginning literacy, several studies have demonstrated that adults, including teacher trainees, have surprisingly poor phonemic skills. Three experiments investigated whether adults' responses in phonemic awareness and spelling segmentation tasks are based on units larger than single letters and…

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001), districts, schools, and educators are pressured to collect, analyze and report data annually regarding student performance. If high-stakes assessments are to be useful tools for educators in their classrooms, the data need to be applicable in conveying meaningful instructional information…

Intermediate decoding refers to word analysis skills that are beyond a beginning, one-syllable level as described in an earlier NetNews issue, yet are just as important for building adult level reading proficiency. Research from secondary settings indicates that struggling readers in middle school or high school programs often read between the…

Reading is the most basic of skills. Reading provides access to other skills and knowledge, facilitates life-long learning, and opens doors to opportunity. The National Institute for Literacy is authorized by the U.S. Congress to collect and disseminate information on the components of reading and the findings from scientific research. The…

"EFF HOT (Highlights on Teaching Topics) Topics" is a publication of the EFF (Equipped for the Future) Center for Training and Technical Assistance. Each issue concentrates on a specific topic, highlighting examples of actual practice and offering strategies and tools for using EFF in the classroom. In this issue, "HOT Topics" focuses on the EFF…