Reports a study of readers' use of context and letter sound as polysyllabic decoding strategies, and a study of the effect of intervention strategies on subjects who do not effectively use context. Concludes that intervention strategies do not improve the performances of students who are not good users of context. (RS)

When poor and normal reading second and sixth grade students received treatment in one of three methods of teaching word identification, the whole-word/meaning-based method fostered a global processing strategy, while the phonics method fostered an analytic strategy. A combination of both methods fostered the use of both strategies and generally…

Numerous reviews of the experimental research conclude that phonics is indispensable in word recognition instruction. However, there have been numerous objections to phonics teaching over the years. Some of the intolerance of phonics teaching reflects a lack of knowledge about the subject. Critics suggest that phonics hinders children's learning…

The primary focuse of the research project reported in this paper over a five-year period has been on investigating the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching strategies, with particular emphasis on the two semantic-based instructional strategies of semantic mapping and semantic feature analysis. A series of five varied studies evaluated these…

Discusses a study of the relationship of Australian elementary school students' word reading strategies to comprehension level, reading time, and phonemic awareness. Reports that performance in reading both irregular and nonsense words is a reasonably good predictor of subsequent performance. Recommends remedial training for students lacking…

Designed to be used primarily as a reader for first and second graders, but also as a speller and vocabulary builder for any student who needs help in language arts mastery, this book combines phonics with the "Look and Say" methods to present a step-by-step learning guide. Following an introduction explaining the five-step procedure…

Reports on two experiments that explore the comprehension difficulties of children with normal word recognition ability. Concludes that skilled readers engage in more constructive processing and that comprehension difficulties are not the result of a defective working memory. (SRT)

Intended to help dispel several unsupported "myths" about reading instruction, this book analyzes a selected group of teaching practices that have been supported by reading experts but not by research findings. The "myths" discussed in the first 12 chapters of the book are as follows: (1) phonics hinders comprehension; (2) unpredictable spelling…

Designed to add to the existing knowledge base concerning the saliency of features used by children to identify isolated words, a study examined whether the method of instruction influences the extent to which various features are used for word identification and recall. Subjects, 117 kindergarten students from a suburban Buffalo, New York, school…