High frequency words, commonly referred to as sight words, are often a focus of emergent reading instruction. Instructional practices abound that require emergent readers to memorize the spelling and pronunciation of the words without drawing attention to grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) in the words. These approaches ignore a critical…

When reading scientific text, readers must draw inferences when the author does not make relations explicit; readers also need to pick up on causal relations that the author "does" make explicit. We collected think-aloud protocols from 86 undergraduate biology students reading 7 brief, illustrated passages about the immune system. After…

Although several different reading fluency intervention approaches appear promising for adolescents who are struggling readers, few studies have directly compared various approaches. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to determine the relative effects of word-oriented, fluency-oriented, comprehension-oriented, and multi-component…

Teachers' concerns regarding spelling instruction and the spelling abilities of their students were sought in a national survey. Using a random sample of teachers of grades one through five across all 50 states, respondents reported teaching practices, degree of agreement with theoretical statements, and responded to open-ended statements.…

Analyzes poor speller's spelling errors and their judgments of spelling difficulty of 100 words representative of words they tend to misspell in their various subject areas. Finds only moderate agreement between difficulty judgments and spelling errors. Finds spelling difficulty judgments to be based upon word familiarity. (RS)

Compares effects of teaching words in either semantic random groupings. Finds that the treatment had very strong effects, but student performance was not affected by whether the words were grouped in categories. Suggests that, given rich and elaborate instruction, semantic grouping is not necessary. (RS)

Discusses the construction and testing of The Extended Basic Sight Vocabulary word list. Concludes that it provides educators with a unique instrument for the teaching and testing of words and for the preparation of instructional materials. Includes the word list. (FL)

Examines the observations of student teachers and cooperating teachers about spelling instruction in literature-based process-centered classrooms. Finds that the majority of teachers rely on single classroom lists of spelling words to teach spelling. Offers four research-based recommendations for spelling instruction. (RS)

Examines the word frequency studies that preceded the 1944 Thorndike-Lorge count and places those investigations in their broad, cultural perspective. Draws attention to the impact of the studies on knowledge about language and its development, educational curriculum and assessment, and methods of research. (MG)

Describes the development of a 99-word multiple meaning word list and offers activities designed to develop children's knowledge of multiple meaning words. (FL)

Concludes that neither the focal attention nor contextual theory offers a powerful explanation for words learned through visual exposure. (FL)

Concludes that the level of categorization from which a word is drawn affects its learnability as a sight word. (FL)

Examines a unified spelling and vocabulary instruction program for upper-elementary and middle-school students based on research investigating tacit and explicit knowledge of derivational morphology patterns and the orthographic expression of these patterns in semantically related words. Presents implications for and describes a systematic,…