Evaluates some of the 100 different teaching approaches to beginning reading and reading theory. (Author/RB)

Study investigated whether visual serial search time for letters differed significantly from visual serial search time for numbers. (Author/MB)

Compared age differences in search tasks for two groups of children (N=40) and an adult control group (N=20) who completed a similar visual search task, i.e., determining whether a predesignated target character occurred in a character string. The mean search latency decreased with age. Results showed a qualitative difference in processing letters…

Familiar letter sequences in noncued portions of a tachistoscopic display were shown to reduce accuracy of partial report. Findings suggest that familiarity may automatically direct attentional resources to a particular spatial region. Such attentional capture may be disruptive if the material is presented at another location. (Author/RD)

The duration and timing of the context is which letters occur is shown to influence the perceptibility of the target in experiments demonstrating that early on enhanced word presentations and pronounceable-pseudoword contexts increase letter perceptibility. The perceptibility of letters in strings sharing several or few letters with words is…

Hypotheses about the processes involved in word recognition are reviewed and assessed through four experiments. Overall results were compatible with criterion bias models. A version of this model attributes the advantage of words (over pseudowords and nonwords) to interfacilitation among single letter and lexical units in memory. (Author/RD)

Twelve first-grade children were tested on word-reading and automaticity of letter and word processing. Word-reading speed increased steadily during the year. Apparently, their ability to process letters automatically was acquired prior to the ability to read words rapidly and accurately. (Author/CP)

Mnemonic value of spellings in a paired-associate sound learning task was examined in first and second graders. Learning was fastest when correct spellings were seen or imagined. The preferred interpretation was that spellings are effective because they provide readers with orthographic images for symbolizing and storing sounds in memory.…

Describes the structured internalization spelling method, which uses a series of small, graduated steps to teach students with learning disabilities to transcribe phonological sounds (phonemes) as alphabetic letters (graphemes) onto paper. The implementation of the program and the benefits of structured internalization are presented along with a…

Investigates three important issues in kanji learning strategies; namely, strategy use, effectiveness of strategy and orthographic background. A questionnaire on kanji learning strategy use and perceived effectiveness was administered to beginner level, undergraduate students of Japanese from alphabetic and character backgrounds in Australia.…

Discusses the "Russian Dynamic Hand," a working prototype for introducing the Russian writing and sound system that has been available to students at Louisiana State University since September 1988. The project's evolution is discussed from an initial graphics-centered IBM prototype to a Macintosh version enhanced by an audio component.…

Three studies examined preschoolers' and kindergartners' learning of correspondences between phonemes and graphemes. Findings suggest that children use their knowledge of letter names and their phonological segmentation skills rather than memorizing these links in a rote, paired-associate manner. (Contains 26 references.) (Author/LB)