Provides suggestions for helping English-as-a-Foreign-Language teachers who work with students who write in a different alphabet or use a different form of script deal with the handwriting of their classes at the start of English learning. It is a way to systematically check, revise, and improve learners' handwriting through the use of dictations.…

Compared predictive value of kindergarten phonological awareness tasks and letter knowledge on 134 German first and second graders' literacy performance. Found that phonological awareness tasks varied in prediction of later literacy but were better predictors than letter knowledge. Kindergarten letter knowledge also reliably predicted later…

The knowledge of letter names measured just before children enter school has been known for a long time as one of the best longitudinal predictors of learning to read in an alphabetic writing system. After a period during which the comprehensive investigation of this relationship was largely disregarded, there is now a growing interest in attempts…

Most models of visual word recognition in alphabetic orthographies assume that words are lexically organized according to orthographic similarity. Support for this is provided by form-priming experiments that demonstrate robust facilitation when primes and targets share similar sequences of letters. The authors examined form-orthographic priming…

This issue of "Focus On" provides an overview of several key early literacy components: phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge, concepts of print, oral language development, writing, family literacy, and reading aloud. Suggestions for assessing early literacy development are provided, and examples of implementation of effective early literacy…

The article focuses on enriching music and language arts experiences of students. Music can enrich literature and language arts, poetry, theater arts, transitions, science, and math, as well as help meet special learner needs. A well-understood example of enrichment is the alphabet song. A music or classroom teacher using the alphabet song helps…

Phonological awareness (PA), phonological memory (PM), and phonological access to lexical storage (also known as RAN), play important roles in acquiring literacy. We examined the convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of these phonological processing abilities (PPAs) in 147 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children whose native language was…

The authors examined the developmental trajectories of children's early letter knowledge in relation to measures spanning and encompassing their prior language-related and cognitive measures and environmental factors and their subsequent Grade 1 reading achievement. Letter knowledge was assessed longitudinally at ages 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, and 6.5…

Three main issues relating to the question of silent speech in reading are considered: (1) How do Chinese speakers process Chinese ideographs in short-term memory? (2) How is Chinese students' learning of written English affected by the transition to an alphabetic language? (3) Are the strategies for encoding written words in short-term memory…

This study examined the psycholinguistic implications of using either of two different types of orthography--syllabic and roman--in Native language programs for Cree children with regard to readability, learnability, and the transfer of reading skills to and from reading in an official language (English or French). This study can also be applied…

Language delay and impairment are salient features of autism. More specifically, there is evidence of atypical semantic organization in autism, but the functional brain correlates are not well understood. The current study used functional MRI to examine activation associated with semantic category decision. Ten high-functioning men with autism…

G. Wolford's perturbation model of letter identification is designed to account for identification errors of briefly presented characters. Its chief assumptions are that features are extracted in parallel, that some of these features become perturbed or mislocalized, and that mislocalizations are more likely to occur in the direction of the fovea…

Analyzes the "plaqueasos" (Chicano graffiti) in the Los Angeles area for the content, lettering skill involved, social and artistic implications, and possible educational applications. Includes description of a graffiti exhibition and related activities at the Downey Museum of Art, Downey, California. (ED)

The Gregg shorthand system is founded on formal and theoretical principles originating in the structure of the English language. An analysis of some aspects of the formal code of this system illuminates some interrelationships between the verbal and the written sign. (CHK)

Investigated were the effects of three instructional procedures emphasizing distinctive features on the alphabet letter discrimination of 32 moderately retarded children. (Author/CL)