This study evaluated the effectiveness of a phonologically based reading program delivered to first- through sixth-grade impaired readers (N=115) in small groups. Post-tests after program completion found the program resulted in significantly better phonological awareness, decoding, reading accuracy, comprehension, and spelling. Improved skills…

The purpose of this program evaluation was to examine the effects of "Phono-Graphix," an intensive tertiary-level reading intervention, on the basic reading skills of 16 students aged 6 to 17 years who received special education services. Instruction was delivered one-on-one or in small groups of two or three students. Instruction lasted 8 weeks.…

Developmental stages in reading English words were examined among 118 Chinese children in Grades 2, 4, and 6 from a working-class elementary school in Tianjin, China. Proficiency in Chinese and English, ability to make orthographic analogies in both languages, and strategies in reading English words were assessed. Results suggest that Chinese…

A series of five experiments tested the importance of four types of skill development (single-word decoding, vocabulary knowledge, knowledge of text schemas, and question-answering skills) for reading comprehension improvement. In two of three experiments involving undergraduates with no known reading problems, results indicated that teaching text…

A study examined the training of students to use context clues more effectively. Subjects were five fifth and sixth grade remedial students identified as low verbal students. The subjects were met with individually for 9 sessions of approximately 30 minutes each, prior to or following the school day. Two sessions were devoted to testing and seven…

Two longitudinal studies examined a "double deficit" hypothesis of reading disorders that contends that along with a core phonological deficit, slow speed of lexical access disrupts the efficient formation of orthographic representations and their quick retrieval. In the first study, 38 children from 6 classrooms in a predominantly white, middle…

An exploratory study tracked the year-long development of second graders' use of the decoding by analogy strategy to generate spellings. Subjects, 20 second graders form one intact classroom in a middle-class neighborhood school in the intermountain west, were taught decoding by analogy through direct instruction and by incorporating the strategy…

A program was developed and implemented to help identify, give direction to, and build self-confidence in children who lack emergent reading skills on entering first grade. Objectives were for 80% of the 18 students at a Florida elementary school to recognize the basic concepts about print, and that two or more cueing systems be used to decode or…

This practicum was designed to increase the accuracy of reading decoding skills exhibited by five elementary and intermediate level hearing-impaired students in a mainstream setting. Subjects were fitted with appropriate amplification to optimize their residual hearing but were performing below their grade-level placement in the areas of word…

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…

A study examined the relationship between reading instruction and the development of decoding and spelling skills and the writing fluency of children with varying levels of phonemic awareness. First grade children from two classrooms in a rural Florida school district who began school high and low in phonemic awareness received either whole…

The assumption that phonological processes support comprehension guided two experiments in manipulating the similarity of the consonant code both within silently read sentences and between these sentences and concurrently vocalized phrases. The first experiment examined whether tongue-twisters would take longer to read than phonetically…

One model of interactive processing useful in describing word identification processes in discourse context is of a weakly interactive type. This type assumes that the time to identify a word in context is an activation function, whereas the time to activate a word in memory beyond some criterial identification threshold is a multiplicative…

Post structural reader theories--i.e., theories that focus on the reader/viewer rather than the text as the creator of meaning--are considered in this paper in terms of their application to educational media research. Some key concepts of reader theories are defined as follows: (1) reading is the process of creating meaning while viewing an…

A study examined the ability of third, fourth, and sixth grade students to use spellings to arrive at the pronunciations of unknown words. A test of 29 pseudo words was developed. Pseudo words were chosen because they eliminate familiarity with a word in its spoken form and contextual cues as sources of help in decoding. At the start of the test,…