This Digest looks at recent research, and then asks and considers some important questions about choosing a handwriting program for young children, i.e.: (1) which alphabet is developmentally appropriate; (2) which alphabet is easier to use; (3) which alphabet is easier to read; (4) which alphabet is more easily integrated; (5) which alphabet is…

This study compared the concepts of oral and written language of 4-year-old, preschool children from low- and middle-class homes. Subjects were 64 children from 3 preschools serving families at poverty level, and 3 preschools serving middle-income families. Children's understanding of the function of print was measured by three tasks: recognizing…

The book presents the Makah alphabet decided upon in a public workshop held by the Makah Language Program in 1978, before which there was no standard Makah orthography. The 10 vowels and 34 consonants of the alphabet are presented in relation to English sounds. The book groups vowels sounds together but devotes a page to each consonant telling how…

Developed for students in grades 3-5, this picture dictionary is one in a series designed to instill pride in Pima students by presenting their language in print and to increase their vocabularies in both Pima and English. The dictionary begins with a comparison of English and Pima orthographies and an explanation of sounds and pronunciation…

Developed for students in kindergarten through second grade, this alphabet book is one in a series of picture dictionaries in the Pima language developed to instill pride in Pima students by presenting their language in print and to increase their vocabularies in both Pima and English. Introductory sections provide a brief history of the project…

A 3-YEAR STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF BEGINNING READING INSTRUCTION WITH THE INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET (ITA) AND WITH TRADITIONAL ORTHOGRAPHY (TO) ON PUPILS' READING ACHIEVEMENT IN BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA, IS REPORTED. THE SCORES OF KINDERGARTEN PUPILS ON THE LEE-CLARK READING READINESS TEST WERE USED TO INSURE THE HETEROGENEITY OF THE TREATMENT…

THIS COMPILATION OF REPORTS, DISCUSSIONS, AND REVIEWS OF SPECIFIC METHODS OF TEACHING READING IN THE ELEMENTARY GRADES INCLUDES A DESCRIPTION OF THE READING PROGRAM IN MINNEAPOLIS. THE METHODS INCLUDED IN THE REPORT ARE THE PHONIC-FIRST METHOD, THE USE OF BASAL READERS, THE LINGUISTIC APPROACH, THE INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET, THE…

Summarizing the final phase of a two-year project that examined the processes by which children initially approach the reading task, this report presents both general and individual findings derived from the analyses of the children's performance over the course of a year. The first section discusses the following general topics related to the…

A programmed-workbook cassette-delivered approach to letter and number recognition, "From Letters to Words," was compared with a traditional method of teaching letter recognition. The subjects were 153 disadvantaged first-grade students. The 75 experimental subjects were individually instructed by the investigators and teachers on the use of the…

This selective bibliography is one of nine documents compiled to provide titles and descriptions of useful and informative reading documents which were indexed into the ERIC system from 1966 to 1974. The 190 entries in this section of the bibliography concern methods in teaching reading and are arranged alphabetically by author in one of the…

The chief purposes of this book are the illustration of an analytical approach to tone languages, a methodology based upon recent linguistic advance, and the presentation of firsthand data on Mixteco and Mazateco, languages which represent two very different structural arrangements of linguistic tone. Part 1 describes some of the types of…

An investigation is being made of the effects of the interaction between differing socioeconomic backgrounds and two beginning reading programs on the reading achievement of pupils at three ability levels. This report gives the results of data that have been collected for grades 1 and 2 only. Participating were 754 pupils in a small city school…

Based on its use with first graders in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for an eleven year period, the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) appears to have a number of advantages for reading instruction. These years of research have indicated that the advantages of i.t.a. are that it permits the child to: advance more rapidly in reading and writing…

Four paradoxes appear in research on learning to read: (1) the ability to name letters is a good predictor of reading readiness, yet letter-naming training does not help children learn how to read; (2) visual discrimination is often better in poor readers than in good readers; (3) learning to read two languages is easier than learning to read one;…

This paper describes a system for Choctaw orthography and discusses the principles and rules that can be used to govern the spelling system for the language. The orthography system is based on a study of documents written by comtemporary Chocktaws. The system proposed here seeks to be as accurate a representation of the spoken language as possible…