Two independent pilot studies in Britain investigated the effect of the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) on the creative expression and verbal skills in written composition of young children. The Staffordshire study compared a normal week's free compositions written by 54 children using the traditional alphabet with the compositions of a similar…

To develop and test materials to be used in a later 2-year study to compare six approaches in teaching braille reading, materials in grade 1 and grade 2, braille, and phonemic braille media (both analytic and synthetic approaches), 39 subjects from six residential schools were evaluated. Special books were embossed in grade 1 and phonemic braille,…

This curriculum is designed primarily for use in individualized classrooms where the teacher is working with an assistant, but it has also been proven effective in traditional classrooms and in remedial situations. Program four focuses on four abilities as they relate to the basic symbol system of the classroom. These are the abilities to:…

This second year volume of a 3-year course in Chinese includes a textbook, vocabulary, and character lists. A student workbook has also been designed (see FL 002 777 ). The text provided dialogues and practice in vocabulary, translation, questions, writing, and language patterns. Ideas for homework are also included. The book is divided into…

This study investigated the predictive value of certain tests in relationship to first grade reading success. The Metropolitan Readiness Test, Naming Letters Test, Light Response Test, and Matching Symbol Test were administered to 70 first grade students during the first two weeks of school. The Teacher's Reading Readiness Rating Scale was filled…

This handbook for teachers and the accompanying student workbook are the basic materials in a course on controlled composition that can be used for on-the-job training, adult education, or as part of a writing course for students at various grade levels. Controlled composition is a program for improving expository writing skills; the program…

Reviews software that focuses on writing skills for children aged 2 to 15. Includes information on public domain and commercial programs on learning the alphabet, basic penmanship, sentence structure, and writing book reports and essays. Provides ordering information on the suggested programs. Explains how parents can help. (ML)

Shows that native-speaking Arabic readers produce search functions that are radically different from the search functions of readers whose script uses the Roman alphabet (RAs). The processes used by Arabic readers are more akin to the processes used by RAs when searching arrays of shapes. (Author/LMO)

Use of electronic communication options to access foreign language teaching resources is discussed, illustrated with examples from programs and applications found in New York State. The discussion is divided into four sections, each addressing an aspect of electronic communication for preparing for and teaching a foreign language: issues of access…

When Chinese adults tried to name the color of characters which represented conflicting color words, they showed greater interference than did English speaking readers of the same task in English. This effect cannot be attributed to bilingualism. There may be fundamental differences in the perceptual demands of reading Chinese and English.…

Details evaluation of effectiveness of the Montessori Movable Alphabet in successive exercises to build preschoolers' knowledge about written English. Describes preliminary activities, movable alphabet introduction, dictation, expanded usage, object/picture use, vowel addition, vowel combination, blends, phonetic phrases, H-digraphs, long vowels,…

Four moderately mentally retarded students, aged 8-13, were instructed in a basic skills reading program which emphasized a phonemic alphabet, pictorial cueing, and stimulus manipulation techniques. The training improved the Dutch students' ability to read one- and two-syllable words, and was generalizable to untrained words of the same…

Explores difficulties in translating and understanding visual poetry created by a linguistically different culture. Provides historical context and analyzes the design process of El Lissitzky's typographic presentation of Vladimir Mayakovsky's poems. Transposes the visual wordplays found in the original Cyrillic typography into the Roman alphabet.…

Describes a microcomputer-based procedure that used a digitized graphics tablet to teach letter formation skills to moderately and severely retarded students aged 8-19. Handwriting instruction is discussed; modeling of the letters, corrective feedback, and reinforcement techniques are explained; and results of pretests and posttests are…

Explored the notion that children's difficulty in reading is a sign of a general inability to selectively attend to parts of perceptual wholes. Children and adults classified triads of spoken syllables and visual objects. Classification of speech was related to reading and spelling ability, but not to classification of visual stimuli. (BC)