A study examined variables that affect the acquisition of automaticity of verbal skills. Among the variables examined were practice, novelty or familiarity of a word or word category, the speed and efficiency with which persons acquire automaticity, reaction time, and number of tasks performed concurrently. Subjects, 30 sixth and seventh grade…

In the past, phonics instruction has done little to lessen the difficulties that many poor readers have with decoding words quickly and accurately enough to construct meaning from text. Based on an analysis of the research literature in decoding and a four-year cycle of program development, a new program was created for teaching decoding to poor…

The teacher's guide accompanies the student-reader workbook of "Nashdoi." Organized in the same format as the "Ch'al" and "Chaa" books, "Nashdoi" builds on the vocabulary introduced in those two readers. The consonant "x," 14 new vowel environments, 7 new diphthong environments, and 102 new words are introduced. This teacher's guide is organized…

The dependence of reading on speech is based on three assumptions: speech is the primary language system, acquired naturally without direct instruction; alphabetic writing systems are more or less phonetic representations of oral language; and speech appears to be an essential foundation for the acquisition of reading ability. By presupposing…

In order to understand teachers' perceptions of their school, students, and community, a questionnaire was administered to 125 teachers in the Canutillo (Texas) school district and 25 teachers in the adjacent Anthony (Texas) school district. The questionnaire elicited information of teachers' perception with regard to content knowledge, classroom…

A study was conducted to determine if increasing the redundancy of sections in scientific articles where typical readers became bored or confused would have a desirable effect on other readers. Undergraduate journalism students applied R. F. Carter's signalled stopping technique to two different science articles by indicating points where they…

In an attempt to answer some of the questions concerning the roles of syntactic vs. semantic cues and the similarities and/or differences between the first (L1) and second (L2) language reading strategies, a pilot study was conducted with 47 English-speaking students enrolled in French as a second language classes at a bilingual, English-French…

The "primacy of reading" hypothesis as the explanation for the high correlation between children's competencies in literacy and numeracy is rejected in this paper. Instead, a "primacy of speech perception" hypothesis is examined. It is suggested that analysis-by-synthesis speech recognition procedures are acquired in early childhood and that the…

A systematic model for accelerating the process of developing the word decoding skills and building the vocabularies of bilingual adults was used among prison populations in Rockland County, Dutchess County, Suffolk County, and Essex County, New York, as well as in work-study programs in community centers in New York City. Literacy levels of the…

This course guide provides a survey of reading instruction and a description of the skills necessary for teaching reading in the elementary classroom. The purpose of the course is to help the student develop into a competent teacher of reading at the elementary school level through a competency-based approach to teacher education. Each…

This book is designed for both preservice and inservice teachers of reading. The contents are divided into nine modules: (1) "Making Your Plans for Reading Instruction," (2) "Helping Children Develop Skill in Phonic Analysis," (3) "Using Principles of Learning to Teach Reading Effectively," (4) "Helping Children Develop Other Word Recognition…

This book is designed specifically for preservice and inservice teachers who wish to improve their reading-language arts instruction. Topics discussed in the sixteen chapters are: the reading-language teacher's role in an age of change; a communication framework; dynamics of language; children's language development; reading-language programs;…

"Reading Mastery" is a direct instruction program designed to provide explicit, systematic instruction in English language reading. Reading Mastery is available in two versions, "Reading Mastery Classic" levels I and II (for use in grades K-3) and "Reading Mastery Plus," an integrated reading-language program for…

This inservice professional development module, part of the Alabama Reading Initiative, presents research summaries, notes for presenters, and activities. The Phonemic Awareness and Phonics module clarifies that skilled readers are accurate and automatic decoders (i.e., they have the alphabetic principle). Phonics instruction must empower all…

This study describes a program designed to increase student achievement in reading. The targeted population consisted of first and fourth grade elementary students in a Midwest community. Evidence for the existence of the problem included standardized tests and alternative assessments to measure reading achievement, and teacher observations with…