THE BASES OF READING RESEARCH AND THE FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES OF READING WERE PRESENTED. FOLLOWING AN OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH IN READING FROM ABOUT 1916 TO THE PRESENT, THE AUTHOR DEFINED READING AS A BASIC BUT COMPLEX SKILL, AND EXAMINED SOME COMPONENTS WHICH MAKE UP THE SKILL. IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROCESS OF READING WAS DESCRIBED IN TERMS OF THE LINGUISTIC METHOD OF TEACHING READING WHICH DESCRIBES WRITTEN LANGUAGE AS A RENDITION, OR A CODE, OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE. VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE DECODING PROCESS USED BY CHILDREN IN ACQUIRING READING SKILL WERE DISCUSSED. THE AUTHOR SHOWS THAT THE EMPIRICAL DESIGN FOR MOST READING RESEARCH OF THE PAST HAS BEEN THE COMPARISON OF TWO OR MORE TEACHING METHODS, A DESIGN HE BELIEVES TO BE CONTENTIOUS, COSTLY, AND UNINFORMATIVE. AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH FOR DEVELOPING AND EVALUATING READING CURRICULUMS WAS SUGGESTED THAT INCLUDED THE FOLLOWING STEPS--(1) AN INITIAL APPROXIMATION TO THE CURRICULUM, (2) INFORMAL OBSERVATION AND MANIPULATION, (3) A REVISION, FOLLOWED BY MORE FORMAL, CATEGORY-DIRECTED OBSERVATION, AND (4) REVISION AGAIN WITH LARGE-SCALE TESTING AND INTENSIVE OBSERVATION. THE OBJECTIVES AND INITIAL ACTIVITIES OF PROJECT LITERACY WERE DISCUSSED. THE PROGRAM WAS DESCRIBED AS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT, COMBINING CLASSROOM RESEARCH WITH LABORATORY EXPERIMENTATION. THIS PAPER WAS PUBLISHED IN "ELEMENTARY ENGLISH," FEBRUARY 1966, (JH)