LANGUAGE LEARNING EMPHASIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF AUDITORY FACTORS IN READING WAS SURVEYED. THE AUDITORY-TO-VISUAL SYMBOL SYSTEM ASSOCIATION IS DEFINED AS THE ABILITY TO ASSOCIATE SOUND LABELS WITH VISUAL LABELS (AND VICE VERSA) ON A GESTALT WHOLE-WORD BASIS AND ON A PHONEME-GRAPHEME ANALYTIC-SYNTHETIC BASIS. THE DECODING (READING) AND ENCODING (SPELLING AND WRITING), OR THE TURNING OF THE GESTALT OF LETTERS INTO SOUNDS AND THE GESTALT OF SOUNDS INTO LETTERS, IS DISCUSSED. THE IRREGULAR ORTHOGRAPHY SYSTEM IN ENGLISH REQUIRES EACH PAIRED ASSOCIATION FOR EACH WORD TO BE LEARNED BY ROTE MEMORY IN ASSOCIATION WITH ITS MEANING-IN-CONTEXT. IN SEVERE DISABILITY CASES, THE NEED TO IDENTIFY AUDITORY PHONEMES, TO ARTICULATE CLEARLY, THEN TO SPELL AND WRITE WORDS AND SENTENCES AS AN AID IN LEARNING TO READ IS EMPHASIZED. REFERENCES AND TABLES ARE PROVIDED. THIS PAPER WAS PRESENTED AT THE INTERNATIONAL READING ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE (SEATTLE, MAY 4-6, 1967). (MC)