The author's analysis of reading material content of second language texts examines achievement of graphemic-phonemic contrasts, sequence of association in the process of reading, and control of sounds, grammar, subject matter, and cultural content. Because the orthography-sound association skill cannot be separated from the sound-meaning skill, reading pedagogy must concentrate on the fundamental "see-say-think" sequence of association. There should be close controls over the sound and grammar patterns and the cultural context of the beginning and intermediate reading texts for overseas English classrooms. In adapting traditional, "Direct Method" texts for use in a linguistically-oriented approach, the teacher should (1) decide upon the phonological targets, based on a contrastive analysis, (2) select the grammatical problems contained in the narrative or dialog (that are not treated as structure points for study in the text), (3) select vocabulary to work on choosing those items of phonological or cultural difficulty, and (4) examine the drills, which may have too much emphasis on the content of the dialog or narrative. The steps in composing controlled reading texts, also discussed by the author, are illustrated with excerpts from an elementary reading lesson for Hawaiian schools, based on a contrastive analysis of Standard English and Hawaii Islands Dialect. (AMM)