In learning to read, children must first understand the objectives of that skill: that the visible symbols communicate meaning and code certain features of speech. If a child does not understand this, learning will be impaired. For instance, children who are taught to read a language other than their native language learn better if instructions are given in their native language. Also, when children who were initially taught reading in their native tongue were transferred to reading in a second language, they overtook the children who from the beginning had read only in the second language. This was in spite of the fact that the native tongue beginners had learned to read in two languages instead of in one and had spent less time in learning to read the second language. The explanation for these results was that those who learned to read in their native tongue first could better understand instructions and concepts used by the teachers because they could relate them to their past experience. The cognitive processes in learning to read are of paramount importance and the new frontier for improvement in methods of reading instruction is in the children's thinking, reasoning, conceptualizing, and problem solving about language. (TJ)