An experiment examined whether metalinguistic awareness involving the detection of semantic ambiguity can be taught, and whether this instruction improves students' reading comprehension. Lower SES third graders from a variety of cultural backgrounds (M = 8 yr. 7 mo., N = 46) were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Those receiving…

Examines the scientific evidence supporting claims about phonemic awareness (PA) instruction. Presents a quantitative meta-analysis evaluating the effects of PA instruction on learning to read and spell. Concludes that PA instruction was found to make a statistically significant contribution to reading acquisition. (SG)

Using kindergarten subjects, a study examined whether prereaders learned better with visual cues while novice readers learned better with phonetic cues. (HOD)

Results of a study in which first graders learned ten unfamiliar function words in two different formats indicated that sentence readers learned more about the syntactic and semantic identities of function words, whereas list readers remembered their orthographic identities better and could pronounce the words faster and more accurately in…

Investigates the kind of print-related knowledge that emergent readers must possess to learn to point to the words of a text as they recite it from memory (fingerpoint-reading) and to remember information about the print from this activity. Reveals that different types of print knowledge facilitate different aspects of fingerpoint-reading. (SR)

Takes a closer look at the reading skills of beginning readers who are able to read words by analogy. Finds that reading unfamiliar words by analogy to known words is an easier process and can be executed by beginners more readily than reading unfamiliar words by phonologically recoding the words. (MG)