The tradition of reading aloud to children has great intrinsic value and should be continued as part of the language arts program. Five major reasons for reading aloud to children can be gleaned from recent linguistic and psychological research and from folklore and intuition: (1) It allows the modeling of syntactic and phonemic language patterns, which is particularly helpful in working with children who speak nonstandard dialects. While speech is an important model in the imitation of syntax, written language is a "purer" form and thus more valuable for modeling. Hearing words in context increases listeners' receptive vocabularies and introduces them to alternative ways of expressing themselves. (2) It allows an identification with models, exposing children to literary characters with whom they can identify, as well as to worlds of experience. (3) It provides a commonality of experience to listeners from diverse backgrounds. (4) It develops listening skills and increases the listening attention span. (5) It motivates listeners to want to read, frequently stimulating them to seek out books that have been read to them. Other reasons for reading aloud to children include its contributions to parent/child sharing and to children who cannot or will not read on their own. (GT)