In learning to read a nonnative language, the learner's ability to achieve meaning is hampered if adequate preparation or readiness for reading is neglected. A review of the literature pertaining to second language learning and reading in a second language has identified five principles that appear to be significant in providing effective reading strategies for the nonnative learner. The five principles are that (1) students need cultural preparation, because all reading material is culturally oriented as to plot, characterization, setting, and values; (2) students need background knowledge and experiences, in order to bring meaning to the printed page to predict, confirm, and compose; (3) instruction should emphasize more whole-word techniques that include syntactic and semantic clues as well as configuration and picture clues; (4) reading evaluation strategies should include miscue analysis, deleting language-related but nonmeaning miscues; and (5) strategies that link language to writing and reading should be applied to print readiness, through language experience approaches and commercial reading material adaptation. (Appendixes include a bibliography, Dale's Cone of Learning Experience, some key prefixes and suffixes and roots, Bett's Levels of Reading Development, a checklist to determine readiness for introducing reading, a language experience activity format for a group, and a lesson strategy for literate first language readers.) (HOD)