A study investigated the relationship among reading style, instructional method, and reading achievement. Subjects were 213 second-grade students attending a large school in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area, with 84 students using a basal reader series with a phonics emphasis, 90 students using a basal reader series with a mixed emphasis, and 39 students using a basal reader series with a whole-word emphasis. Following existing school district procedures, better readers tended to be assigned to the phonics group, the average readers to the mixed group, and the poorer readers to the whole-word group. The Reading Style Inventory was administered to subjects towards the end of the second grade. Results indicated that: (1) Carbo's Reading Styles Inventory was found to distinguish among reading style strengths and preferences of readers; (2) the most successful readers in all three groups showed the highest match (and poorest readers the lowest match) of individual reading styles with instructional treatment; (3) good readers overall had a better chance of being successful readers than poor readers; (4) underachieving readers exhibited significantly poorer auditory and visual strengths than good readers did; and (5) the reading styles of poor readers indicated that they were global, strongly kinesthetic, moderately tactual with good visual and only fair auditory strengths. Findings suggest that the instructional methods that best matched the poor readers' reading styles (Carbo recorded book, individualized, and language experience) were not available to students. (Seven tables and three figures of data are included; 16 references are attached.) (RS)