When young children of Color from minoritized communities read decodable readers mandated by their school districts, children approach reading the texts with the expectation that the texts will make sense. While decodable readers allow children to apply their knowledge of phonics skills in context to support their word recognition, they tend to…

Reviews the literature on phonic generalizations and presents a formula measuring the usefulness of word recognition, concluding that further research is needed. (RB)

Students who received phonics and word recognition instruction directly from a teacher developed a more positive attitude toward reading than did students who received instruction through tape-recorded lessons. (MKM)

Finds evidence for a relationship between children's ability to use word recognition generalizations and their reading achievement, although they may not need to be able to verbalize those generalizations. (Author/FL)

Analyzes research reports that describe specific corrective feedback techniques. Notes effects for comprehension and for accuracy of word recognition among remedial and average readers and discusses instructional implications of the findings. (FL)

Reports on a study testing the validity of the Names Test, an individually administered phonics assessment. Provides support for the Names Test's validity by showing it to be significantly correlated with established tests of word recognition and decoding ability. (SR)

A hallmark of skilled reading is recognizing written words automatically from memory by sight. How beginning readers attain this skill is explained. They must acquire foundational knowledge, including phonemic segmentation, grapheme-phoneme knowledge, decoding, and spelling skills. When these skills are applied, spellings of words become bonded to…

Gives specific ideas for encouraging students to be flexible in their approach to decoding words. (MKM)

This study, which extends Jeffrey and Samuels' study, indicates that children taught "sounds" learned more grapheme-phoneme correspondences and read more transfer words than did those taught "words." (HOD)

The authors define phonics as a system for encoding speech sounds into written symbols and for teaching learners to use the relationship between letters and sounds to recognize words. The origin of the term "explicit, systematic phonics" is traced historically through studies and reviews of phonics instruction and policy documents. Results from a…

Examines the Decoding Skills Test (DST), a criterion referenced, diagnostic instrument designed to identify deficiencies in word decoding. (JC)

Concludes that as little phonics instruction as is necessary should be presented to help the learner achieve increasing independence in the various coding tasks. (RB)