Examined the role of individual differences in working memory and lexical access in age- and reading skill-related differences in performance on phonological synthesis tasks. The performance of 28 kindergarten, first-, and second-grade students with normal reading skills, and that of 28 reading-disabled second graders, was compared under four…

Investigates the acquisition of selected English short and long vowel spellings by German learners of English in order to answer the questions: who acquires the short and long vowel spellings (a,e,i), and when and what governs their order of acquisition? Statistical data is included. (Author/OD)

Aims to heighten teacher awareness of the semantic, syntactic, and phoneme-grapheme transfer problems that Chinese students face. Provides teaching suggestions involving phonology, vocabulary, syntax, and morphology. Urges reading teachers to use the visual modality to help make the transfer to the English script system more successful. (RS)

Cued speech is presented as a system of phonemes and mouthshapes which can supplement speechreading. Research findings are presented on cue reception, cue comprehension, and development of sensory aids for cue presentation. Also discussed are research needs, and applications of cued speech for hearing-impaired speechreaders and for hearing…

Reponses of poor, average, and good spellers at different age levels to a phonemic segmentation test containing nondigraph pseudowords and to an experimental spelling test containing exception, ambiguous, regular, and pseudowords suggested that the average and good spellers made fewer and more phonetically accurate errors than the poor spellers.…

Assesses illiterate and semiliterate speakers of Serbo-Croatian on reading, writing, phonological, and control tasks. Three groups, categorized with respect to the subjects' ability to identify the letters of their Cyrillic alphabet, differed on phoneme deletion and phoneme-counting tasks, but not on syllable-counting, picture vocabulary, or…

This article reviews research on training phonological awareness in kindergarten and first grade children and describes research-based intervention and assessment activities applicable to classroom and clinical settings. Intervention applications described include categorization activities, phoneme segmentation, and metalinguistic games. (DB)

Twenty-eight toddlers with slow expressive language development were compared to normally speaking age-mates and found to show delayed rather than deviant development in the average level of complexity of their syllable structures, the number of different consonant phonemes produced, and the percentage of consonants correctly produced in…

Examines the degree to which teaching beginning readers to use various types of analogies helps them pronounce new words and nonwords. Finds that, although beginning readers can use analogies, they rely to a large extent on correspondences between individual phonemes and graphemes to decode new words. (RS)

Examines the literature linking phoneme awareness and reading acquisition, and looks at the nature of this relationship in terms of learner and task. Summarizes findings from correlational and phoneme awareness training studies and discusses the relationship of phoneme awareness to reading. Presents explanations for low phoneme awareness skills in…

This study evaluated English phrases and sentences in a minimal-pairs syllable-test format, to assess use of acoustic cues in audiovisual perception of speech by persons with severe or profound hearing loss. Of 48 items, 39 were visually confusable; 16 items identified as visually confusable were reliably identifiable when sound was added.…

Two blending strategies for decoding words (pausing and not pausing between successive sounds) were compared with nine preschool children. Once mastered, segmenting by not pausing engendered high and sustained levels of word identification. Other findings indicated that sound identification abilities were necessary but not sufficient for decoding.…

Experiment examined the contribution of phonemic processes to beginning word reading and spelling. Kindergartners received instruction in blending spoken phonemes into words, segmenting spoken words into phonemes, or blending and segmenting. Segmenting ability played a more critical role than blending in very early stages of reading and possibly…

The latest movement to reform German spelling is discussed, focusing on the need for greater consistency in spelling of words from other languages and the major changes proposed. Issues addressed include capitalization, specific idiosyncracies in German spelling, concerns related to computerization, public opinion, and the scope of the reform.…

Focuses on the effect of word-recognition instruction on later reading success for all students, particularly students experiencing difficulties with early reading. Instructional principles are offered for teaching essential elements of word recognition: letter-sound correspondence, regular word reading, story reading, irregular word reading, and…