Considers if Hispanic and non-Hispanic second graders acquire knowledge of structural features of words in the same order and at the same rate. Reveals that both groups appear to be acquiring knowledge of the structural features of words at different rates, but in a roughly similar order with Hispanic learners lagging behind the non-Hispanic…

Introduces the articles in the special issue as sharing a concern with the role of morphological skills in the learning of alphabetic orthographies. Discusses how the articles offer a cross-section of different perspectives, techniques and populations. Notes several pieces of evidence that morphological awareness, while related to phoneme…

Offers some new evidence about sensitivity to morphemes and the decoding skills of American children in grades three through six. Focuses on knowledge of derivational suffixes, which is examined with sentence completion and sentence acceptability tasks that manipulate the suffixes in real words and nonsense derived forms. Indicates that knowledge…

Looks at the link between children's understanding of a morphemically-based orthographic rule and their awareness of morphemic distinctions. Questions the orthographic rule of using the apostrophe to denote possession in English. Concludes that different forms of linguistic awareness affect different aspects of reading and spelling. (SC)

Presents a longitudinal study that examines the relationship between morphological analysis, phonological analysis, and learning to read French. Finds very strong links between morphological and phonological analyses and between morphological analysis and reading. Contributes to the evidence of a link between both phonological and morphological…

Considers how the reading-level match design has become a widely-used tool for investigating the possible direction of the relation between particular skills and word reading ability: cause or consequence. Outlines an analogous method for identifying candidate causes of reading comprehension failure, the "comprehension-age match design."…

Considers an unexpected and remarkable preference for second language reading among some dyslexics that has been noted, presenting a challenge to accepted theory on dyslexia and the capacity for second language learning. Shows that two dyslexic groups differed significantly in the degree to which task performance, including reading efficiency, was…

Presents a longitudinal study that aims to further understanding of reasons for social class differences in growth of decoding and reading comprehension skills from beginning kindergarten through children's fourth grade year. Finds that the reasons for social class differences in growth of reading skills depended on the time interval that was…

Investigates whether differences in reading performance between poor readers and normal readers could be better explained by phonological recoding deficiencies than IQ. Examines whether students with reading disabilities would have more difficulties than normal readers. Finds that there were differences between Spanish children who were normal…

Describes a study in which 100 university students completed tests of spelling production, vocabulary, reading comprehension, reading experience, and reading accuracy. Finds that reading experience, as measured by an adaptation of the Author Recognition Test, and reading accuracy contributed to the prediction of spelling beyond the joint…

Presents six experiments that investigate the hypothesis that text comprehension problems in young children arise from phonological processing difficulties for children in the presence of age-appropriate word reading skills. Supports previous work which indicates that poor comprehenders' problems arise from higher-level processing difficulties.…

Examines the phonological deficit hypothesis in developmental dyslexia with readers in Chinese. Compares 56 Chinese dyslexic children with average readers of the same age in phonological awareness and phonological memory skills. Suggests that Chinese children with dyslexia have deficits in processing phonological information like their alphabetic…

Compares a sample of prison inmates with the norms obtained for large samples of 12-year-old students on tests measuring word decoding skills, reading, and spelling abilities. Shows that most of the inmates performed better or at the same level as 12-year-old students on all tasks measuring reading, spelling, and word decoding skills. (SC)

Shows that a combined reading and phonological awareness training group made greater progress in learning to read than the Reading alone and Phonological Awareness alone groups in addition to that of the unseen control group. Affirms, contrary to earlier criticism, the stability of the treatment effect, the Sound Linkage hypothesis and the…

Studies the relationship between working memory capacity and reading comprehension in fourth-grade children and the nature of the working memory resources involved in reading comprehension. Shows that working memory capacity was a direct predictor of reading comprehension when contrasted with vocabulary and decoding skills. Discusses the reasons…