A comprehensive overview of important contemporary issues in the field of reading research from the mid 1980s to mid 1990s, this well-received volume offers readers an examination of literacy through a variety of lenses--some permitting microscopic views and others panoramic views. A veritable "who's who" of specialists in the field, chapter authors cover current methodology, as well as cumulative research-based knowledge. Because it deals with society and literacy, the first section provides the broadest possible view of literacy. The second section defines the range of activities culturally determined to be a part of the enterprise known as literacy. The third focuses on the processes that individuals engage in when they perform the act of reading. The fourth section visits the environment in which the knowledge that comprises literacy is passed on from one generation to the next. The last section, an epilogue to the whole enterprise of reading research, provides apt philosophical reflection.

Contains the reports of state departments and officials for the preceding fiscal biennium.

The chapters in this volume are based on presentations made at a recent conference on cognitive and linguistic foundations of reading acquisition. The researchers who participated have all made contributions to the theoretical and empirical understanding of how children learn to read. They were asked to address not only what they have learned from their research, but also to discuss unsolved problems. This dialogue prompted numerous questions of both a theoretical and applied nature, generated heated debate, and fueled optimism about the important gains that have been made in the scientific understanding of the reading process, especially of the critical role played by phonological abilities.

Originally published in 1981, this title is based on the author’s doctoral thesis and the research reported was carried out at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. By the 1980s it was generally recognised that there are a number of children of adequate general intelligence who nevertheless experience inordinate difficulties in learning to read. This book examines some of the possible reasons for those children’s reading difficulties, and at the same time explores the basis of a teaching technique which was reputed to help them to learn to read. Although the terminology is very much of the time, this book will still be of interest to those concerned with the reasons behind the difficulties children have in learning to read.