Presents the latest findings and theoretical frameworks on what actually happens when people learn to recognize printed words. Among the topics are phonological recoding, identifying meaning, the context the text provides, approaches to teaching, and the relation between reading acquisition and language development. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Originally published in 1992. This book brings together the work of a number of distinguished international researchers engaged in basic research on beginning reading. Individual chapters address various processes and problems in learning to read - including how acquisition gets underway, the contribution of story listening experiences, what is involved in learning to read words, and how readers represent information about written words in memory. In addition, the chapter contributors consider how phonological, onset-rime, and syntactic awareness contribute to reading acquisition, how learning to spell is involved, how reading ability can be explained as a combination of decoding skill plus listening comprehension skill, and what causes reading difficulties and how to study these causes.

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.

Most studies on reading have been conducted with English-speaking subjects. It is crucial to also examine studies conducted in different languages, in order to highlight which aspects of reading acquisition and dyslexia appear to be language-specific, and which are universal. Reading Acquisition and Developmental Dyslexia sheds new light on dyslexia and its relationship with reading acquisition, presenting two unique advancements in this area. Looking at studies conducted in different languages, the prerequisites of reading acquisition are examined, and the findings from studies of skilled adult readers are presented. The manifestations of developmental dyslexia and the main contemporary explanations for it are outlined, providing an in-depth, well researched discussion of the topic. The authors conclude by offering a new framework which could explain both reading acquisition and developmental dyslexia. A fascinating book offering a unique insight into the topic of dyslexia, it will be of great interest to students and lecturers in cognitive psychology, educational psychology, and psycholinguistics, as well as those with a more everyday involvement with the disorder such as speech and language therapists.

The Science of Reading: A Handbook brings together state-of-the-art reviews of reading research from leading names in the field, to create a highly authoritative, multidisciplinary overview of contemporary knowledge about reading and related skills. Provides comprehensive coverage of the subject, including theoretical approaches, reading processes, stage models of reading, cross-linguistic studies of reading, reading difficulties, the biology of reading, and reading instruction Divided into seven sections:Word Recognition Processes in Reading; Learning to Read and Spell; Reading Comprehension; Reading in Different Languages; Disorders of Reading and Spelling; Biological Bases of Reading; Teaching Reading Edited by well-respected senior figures in the field

The Onset of Literacy addresses one of the main questions in the field of reading research - why the acquisition of skills in reading and writing appears to be so much more difficult than the earlier acquisition of speech communication. As well as posing a major theoretical puzzle, the question has important implications for both instructional practices and ways of dealing with dyslexic children.Research on the reading process has made important progress in recent years, thanks to conceptual and methodological advances in cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, and neuropsychology, which have made it possible to deal with complex issues that in the past seemed to defy rational analysis. The Onset of Literacy presents a selective sample of work by major contemporary specialists who focus on current information processing approaches to the reading process and their interface with research on the development of reading and related skills. An introduction by the editor summarizes and places the various contributions within current analyses of reading inspired by the information processing approach.The chapters and their authors are: The Ability to Manipulate Speech Sounds Depends on Knowing Alphabetic Writing, Charles Read, Zhang Yun-Fei, Nie Hong-Yin, and Ding BaoQing. Literacy Training and Speech Segmentation, Jos� Morais, Paul Bertelson, Luz Cary, and Jesus Alegria. Phonological Awareness: The Role of Reading Experience, Virginia A. Mann. Word Recognition in Early Reading: A Review of the Direct and Indirect Access Hypotheses, Roderick W. Barron. The Similarities Between Normal Readers and Developmental and Acquired Dyslexics, Peter Bryant and Lawrence Impey. Language Mechanisms and Reading Disorder: A Modular Approach, Donald Shankweiler and Stephen Crain.Paul Bertelson is Professor of Experimental Psychology and Director of the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology at the Universit� Libre de Bruxelles. The Onset of Literacy is in a series that is derived from special issues of Cognition: International Journal of Cognitive Science, edited by Jacques Mehler. A Bradford Book.