TEXT DECODABILITY AND THE FIRST-GRADE

This study investigated the effects of highly decodable text and coordinated phonics instruction on first graders ’ word recognition strategies. The quanti-tative study sought to examine the validity of a major claim about highly decodable text—that it enables readers to apply phonics instruction to a greater extent than less decodable text. All participants received the same fourteen-day phonics instruction. However, participants read either highly decodable or less decodable text following the instruction. Treatment participants reading highly decodable text were found to apply letter=sound knowledge to a greater extent than control participants. They also were more accurate and relied on exam-iners less for assistance. Treatment and control participants did not differ in self-correction rates. As a replication of an earlier study, this work suggested that readers with knowledge of the alphabetic principle, given the same phonics instruction, will apply it more in a highly decodable context. Recently, researchers, educators, and policymakers have expressed a renewed interest in the instructional materials used with beginning read-ers. Several articles exploring text issues have been written (Brown, 1999