WORD RECOGNITION

A 2-year continuation of one of the 27 U. S. Office of Education First Grade Reading Studies is reported. Students in the linguistics approach were initially taught to read using the experimental edition of "A Basic Reading Series Developed upon Linguistic Principles " by Charles C. Fries and others. Students in the basal reader approach were initially taught to read using the New Basic Readers " (sixties edition) by Scott, Foresman. Data were analyzed by total treatment, ability score level, and sex. When the two treatment groups were considered as a whole and when performance on all of the criterion measures was considered, neither of the two approaches proved more effective at the end of grades 2 and 3. Although significant differences were found for some of the subskills in reading or related areas, neither of the approaches demonstrated superior performance in all aspects of the reading process. At the end of grade 2, students in the basal reader treatment showed significantly superior achievement in word study skills, spelling, and oral reading accuracy. At the end of grade 3, students in the linguistic group showed superiorperformance in the rate of oral reading and number of words used in written compositions. (Author/WB) 4 " ""n77-7A-7-74.-7-5- P"; eir