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Teachers who are knowledgeable about the basic structure of the English language incorporate this knowledge into their instruction. In this study, the authors explored a similar relation between knowledge of print exposure and planning for a grade 5 classroom. The personal reading experience (print exposure) of 106 preservice teachers was measured for three genres: storybooks, children’s and young adult literature, and adult fiction. Teacher knowledge was measured by two tasks: defining terms and evaluating instructional practices. Planning for instruction was measured by asking participants to plan for a week of grade 5 language arts instruction. Correlational analyses revealed that print exposure, teacher knowledge, and time allocated for student reading in a grade 5 classroom were positively related. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed that familiarity with authors of children’s and young adult literature accounted for significant variance on both knowledge tasks even after controlling for other forms of print exposure (storybooks and adult fiction). The data suggest that knowledge about print exposure and personal reading experience, especially of children’s and young adult literature, are both associated with planning for instruction in the upper elementary grades. The results are discussed in relation to teacher training.

Research on the home literacy environment has typically involved parents as teachers with little attention given to siblings' roles in teaching each other. This study examines naturalistic language and literacy teaching by 39 sibling dyads, at two timepoints, when children were ages 2 and 4 (time 1; T1) and again at ages 4 and 6 (time 2; T2). Each family was observed for a total of six 90-minute sessions at both timepoints. First, all sibling-directed teaching sequences were identified, including instances of formal and informal teaching. Second, sequences were coded for evidence of language (i.e., vocabulary, book concepts, songs, phonological awareness) and literacy concepts (i.e., alphabetic principle, reading, writing, spelling). Over 40% of the T1 and T2 teaching sequences involved language and literacy concepts. Older siblings taught the majority of the time at T1 and T2; however, the number of sequences taught by younger siblings increased proportionally over time. Because siblings taught vocabulary concepts significantly most often at both T1 and T2, further analyses were conducted on vocabulary subcategories (i.e., expansion, discussing pictures, relaying word meaning, checking for listener understanding, second-language instruction). Significantly more teaching sequences involved expansion than other vocabulary subcategories at both timepoints. Finally, at T2, literacy concepts (i.e., writing, spelling) were taught significantly more than at T1. Our findings demonstrate that siblings are interested in teaching each other a variety of language and literacy concepts during naturalistic interactions in the home, indicating that siblings contribute to the richness of the home literacy environment.

While research demonstrates the important role parents play in facilitating children's literacy development, little is known about the knowledge that underpins these exchanges. Here, we examined the association between parents' reading-related knowledge (phonological awareness, knowledge of syllable patterns, and identification of regular and irregular word spellings) and feedback across two contexts: responses to an unknown kindergartner's writing vignette (Task 1, N = 75) and mediation of a joint writing activity with the parents' own children (Task 2, n = 70). Parents' reading-related knowledge was positively associated with praise in both tasks. Parents' reading-related knowledge was also positively associated with modeling effective writing techniques in Task 1, but negatively associated with dictation (a lower form of scaffolding) in Task 2. Our findings demonstrate that parents generally display developmentally appropriate practices when helping children; parents with higher reading-related knowledge also appear to offer more supportive feedback when commenting on, or scaffolding, children's writing.

Young Adult literature is a growing genre. This study examined print exposure within Adult fiction, and Children’s and Young Adult fiction in 90 adolescents (Mage = 16.3). Results showed that scores on an Author Recognition Test (ART) containing the names of Children’s and Young Adult fiction authors were positively correlated with adolescents’ general reading and spelling abilities and single-word reading speed. The same pattern was either weaker, or absent, with scores on an ART containing Adult authors names. Furthermore, recognizing Children’s and Young Adult authors predicted performance on the adolescents’ standardized reading and spelling measures, above and beyond recognizing adult authors. Scores on the ART containing Children’s and Young Adult authors also predicted reading speed, even after controlling for general reading and spelling abilities. These findings add to three decades of inquiry into the cognitive correlates of print exposure.

While fluent reading is recognized as a primary goal of educational instruction, the methods that best promote the development of fluency remain unclear. Two experiments are reported that examined increases in reading fluency of a novel passage following two types of training. In the context training condition, children learned to read a set of target words in a story context, while in the isolated word training condition, fluency with a target word set was gained from a computerized word naming game. Transfer of fluency to reading these words in a new context was then measured by gains in reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension of a novel story. Results indicated that young readers showed speed benefits on transfer stories following both context and isolated word training, but the increases were larger following context training.

This study investigated parents’ reading-related knowledge and its association with children’s reading outcomes. Forty-two parent–child dyads were assessed when children were in Kindergarten and 39 of the children were followed the subsequent year. Reading measures were administered in Kindergarten. In Grade 1, children received reading and arithmetic measures. Parents completed a questionnaire involving (general) cultural knowledge, print exposure, and reading-related knowledge associated with the identification of regular and irregular word spellings. All parent variables accounted for unique variance in children’s reading scores in Kindergarten, however, only parents’ reading-related knowledge continued to do so into Grade 1. Our findings are consistent with the research conducted with teachers underlining the association between reading-related knowledge and students’ reading performances. The current study contributes to the limited literature focusing on parents’ reading related knowledge. The data presented here suggest that parental reading-related knowledge is associated with children’s reading outcomes in both Kindergarten and Grade 1.

High quality lexical representations in memory, characterized by accuracy and stability, are said to underpin fluent reading. Here, the relationship between orthographic quality and reading speed was examined by asking undergraduates (N = 74) to repeatedly read and spell words. Spelling performance over five trials indicated orthographic quality. Single word reading speed was measured using E-Prime technology. A within-participant repeated measures analysis revealed that words which participants spelled consistently accurately, were read faster than words which were misspelled. This pattern also held in a within-word analysis; the same words were read faster by individuals who always spelled them correctly, compared to those who did not. Further, it was found that when words were spelled using the same incorrect letter patterns across trials (i.e., in the same erroneous way), they were read faster than when they had an incorrect but less stable representation (i.e., inconsistent spelling across trials). Hence, the difference in reading speed appears to be a function of both the accuracy and stability of the orthographic representations stored in memory, rather than due to characteristics of individual participants or words. These results lend support for a central role of lexical quality in both spelling and reading, and are discussed with reference to the lexical quality hypothesis.

Leisure reading is associated with several important educational and cognitive benefits, and yet fewer and fewer young adults are reading in their free time. To better study what drives leisure reading in undergraduates, we developed the Predictors of Leisure Reading (PoLR) scale. The PoLR investigates key predictors of leisure reading, namely reading motivations, obstacles, attitudes, and interests. We examined the PoLR’s ability to predict language skills in 200 undergraduates, both directly and indirectly via exposure to fiction and nonfiction texts. Language skills were measured with a diverse battery of tasks, including items from two sections of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. We found that reading enjoyment predicts better verbal abilities, and this was often explained via exposure to fiction rather than nonfiction. In contrast, participants who reported reading due to extrinsic pressures typically had weaker verbal abilities, often explained by stronger associations with nonfiction. This pattern was observed across the raw correlations and in a series of path analyses. In sum, it was ‘reading enjoyment’ and ‘identifying as a reader’ that uniquely predicted better verbal abilities in our undergraduate sample. The importance of these findings is discussed in relation to fostering reading enjoyment throughout the various stages of formal education.

The present study examined preservice teachers' (PSTs) knowledge of basic language constructs across four different English-speaking teacher preparations programs. A standardized survey was administered to participants from Canada (n = 80), England (n = 55), New Zealand (n = 26), and the USA (n = 118). All participants were enrolled in undergraduate university programs that led to teacher certification for general education in the primary grades. Our data reveal that preservice teachers from all four countries show patterns of relative strength in areas that were targeted to be crucial within their national initiatives. Nevertheless, in general, PSTs demonstrated a lack of knowledge of certain constructs needed to teach early reading skills. The results are discussed in relation to research reports and initiatives regarding beginning reading instruction from each of the four countries.

Although homeschooling is growing in prevalence, its educational outcomes remain unclear. The present study compared the academic achievements of homeschooled children with children attending traditional public school. When the homeschooled group was divided into those who were taught from organized lesson plans (structured homeschoolers) and those who were not (unstructured homeschoolers), the data showed that structured homeschooled children achieved higher standardized scores compared with children attending public school. Exploratory analyses also suggest that the unstructured homeschoolers are achieving the lowest standardized scores across the 3 groups. Quoique l'enseignement à domicile par les parents soit de plus en plus répandu, les résultats éducationnels de cette approche restent incertains. Cette étude compare l'acquisition des connaissances scolaires d'élèves dans des programmes d'enseignement à domicile avec celle d'élèves inscrits à l'école publique conventionnelle. Quand on a divisé les élèves recevant l'enseignement à domicile en deux groupes : ceux dont l'enseignement était basé sur des plans de leçon méthodiques (enseignement à domicile méthodique) et ceux qui ne suivaient pas de plans méthodiques (enseignement à domicile non méthodique), les données ont révélé que les élèves recevant l'enseignement à domicile méthodique avaient des notes standardisées plus élevées que les élèves de l'école publique. Des analyses exploratoires donnent à penser que les élèves recevant un enseignement à domicile non méthodique ont les notes standardisées les moins élevées des 3 groupes.