PHONOLOGICAL RECODING SKILL AND BEGINNING READING

Patterns of possible relationships between phonological recoding skill and three conceptually distinct aspects of reading are considered. Th e analysis draws attention to two complicating factors; first, the pos sibility that the different patterns of possible relationships may app ly differentially across beginning readers of varying skill levels, an d second, that beginning reading programs designed to facilitate the d evelopment of phonological recoding skill may differ enormously on sev eral instructional dimensions. The paper concludes with a description of a study of the Reading Recovery program in which aspects of four of these dimensions were investigated. Results indicate that systematic instruction in phonological recoding skill is more effective than inci dental instruction; that the inclusion of direct instruction in phonol ogical recoding skill yields better results than relying on writing ac tivities as the primary means of developing knowledge of the alphabeti c code; and that a metacognitive approach to code instruction that exp loits the use of phonograms can be a very effective intervention strat egy for at-risk readers.