Abstract

Abstract

An alternating treatments design was used to investigate the relative effects of three distinct instructional strategies or approaches, and the casual relationship of the approach to reading rate.  The approaches investigated were a phonics approach, meaning-based approach and a balanced approach to instruction for emergent readers.  The treatments were alternated randomly and continued until one treatment proved to be more effective than the others.  Three elementary students in grade 1, two girls and one boy, participated in the study.  Results indicated that no method was superior to another as they relate to reading rate (words read correctly per minute).  Implications for further instruction suggest that no single approach to reading instruction should be used exclusively over another.  Instead, the study proposes a “balanced” or “comprehensive” approach to emergent reading instruction, which includes the best of both phonics and meaning-based methods taught with a varying intensity. Intensity is appropriated to provide the necessary balance of skill instruction to the individual and unique students' who seek to make sense of reading.