Word Attack Skills Research Articles

Practical Strategy Understanding English Reading Comprehension

English reading comprehension is an important skill needed in various areas of life. However, many students have difficulty understanding English reading. This article is the output of community service activities which aims to discusses several practical strategies that can help improve English reading comprehension. The strategies comprise skimming, scanning, word-attack skills, vocabulary building, interpreting reference, recognizing text-organization and inferencing. The methods used are lecture, discussion, and direct practice. The participants are 30 students of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri (MAN) 2 Parepare who are members of the School English Meeting Club. The results of this community service are (1) increasing students' reading comprehension text skills, (2) increasing participants' awareness of the importance of reading skills, (3) students who are competent in understanding reading comprehension texts.

A Word Attack Skills-Based Program to Enhance EFL Secondary School Students’ Vocabulary Learning, Reading Comprehension and Self-Efficacy

The current study aimed at examining the effect of training EFL secondary school students in word-attack skills on enhancing their vocabulary learning, reading comprehension and self-efficacy. Three instruments were developed to achieve the purpose of the study: a vocabulary learning test to measure the participants’ vocabulary development; a reading comprehension test to measure their reading comprehension skills; and a self-efficacy scale to measure their self-efficacy beliefs in vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. The validity and reliability for these instruments were checked before conducting the experiment. The study employed a quasi-experimental design in which the participants were divided into two groups: the control and experimental groups. Each group consisted of 30 female students purposely chosen from second-year secondary school students at Hamza Alsunbati Secondary School, Damietta Governorate. The experimental group received training in word attack skills for 3 months while the control group followed the traditional method of teaching. Results of the study affirmed the effectiveness of training EFL students in these skills revealing significant improvements in the three dependent variables, vocabulary learning, reading comprehension and self-efficacy. Some conclusions and recommendations were reached.

Chinese EFL Teachers’ Perception and Practice of Phonics Instruction

Phonics was introduced to Chinese mainland two decades ago. To gain an empirical insight into teachers’ perception in teaching phonics to EFL students, this study draws upon data from a survey among 213 primary school EFL teachers in two Chinese provinces. The findings indicate that most teachers hold positive attitudes towards phonics, regarding it more as a word-attack skill. The improvement of teachers’ educational background predicts better phonics teaching effect, yet they need systematic phonics knowledge. Besides, teaching material and teaching strategies are greatly correlated with the teaching effect. It concludes that phonics should be integrated into regular textbooks and effective teacher training is significant for better improvement of phonics instruction.

A WORD ATTACK SKILLS-BASED PROGRAM TO ENHANCE EFL SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' VOCABULARY LEARNING, READING COMPREHENSION AND SELF-EFFICACY

Word attack skills/strategies refer to techniques that help students to deal with the unfamiliar word by using the available clues within it and in context. These skills are valuable for both first language (L1) and second language (L2) readers as it is almost impossible to memorize all the vocabulary in the target language and as frequent use of a dictionary disrupts the natural flow of reading. When English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) learners encounter unfamiliar vocabulary during reading, they tend to employ a number of strategies: ignoring the word, consulting a dictionary, seeking teacher’s assistance, using word parts (roots, prefixes or suffixes) or inferring the meaning of the word from context. Students need to acquire the latter two strategies to deal with the unfamiliar words that impede comprehension. Considering word attack skills in an EFL setting, it is assumed that inferring from context can compensate for EFL learners’ limited vocabulary knowledge (Bialystok, 1998; Oxford, 2003) as a result of little exposure to L2 comprehensible input (Krashen, 1989) obtained from reading and listening. Since English is merely used inside classroom settings, reading rather than speaking or writing seems to be of great value to these learners. Therefore, teaching these skills/strategies can be useful in developing two areas: ability to infer the meanings of unknown words from context and using morphological clues, which in turn develops their skill of reading. Current Egyptian EFL textbooks need to focus more on these skills, while also addressing other reading strategies such as identifying main ideas, reading between the lines (making inferences), skimming and scanning. Examining Hello! English for Secondary Schools (Haines & Dallas, 2008), it appears that there is little evidence of treatment of these skills, especially in the context of reading comprehension. This is because there are a few activities or follow-up practice opportunities that address guessing the meaning from context. It has been observed by the researcher that a large number of secondary school students have several comprehension problems while reading written texts in an EFL setting, one of which is their deficiency to derive the meanings of unknown words from context. This is mainly because they are accustomed to memorizing long vocabulary lists as the sole method of vocabulary learning, and because they lack experience and training in guessing the meaning from context and using affixation (prefixes or suffixes). Furthermore, they rarely receive formal or direct instruction in these strategies from their teachers. The outcome may be that they simply ignore a new word without making any effort to discover its meaning, or that they give up reading, and this in turn leads to limited vocabulary knowledge and poor reading ability.

COMPREHENSION DIFFICULTIES OF AUTHENTIC READING IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (FLT) IN KAZAKHSTANI CONTEXT

This article will concentrate on questions of methodology, namely comprehension difficulties of authentic texts. Over the past three years we had the benefit of continuing discussions with the staff and students of the Foreign Language Teacher Training Faculty at Almaty and most of what is worthwhile in this article derives directly or indirectly from them. This article is an attempt to explore certain difficulties in authentic reading that seems to us to arise from adopting a communicative approach to the teaching reading. It is the purpose of this article to reveal the reasons and causes that make reading hard and analyze the nature of errors. We must accept the commitment to propose a preparation and exploited exercises and the practical consequences of applying them as a teaching aim. The methods of the research include literature review, analysis of research cards, questioners, survey. In the study difficulties are classified into six groups according to their linguistic, semantic, syntactic, conceptual, extra linguistic features. They can be summarized as follows: a general lack of awareness about the principles of affixation, the use of expressions in a figurative sense, poor realization of metaphorical meanings of familiar words and phrases. The main aim of this article is to suggest basic rules and guidelines on avoiding errors in foreign language reading. The task before the teacher, then, is to help students change their reading habits by teaching them efficient reading strategies. An effective way to do this is through guided reading. For example, word-attack skills. These skills enable the reader to work out the meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases without looking them up in the dictionary. Here are two useful word attack skills: using context clues, and using structural information. Using context clues, includes using the meanings of other words such as synonyms and antonyms in the same sentence or paragraph, or the meaning of the sentence or paragraph as a whole, to deduce the possible meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases. Using structural information, this refers to word formation. An analysis of the stems and affixes of words can help our students get the meaning of many unfamiliar words. The meaning of the whole word can be worked out by analyzing its component parts. Reading in meaningful units, students should be able to read in meaningful units instead of isolated words. A useful way to train students to read in meaningful units is to break up a sentence into sense groups and have students focus their eyes on the middle of each sense group arranged in separate lines and try to see words on each side of the middle line. The transition of knowledge-based paradigm to competent based paradigm changed the aims and method of teaching reading. In competence-based approach which nowadays presents an innovative process in FL Education and corresponds to the general conception of educational standards found in many countries. Comprehension of authentic reading suggests the presence of certain competences, as readiness and abilities to fulfill tasks. In this connection the meaning is not in the text, it is in the mind of the reader. Meaning is created depending on the background knowledge, experience of the reader and schemata. It goes without saying that reading comprehension largely depends on the technique of reading. However FL reading comprehension as a complex psycho –physiological process of cognitive activity should be regarded in the framework of Intercultural Communicative competence as the final goal of FLE outlined by many scholars (Canale and Swain, Savingon, S.S.Kunanbaeva) which involves different interpretations of the phenomenon and its structural components.

Literacy Learning Cohorts

Two professional development (PD) models for teachers were compared on teacher and student outcomes. Special education teachers participated in Literacy Learning Cohorts (LLC), a PD innovation designed to improve content and pedagogical knowledge for providing reading instruction to upper elementary students with learning disabilities. The LLC, based on Desimone’s (2009) framework, included 2 days of initial PD with follow-up meetings, coaching, and video self-analysis. A comparison group received only 2 days of PD. Results of independent t tests and analyses of covariance indicated that LLC teachers demonstrated significant change in instructional time allotted to, and quality of, word study and fluency instruction. LLC teachers also made significantly greater gains on the fluency knowledge measure as compared with the comparison group, but they did not differ in word study knowledge. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed that students of LLC teachers made significantly greater gains on word attack skills and decoding efficiency than did students of teachers in the comparison group.

The Limerick Reading Initiative: a reading intervention targeted at struggling readers in primary school

In this study we examined the effectiveness of a reading intervention targeting a group of 24 struggling readers in ten primary schools in Ireland. The intervention consisted of two components; component one consisted of 15‐20 minutes delivery of the Toe‐by‐Toe programme (a well established systematic synthetic phonics programme) and the second component consisted of 15‐20 minutes guided oral reading using levelled texts. Using standardised measures of word reading, reading fluency, reading comprehension, word attack skills and spelling, we found that after five months of the intervention, the majority of the pupils made significant improvements in reading and reading fluency. The reading comprehension improvements were more varied with almost a quarter of participants showing remarkable progress, while the remainder recorded considerably less impressive gains. These results are very encouraging for classroom practitioners and demonstrate that research validated approaches can help at‐risk readers close the gap with their typically developing peers.

“Literacy Lift-Off”: an experimental evaluation of a reading recovery programme on literacy skills and reading self-concept

Worldwide, considerable emphasis is currently being placed on the provision of appropriate classroom-based preventative interventions and in-class literacy support, in preference to withdrawal methods of educational support. Many schools in Ireland are currently implementing Literacy Lift-Off in their classrooms. Literacy Lift-Off is an adaption of the well-known Reading Recovery programme. The current study aims to establish whether Literacy Lift-Off improves students’ literacy skills. It further seeks to determine what impact Literacy Lift-Off has on students’ reading self-concept levels. Ninety-two students aged between five years and six years six months (52 boys, 40 girls) attending four Senior Infant classes were recruited for this study. Two class groups were randomly chosen to act as an intervention cohort (n = 47) and two class groups were randomly chosen to act as a wait-list control cohort (n = 45). This experimental study evaluated the Literacy Lift-Off intervention on students’ letter identification, word attack skills, word reading, and reading self-concept beliefs. Intervention students were compared with control students who did not receive the Literacy Lift-Off intervention at pre-test and post-test levels. Results showed that while both groups showed significant change on all dependent variables from pre-intervention to post-intervention, those in the experimental group showed significantly more improvement on word attack skills, word reading and reading self-concept beliefs. This study showed that a whole-class reading recovery programme can be effective in improving literacy skills and reading self-concept.

Reading Skill and Exposure to Orthography Influence Speech Production.

Orthographic experience during the acquisition of novel words may influence production processing in proficient readers. Previous work indicates interactivity among lexical, phonological, and articulatory processing; we hypothesized that experience with orthography can also influence phonological processing. Phonetic accuracy and articulatory stability were measured as adult, proficient readers repeated and read aloud nonwords, presented in auditory or written modalities and with variations in orthographic neighborhood density. Accuracy increased when participants had read the nonwords earlier in the session, but not when they had only heard them. Articulatory stability increased with practice, regardless of whether nonwords were read or heard. Word attack skills, but not reading comprehension, predicted articulatory stability. Findings indicate that kinematic and phonetic accuracy analyses provide insight into how orthography influences implicit language processing.

ASSESSING NON-ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS’ MASTERY OF ACADEMIC CONTENT AREA READING

: Assessing Non English Department Students' Mastery of Academic Content Area Reading. This study addresses mainly college students'comprehension on academic texts. It involves 400 respondents of three state and three private universities in Malang with study programs with ‘high, ‘fair', and ‘low' bases on the proportion of the study programs accredited A by the National Board of Accreditation (BAN). Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively and comparatively. The results show reading com­prehension of most respondents ranges from ‘avarage' to ‘low'. Most word attack skills and text content attack skills are low. Text structure attack skills are not adequately mastered. The respondents' compre­hension across state universities does not significantly differ, but there is a difference across private univer­sities, limited to certain private universities. A significant difference between the comprehension of stu­dents of state universities and private universities and a significant difference between the comprehension of science and social studies students are evidenced. Most respondents are not yet ready for academic comprehension of English.

Targeted Reading Intervention

This study examined the effectiveness of a classroom teacher intervention, the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI), in helping struggling readers in kindergarten and first grade. This intervention used biweekly literacy coaching in the general education classroom to help classroom teachers use diagnostic strategies with struggling readers in one-on-one 15-min sessions. Five schools in low-income rural counties were randomly assigned to the experimental or control group. Five struggling and five nonstruggling readers were randomly selected to participate in each experimental and control classroom. There were 34 classrooms and 276 children. Experimental children achieved better gains in letter-word identification than did control children. Significant interactions were found with word attack skills. Children in the experimental group with poor rapid naming and better phonological awareness skills progressed the most compared with the control group. The TRI appeared to be a promising classroom teacher intervention to help young struggling readers.

The Role of Working Memory and Fluency Practice on the Reading Comprehension of Students Who Are Dysfluent Readers

The authors investigated whether practice in reading fluency had a causal influence on the relationship between working memory (WM) and text comprehension for 155 students in Grades 2 and 4 who were poor or average readers. Dysfluent readers were randomly assigned to repeated reading or continuous reading practice conditions and compared with untreated dysfluent and fluent readers on posttest measures of fluency, word identification, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Three main findings emerged: (a) The influence of WM on text comprehension was not related to fluency training, (b) dysfluent readers in the continuous-reading condition had higher posttest scores than dysfluent readers in the other conditions on measures of text comprehension but not on vocabulary, and (c) individual differences in WM better predicted posttest comprehension performance than word-attack skills. In general, the results suggested that although continuous reading increased comprehension, fluency practice did not compensate for WM demands. The results were interpreted within a model that viewed reading comprehension processes as competing for a limited supply of WM resources that operate independent of fluency.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Reading Remediation Program in a Public School Setting

This article reports an evaluation of a reading remediation program delivered to 151 high-risk students in a public school setting. Implementation fidelity was assessed by the amount of time each child was exposed to the program. Despite receiving fewer than the recommended hours of instruction, analyses of standard achievement scores indicated significantly greater change than expected in reading comprehension, reading fluency, and word attack skills. Number of individual hours of instruction yielded the most conservative estimates of change across time. Findings are discussed within the context of conducting effectiveness evaluations of educational interventions and the need to monitor implementation fidelity at the individual level to best inform decision making and resource allocation.

Training in phonological awareness generalizes to phonological working memory: A preliminary investigation preliminary investigation.

Introduction Scholars and practitioners alike are by now well aware that children with language impairments are at increased risk for difficulties in learning to read (e.g., Aram, Ekelman, & Nation, 1984; Aram & Nation, 1980; Bishop & Adams, 1990; Gillam & Carlile, 1997; Korngold, Menyuk, Libergott, & Chesnick, 1988; Menyuk & Chesnick, 1997). The relationship between phonological awareness (PA) and early reading achievement has been clearly established for the general population (e.g., see reviews by Adams, 1990; Blachman, 1994; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). It is also been well-documented that children with language impairments have delays in phonological awareness abilities (e.g., Bird, Bishop, & Freeman, 1995; Bishop & Adams, 1990; Catts, 1993; Kamhi & Catts, 1986; Kamhi, Lee, & Nelson, 1985; Menyuk & Chesnick, 1997), and intervention studies have shown that we can successfully foster PA skills in preschoolers and kindergartners with both speech and language impairments (e.g., Gillon, 2000, 2002; Laing & Espeland, 2005; Segers & Verhoeven, 2004; van Kleeck, Gillam, & McFadden, 1998). Phonological awareness, however, is only one of the phonological processing skills known to be important to early decoding. In addition to PA, the contributions of phonological working memory (WM) to early decoding (word attack skill in early reading) have been well established for children who are typically developing, children with reading disorders, and children with language impairments (see Catts & Kamhi, 1999; Goswami & Bryant, 1990; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987 for reviews). Phonological WM has been measured by both word and nonword repetition and span tasks. Of these two kinds of measures, nonword recall tasks are believed to more purely reflect phonological working memory, since they must be carried out independent of semantic lexical knowledge (Gathercole, in press; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990; Henry & Millar, 1991). Studies outside of the area of reading corroborate that children with language impairment perform more poorly than age- and language-matched peers on nonword repetition and nonword span tasks, suggesting that these children have a diminished phonological WM capacity (e.g., Bishop, North, & Donlan, 1996; Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998; Edwards & Lahey, 1998; Ellis Weismer, Tomblin, Zhang, Buckwalter, Chynoweth, & Jones, 2000; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990; Gillam, Cowan, & Day, 1995; Gray, 2003, 2004; Marton & Schwartz, 2003; Montgomery, 1995, 2000a, 2000b). As we continue to work to develop interventions that take empirical findings regarding the basic cognitive underpinnings of early decoding into account, these findings might lead us to ask if we should be targeting phonological WM in addition to PA in order to provide the best possible foundation for later early decoding skills in children with language impairments. First, however, we might ask if it is feasible to directly improve phonological WM skills. We know that nonword recall is highly heritable (Bishop et al., 1996) and that it is not readily affected by environmental influences (Alloway, Gathercole, Willis, & Adams, 2004; Campbell, Dollaghan, Needleman, & Janosky, 1997). One possible consequence of these facts is that the phonological memory skills underlying nonword recall may be resistant to treatment (Gathercole, in press). We are aware of only one study that has trained children in nonword repetition in order to improve phonological WM, and hence early reading ability. The study involved 120 Greek-speaking kindergartners who were assigned randomly to a control or treatment group (Maridaki-Kassotaki, 2002). The treatment lasted for the school year, and the treatment group showed superior performance over the control group on a reading test at the end of first grade. This was only one study, and it was not conducted with children learning the English script. …

The Importance of Early Vocabulary for Literacy Achievement in High-Poverty Schools

Although research documents a key contribution of print skills to early literacy, vocabulary and other language skills also provide an important foundation. Focusing on a sample of several hundred low-income children in 16 urban schools that were implementing literacy interventions, 1st-grade predictors of literacy development were traced over time. Beginning-of-1st-grade letter–word identification and word attack skills were the strongest predictors of reading comprehension at the end of 1st grade. However, vocabulary was the best predictor of reading comprehension at the end of 2nd and 3rd grades. The predictive power of early print-related and phonemic-awareness skills diminished over time, yet vocabulary scores remained an important predictor. Results support an early emphasis on developing meaning skills to prepare low-income children for success in literacy.

Paraprofessional-Led Phonological Awareness Training With Youngsters at Risk for Reading and Behavioral Concerns

This study examined the efficacy of a paraprofessional-led supplemental early intervention for first-grade students with poor early literacy skills and behavioral concerns. The goal was to determine if (a) the relatively brief intervention was effective in improving phonological skills, and (b) improvements in academic skills would be accompanied by behavioral and social improvements. The results indicated that the students in the treatment condition experienced significant, lasting increases in phonological awareness and moderate improvement in word attack skills. However, significant collateral effects on social and behavioral performance were not observed. Limitations and directions for future investigation are offered.

Word‐attack skills in individuals with mental retardation

This article assesses the state of the literature on word-attack skills and phonological awareness (PA) in individuals with mental retardation, in light of progress towards the development of effective teaching procedures. The literature contains promising findings. Studies have shown PA to be correlated with word-attack skills in individuals with mental retardation, as has been shown conclusively in typically developing children. This suggests that instruction in PA would facilitate the acquisition of word-attack skills in individuals with mental retardation, as it does with typically developing children. As of yet, however, very few experimental studies designed to demonstrate effective teaching procedures for PA and word-attack skills have been published. This research field might evolve most effectively and efficiently by following a two-step research program. First, test new teaching procedures in a series of small-N studies, each study incorporating modifications of teaching procedures based on the results of the previous study. Once procedures prove effective at this level, the resources necessary to pursue large-scale studies can be used to their best advantage.

Phonological Awareness and Rapid Naming Predict Word Attack and Word Identification in Adults With Mild Mental Retardation

In this study we asked whether measures of phonological awareness and rapid naming were correlated with single-word reading skills of 30 adults with mild mental retardation. We presented four tests of phonological awareness (for rime, first, middle, and end-sound categorization), two rapid-naming tests (pictures and letters), and the Woodcock Word-Identification and Word-Attack subtests. All four phonological-awareness measures and both rapid-naming measures were significantly correlated with both word-attack and word-identification skills. This outcome is consistent with findings from typically developing children, suggesting that instruction in phonological awareness would facilitate the acquisition of word-attack skills in individuals with mental retardation.

The Role of Oracy in Developing Comprehension in Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners

Components of first-grade intervention programs that addressed oral language and listening comprehension instruction within an intensive literacy intervention for native Spanish-speaking students struggling with reading difficulties are described. Findings for the intervention are based on 4 large-scale experimental studies (published elsewhere) in which the intervention was provided to struggling first-grade English language learners (ELLs) in the same language as the core reading instruction (Spanish or English). Interventions taught children the alphabetic principle with letter–sound correspondences and how to read words quickly and accurately as well as providing practices that enhanced the language skills needed to understand word and text meaning. Thus, explicit instruction was provided in oral language, phonemic awareness, alphabetic knowledge, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies. The essential features of the intervention that addressed oral language were a shared storybook reading routine in addition to enhanced language acquisition instruction. Findings indicate that students in the intervention made progress in the areas of phonological awareness, letter–sound identification, word attack, and comprehension skills. Our intervention studies empirically informs us on the instructional components of effective reading and oral language interventions for Spanish-speaking ELLs who are at risk for reading difficulties.

Training in phonological awareness generalizes to phonological working memory: A preliminary investigation.

Abstract Early reading achievement relies on phonological awareness (PA) and phonological working memory (WM). Children with language impairment (LI) have problems with both. Three studies were conducted to determine whether treating PA would also improve phonological WM in preschoolers with LI. Study 1 confirmed that children with specific LI perform more poorly than age-matched peers on both PA and WM tasks. Study 2 showed that when children with and without LI are matched on a nonword WM task, differences between the groups on PA and on a word WM task are no longer statistically significant. In Study 3, sixteen preschool children with LI received intervention targeting PA skills and improved both their PA and WM abilities. These studies support the use of PA instruction to improve basic phonological mechanisms underlying working memory. Keywords: literacy, language disorder, intervention, preschool children. Introduction Scholars and practitioners alike are by now well aware that children with language impairments are at increased risk for difficulties in learning to read (e.g., Aram, Ekelman, & Nation, 1984; Aram & Nation, 1980; Bishop & Adams, 1990; Gillam & Carlile, 1997; Korngold, Menyuk, Libergott, & Chesnick, 1988; Menyuk & Chesnick, 1997). The relationship between phonological awareness (PA) and early reading achievement has been clearly established for the general population (e.g., see reviews by Adams, 1990; Blachman, 1994; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987)). It is also been well-documented that children with language impairments have delays in phonological awareness abilities (e.g., Bird, Bishop, & Freeman, 1995; Bishop & Adams, 1990; Catts, 1993; Kamhi & Catts, 1986; Kamhi, Lee, & Nelson, 1985; Menyuk & Chesnick, 1997), and intervention studies have shown that we can successfully foster PA skills in preschoolers and kindergartners with both speech and language impairments (e.g., Gillon, 2000, 2002; Laing & Espeland, 2005; Segers & Verhoeven, 2004; van Kleeck, Gillam, & McFadden, 1998). Phonological awareness, however, is only one of the phonological processing skills known to be important to early decoding. In addition to PA, the contributions of phonological working memory (WM) to early decoding (word attack skill in early reading) have been well established for children who are typically developing, children with reading disorders, and children with language impairments (see Catts & Kamhi, 1999; Goswami & Bryant, 1990; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987 for reviews). Phonological WM has been measured by both word and nonword repetition and span tasks. Of these two kinds of measures, nonword recall tasks are believed to more purely reflect phonological working memory, since they must be carried out independent of semantic lexical knowledge (Gathercole, in press; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990; Henry & Millar, 1991). Studies outside of the area of reading corroborate that children with language impairment perform more poorly than age- and language-matched peers on nonword repetition and nonword span tasks, suggesting that these children have a diminished phonological WM capacity (e.g., Bishop, North, & Donlan, 1996; Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998; Edwards & Lahey, 1998; Ellis Weismer, Tomblin, Zhang, Buckwalter, Chynoweth, & Jones, 2000; Gathercole & Baddeley, 1990; Gillam, Cowan, & Day, 1995; Gray, 2003, 2004; Marton & Schwartz, 2003; Montgomery, 1995, 2000a, 2000b). As we continue to work to develop interventions that take empirical findings regarding the basic cognitive underpinnings of early decoding into account, these findings might lead us to ask if we should be targeting phonological WM in addition to PA in order to provide the best possible foundation for later early decoding skills in children with language impairments. First, however, we might ask if it is feasible to directly improve phonological WM skills. …