In this article, we describe the development and trial of a bilingual computerized test of vocabulary size, the number of words the learner knows, and strength, a combination of four aspects of knowledge of meaning that are assumed to constitute a hierarchy of difficulty: passive recognition (easiest), active recognition, passive recall, and active recall (hardest). The participants were 435 learners of English as a second language. We investigated whether the above hierarchy was valid and which strength modality correlated best with classroom language performance. Results showed that the hypothesized hierarchy was present at all word frequency levels, that passive recall was the best predictor of classroom language performance, and that growth in vocabulary knowledge was different for the different strength modalities. Vocabulary Knowledge and Vocabulary TestsVocabulary tests are contingent upon the test designer's definition of lexical knowledge. Lexical knowledge, in turn, has

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S Three issues were examined in this study: (a) how reading to a first‐grade class of children requiring enhancement (who may be identifiable as socially and culturally challenged) affects their achievement in decoding, reading comprehension, and storytelling; (b) how reading stories out of a series written by one author affects their achievement as compared with reading isolated stories; and, (c) how reading different types of literature affects the amount of voluntary reading. Fifteen Israeli first‐grade classes (339 participants) were randomly divided into four treatment groups, three experimental groups and one control group. The first group (four classes) listened to stories (published in school readers) by different authors. The second group (four classes) listened to stories by one author. The third group (three classes) listened in installments to a multiple‐volume series of stories written by the same author as the second group. The control group (4 classes) engaged in regular activities (worksheets, drawing, pasting, etc.). The teachers of the three experimental groups were asked to read interactively to their students, that is, to interact with their students before, during, and after reading in order to help them to understand the story. They were to do this during the last 20 minutes of the day, five times a week, for 6 months. The findings indicated that classroom story‐reading to first‐grade students led them to increases in decoding, reading comprehension, and picture storytelling. Among the various types of treatments, reading by teachers from a series of stories in installments was shown to have the greatest effect on reading achievement on the extent of reading for pleasure and on the quantity of books purchased for leisure reading. The findings suggested that exposure to a series of stories initiates a process (a magic secret), which stimulates young readers to reread these books. EN ESTE estudio se examinaron tres cuestiones: (a) cómo la lectura a niños de primer grado que requieren apoyo (social y culturalmente en riesgo) afecta su desempeño en decodificación, comprensión lectora y relato de historias, (b) cómo la lectura de historias tomadas de una serie escrita por un autor afecta su desempeño en comparación con la lectura de historias aisladas, y (c) cómo la lectura de diferentes tipos de literatura afecta la cantidad de lectura voluntaria. Quince clases israelíes de primer grado (339 participantes) fueron divididas al azar en cuatro grupos de tratamiento: tres grupos experimentales y un grupo de control. El primer grupo (cuatro clases) escuchó historias (de libros de lectura) de diferentes autores. El segundo grupo (cuatro clases) escuchó historias de un mismo autor. El tercer grupo (tres clases) escuchó en etapas una colección de historias escritas por el mismo autor que el segundo grupo. El grupo de control (cuatro clases) realizó las actividades regulares (hojas de trabajo, dibujos, etc.) A las maestras de los tres grupos experimentales se les pidió que leyeran interactivament...

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English as a foreign language (EFL) spelling was examined longitudinally three times (4th, 9th, 12th grades) during 9 years of EFL study among Hebrew first language (L1) students. The study examined the impact of L1 literacy variables including phonemic awareness, word attack, and spelling on EFL spelling and the relationship between EFL literacy variables and EFL spelling. Results showed that English spelling measured at earlier points strongly predicted later English spelling. L1 literacy skills measured in fourth grade were more significant than English word recognition in explaining end of ninth grade EFL spelling. Beginning of first year EFL letter knowledge in fourth grade predicted end of first-year EFL spelling. These results show qualitatively different L1 and EFL literacy abilities impacting EFL spelling at 4th, 9th, and 12th grades.Spelling and word recognition are the lower level processes underpinning literacy development. Both skills require the acquisition of phonological and subsequent orthographic representations that make up words. Word recognition requires identifying specific orthographic details, whereas word spelling requires accurate recall and production of exact orthographic representations when there may be numerous possibilities for any given phoneme. The challenge of spelling is less demanding in a more transparent orthography such as Turkish in which spelling requires only translation of phonemes to graphemes (Spencer, 2000). In an opaque orthography such as English, however, acquiring accurate spelling is a life-long process that involves the gradual acquisition of phonological, orthographic, and morphological components of the language, all of which culminate in word-specific orthographic