The Effect of Letter-Name Knowledge on Learning to Read

There is considerable interest at the present time in teaching children to name letters to the alphabet in the belief that letter-name knowledge facilitates learning to read. This interest is manifest at kindergarten and first grade levels where instruction in naming letters is commonly given as part of the reading readiness program. Sesame Street, the television program for preschoolers, also includes instruction in letter naming. Durrell and Murphy (1964, p. 143) claim that: Most letter-names contain their sounds, and this assists the child in relating the phoneme in the spoken word to its form in print. Children who know letter-names learn words more readily... . Belief that letter-name knowledge facilitates learning to read has a longer history than most would suspect. purpose of this paper is to explore the origin of this belief and to test the validity of the assumption. Huey (1908, p. 265) wrote: The alphabetic method, used almost universally in Greece and Rome, and in European countries generally until well into the nineteenth century, and which was nearly universal in America until about 1870, is now chiefly of historical interest. In the alphabet method of reading instruction, as practiced in Europe and this continent, the child learned to name letters before